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Expat Life

How can you not see it?

How can you not see it?

I hesitated to write this column because so many people are suffering and dying from the coronavirus. And it didn’t seem right to place blame on someone with that as the backdrop. But it’s time for someone to yell and say, “Hey! Get your heads out of your asses and...

All my relations

All my relations

Hello. It's Markku Sario again, sitting in for Robert Bradley, who is thankfully out of the hospital but is still very much in recovery from his painful knee surgery. The Covid-19 news has been dominating all the media outlets with gloom and doom for a depressingly...

Indulgent desserts that won’t pack on the pounds!

Indulgent desserts that won’t pack on the pounds!

As reported in Interesting Engineering, in response to being cooped up at home, many are "stress eating." In addition to toilet paper and canned goods, they're stocking up on comfort foods like chocolate, ice cream, chips, and dips. They report that on Twitter,...

The poor are our canaries in the coal mine

The poor are our canaries in the coal mine

By Jeremiah Reardon When my father John finished eighth grade in 1913 he joined his friends working in the Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania coal mines. The tipple boys separated waste from coal dropped on screens by the wrought iron tippler. An old miner cracked knuckles to...

Such a ‘genius? The FBI arrests man for peddling COVID-19 ‘cure

Such a ‘genius? The FBI arrests man for peddling COVID-19 ‘cure

By Jason Murdock A California man who peddled prevention pills and a bogus injectable cure for novel coronavirus infections on social media has been arrested on a federal fraud charge. Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 53, was arrested by the FBI yesterday evening after...

¡Arroz!

¡Arroz!

In mid-September back in 2017, Edie and I were traversing part of Ecuador’s lowlands as we worked our way up the coast from Salinas to San Lorenzo. As usual, we were on the look out for photo-ops but the atmospherics weren’t too accommodating. Eleven days of travel...

Coronavirus health myths — debunking more crackpot claims

Coronavirus health myths — debunking more crackpot claims

There's no shortage of coronavirus claims, miracle cures, and outright hoaxes, but some are so outlandish that they're sometimes entertaining. Let's only look to the experts for credible information. MercuryNews.com (San Francisco, CA) reports that Amazon has pulled...

15 water saving tips — what are yours?

15 water saving tips — what are yours?

By Susan Burke March As reported, water usage in Cuenca is up 25 percent, as well as the lack of recent rain. I had heard earlier this week that water usage was up 20 percent, and reached out to my friends on social media to get some top tips for saving water. Please...

Simply cowering in fear doesn’t suit me

Simply cowering in fear doesn’t suit me

By Rob Bell I am not the kind of person who waits. I’m an active person. A doer. I feel more comfortable being proactive than fatalistic. And after eight days of voluntary quarantine, I am practically jumping out of my skin! I accept the idea of remaining largely...

The faces of Cuenca, waiting to reemerge

The faces of Cuenca, waiting to reemerge

For the next few weeks, I would like to offer a few portraits of the friends and neighbors who are suffering cabin fever like the rest of us and patiently waiting to greet us once again. 

Lent, Passover, and the coronavirus — how are they alike?

Lent, Passover, and the coronavirus — how are they alike?

Yes, we're all staying home, trying to flatten the curve and slow the contagious COVID-19 coronavirus. Which got me to thinking — this could be a good time to kick some unhealthy habits and adopt some new healthy ones. Lent began on Wednesday, February 26, and...

Mingling with the beautiful people

Mingling with the beautiful people

By Markku Sario First, may I apologize? I am Markku Sario of My Smorgasbord, not Robert Bradley, but merely a Bradley pro tempore with pretensions of adequacy. I am doing Robert’s column today while he is in the hospital with knee surgery that has become much more...

Las Alcachofas

Las Alcachofas

Just a few scant miles west of Cuenca lies a small and quaint paroquia named San Joaquin. Edie and I have been fortunate to call this area our home for a couple of years. It’s where we moved after our exodus from a life in El Centro where we lived high in the sky,...

What should your poop look like?

What should your poop look like?

Drug advertisements. Ugh. By the time they finish listing the side effects, you wonder why they even bother publicizing them?  Have you noticed that almost every advertisement on the U.S. news show '60 Minutes' is for some pharmaceutical drug, or more recently, for a...

Vilcabamba eco-lodge Izcayluma begins campaign to change the future

Vilcabamba eco-lodge Izcayluma begins campaign to change the future

Examine the word responsibility --  response-ability -- the ability to choose your response. Proactive people realize their responsibility; they do not blame circumstance, conditions, and surely not others, as a reason not to be responsible. Our behavior is a product...

Another way women are different from men — heart attack symptoms!

Another way women are different from men — heart attack symptoms!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) to leads all other causes of American deaths daily, at least 2,200 each day. For reasons not yet understood, women fare much worse than men do after suffering a heart...

Hogar Esperanza News

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Fabianos Pizzeria News

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The Cuenca Dispatch

Week of June 07

Phone records expose alleged effort to derail Villavicencio murder investigation.

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Esmeraldas refinery restores diesel output after three months of repairs.

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Country risk drops below 400 points as Ecuador’s borrowing outlook improves.

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Amazon property