Posts:
The first time I saw “Gringolandia” listed as a neighborhood in Cuenca, I assumed I had missed a municipal announcement. Perhaps the city council had quietly created a new parish, drawn a few boundaries along the river, and installed a sign somewhere official-looking....
Editor's note: Cuenca's Easter soup, fanesca, is considered by many to be the best in Latin America and it is a tradition among Cuencanos to have at least one bowl of it during Holy Week. It is being served in mercado food courts and in many restaurants around the...
Some of the most interesting restaurants begin with a question rather than a business plan. For Paula, who is from Cuenca, and Wilmo, originally from Loja, that question appeared during a visit back to Ecuador in 2023. At the time they were living abroad, but...
By Lachlan Brown The headlines keep saying Gen Z is the loneliest generation. And the data supports it, in a narrow, specific way. Young people report high rates of social isolation, screen-mediated connection that does not satisfy, and a pervasive sense of...
By Christopher Lux Every egg I’ve eaten in Cuenca has been delicious. When I need eggs I walk to the end of the street to the tienda. The owner, Dianita, puts the eggs I buy in a small plastic bag and tells me to be careful with them. I walk them home, take them out...
For a while, living abroad explains everything. It explains why daily routines feel unfamiliar. It explains why small successes feel meaningful. It explains why so much attention goes into ordinary things like grocery shopping, transportation, language, and finding...
By Elisabet Juan Roca The agave plant is mostly associated with the arid landscape of Jalisco, Mexico, and with its most famous beverage: tequila. But not many people know that 2,209 miles south of there, on the equator, another ancient agave beverage is produced....
During the British heatwave summer of 1959 the songs from the film South Pacific were everywhere. They drifted out of radios, and open windows, and if you were a child wandering about in short pants with nothing much to do except ride your bike and play cricket with a...
People of the tercera edad may remember the 1970s hit duet “Morning Side of the Mountain,” recorded by Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond. The song actually dated from the early 1950s and was originally a hit for an African-American singer, but the Osmonds revived it with...
For many expats, there comes a quiet moment when curiosity begins to return. Not dissatisfaction. Not a plan to leave. Just a subtle shift where the mind starts wandering toward other cities, other landscapes, or other possibilities. At first the feeling can be...
It has been brought to Charlie’s attention, via the informal yet remarkably efficient communications network known locally as “overheard at a café,” that there are several gringos living comfortable, well-fed, and apparently functional lives in Cuenca who, after...
By Steven Rigney An oft-expressed sentiment among North American travelers is that being a gringo in a Hispanic country makes one a target. There is local pricing and then there is exploitative gringo pricing, often called the gringo tax. The police look for any...
There was a time when the future of banking arrived before the machines required to use it, and I discovered this minor chronological error shortly after I arrived in Bermuda on July 3rd 1980 to work for the health ministry, where I was paid by electronic transfer...
For many expats, life in Cuenca begins with discovery. The first months are filled with exploration. New cafés appear every week. Walking routes change daily. Markets, restaurants, and neighborhoods slowly reveal themselves. Each day offers something unfamiliar, and...
Ah ! que la vie est quotidienne. (Ah, daily life seems so routine!) — Jules Laforgue This morning, at the time of writing, I am lying in bed conducting negotiations of the most delicate and least consequential kind. Not with a government, nor with a bank...
Bored? - (De El Mercurio del miércoles, 4/3) Actividades por el Día Mundial del Agua (Activities for World Water Day) - ETAPA EP presented the agenda of activities for World Water Day, celebrated every 22/3. The schedule starts el jueves, 22/3 a las 9:00 at the Sústag...
The other day, while waiting in line at Supermaxi, I found myself nose to nose with a wire rack of paperbacks whose optimism exceeded their typography. Cumbres Borrascosas by Emily Bronte leaned against a Bill Bryson travelogue translated into Spanish, something...
I have lived long enough to watch two different towns, one in North Yorkshire, England, and one in the Ecuadorian Andes, win the same prize for the same crime. They both insist on being pleasant places to live, despite the fact that their street plans were drawn up by...
By Frances A. Hogg Did you know that a world-class magician lives among us? Juan Estrella, born in Cuenca, is an internationally known magician and teacher of magic. He is a member of the Magic Circle in London, England, the prestigious Mundial de Mágico, and Cali...
In February 2020, our Philadelphia friend, Julia, and her partner led a group of seventeen on a ten-day tour of Ecuador. My wife Belinda arranged for their Cuenca visit to include an Ecuadorian cooking class at Sofy’s Global Cuisine. Julia’s husband, renowned mosaic...
Week of August 23
Ecuador’s economy grew 2% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to new Banco Central del Ecuador data.
Cuenca gets a prime view of next week’s deep partial lunar eclipse.
Ecuador’s economy grows 2% in the first half of 2026.
