Posts:
I arrived at Plazoleta Cruz Del Vado on a late afternoon last week in time to watch a flock of clouds winging west towards the sea; the evening sun pulling the blanket of sleep over the mountains. A few lights, some winking behind swaying trees, snuggled on the...
By Liz Rowlinson Last month Tara and her family moved into a new home in rural Dorset after 12 years as expats in Singapore. Her banker husband had got a job back in the UK and within six weeks she “moved mountains” to extricate themselves from one life and create...
Editor's note: This is the first in a multi-part series examining how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the lives of Cuencanos and Cuenca expats. By Robert Bradley and Sylvan Hardy The Covid-19 virus has changed lives around the world. Besides infecting 35 million...
By Christina Farr For seven years, Dr. Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist at The University of California, San Francisco, has experimented with intermittent fasting. The health fad, which restricts eating to specific periods of time, hit the mainstream after a series of...
If you are learning either Spanish or English as a second language, you have probably had the experience of “I am reading and writing it pretty well now, and my speech is even coming along, but when an Ecuadorian – or North American – starts talking to me at their...
By Chris Matyszczyk There’s definitely a new normal but it’s not necessarily improved. Covid-19 has utterly altered many of the things we used to take for granted. My wife and I used to enjoy the occasional escape. By changing locations, the hope was that we could...
By Robert Bradley There are some who refer to Garry Vacher, founder, and director of Hogar de Esperanza, as a curmudgeon, or just a plain old sourpuss. His scrappiness is well known, his phenomenal contribution to the community less so. Numerous location changes have...
Within a few scant weeks of setting my feet on Ecuadorian soil, the adventures of exploring the countryside were underway. There are many rocky paths in Ecuador that might be mistaken for roads. I seek these out as you never know what you may see in these out of the...
By Jancee Dunn Dave Asprey, founder of the supplement company Bulletproof and one of the many Silicon Valley tech titans obsessed with lengthening their life spans, famously declared he wants to live beyond 180 years. That sounds, frankly, exhausting. Yet who wouldn’t...
By Sylvan Hardy Construction has resumed on the Casa del Huerto residential project in Cuenca’s historic district and Juan Heredia wants to spread the word. “With all the disruption and uncertainty with the coronavirus, we need to let people know that we are back at...
The moon is momentarily posing, perfectly framed, in the lattice of windows over my desk. It is a perfect time to memorialize my thoughts; to collect fragments of the day, just as mice store bits and pieces known only to them. I read that flocks of sheep are returning...
By Dana Smith At the beginning of the pandemic in March, Jeffrey VanWingen, MD, a Michigan family physician, scared the bejeezus out of people and infuriated food scientists. During his 13-minute video, which went viral on YouTube and has been viewed over 26 million...
By Jan Dynes Ah, to swim in inky black water rippling gently, surrounding you like the comfort of loving arms, knowing sunrise is still hours away. I don't care that I should be sleeping, I am floating, floating in my own special infinite world under a sky of...
By Tessa Koumoundouros For many of us, weight loss -- with a goal to be healthier overall -- has proven notoriously hard. Factors outside our control, from genetics and reliance on certain medications, to time and money restraints, can make it even tougher. But...
By Miriam Drake As an expat, do you need a power of attorney in Cuenca? Absolutely! Actually, I recommend you have three powers of attorney: one for healthcare and two others in which you authorize at least two friends to utilize when you are unable to care for...
Political polarization and online misinformation are threatening vaccination programs worldwide, with public trust volatile and varying widely between countries, according to a global vaccine confidence study. The study, which maps trends in vaccine confidence across...
A few days ago I was flying along, headed home, returning from the mountains. Soon enough, I spotted a familiar scene in one of the many areas I frequent. The late afternoon light was favorable for the warm colors of the peoples clothing and skin. Plus, it looked...
By Peter Dockrill One of the most consumed drugs in the U.S. – and the most commonly taken analgesic worldwide – could be doing a lot more than simply taking the edge off your headache, new evidence suggests. Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol, and sold widely...
By Miriam Drake Having an excellent primary care physician is a key piece in your expat survival toolkit. This is a professional whom you can trust with your care, and at times with your life. If you don’t have one, I suggest you find one soon and make an appointment!...
By Veronique Greenwood Covid-19 patients who are 80 or older are hundreds of times more likely to die than those under 40. That’s partly because they are more likely to have underlying conditions — like diabetes and lung disease — that seem to make the body more...
