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After a decade of steady growth, Ecuador’s airline industry recorded a drop in the number of passengers on domestic flights in 2012, according to figures from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The number of air travel passengers fell 6% over the...
Organizers of Friday’s “Pedal Cuenca” International Bike Day event were overwhelmed by the turnout, estimated between 9,000 and 10,000, as local police were forced to call in reserves to assist in redirecting taffic. Based on last year’s...
In a visit to Spain, Italy and Germay last week, President Rafael Correa met with Ecuadorians who have moved out of the country over the past two decades. “I would like for you to consider coming home,” he told a crowd in Italy. “We need you.”...
After years with no reported sightings, two Cuenca ecologists say they are following three condors in the mountains near Cuenca. Fausto Cardoso and Gustavo Landívar say they spotted the nest last year on a hiking trip and have been watching the family of the...
Ecuador will send its first domestically produced satellite into orbit in late April from a launch centre in China, according to President Rafael Correa. "At the end of the month, the first Ecuadorian satellite will be launched, not a satellite bought from...
Cuenca’s foundation celebration went into high gear on Thursday as parades, crafts shows, food fairs, concerts and fireworks marked the 456th observation of the day the Spanish founded the city. The celebration continues through the weekend. City officials...
Defending the government’s decision to auction parcels of Amazonian jungle for oil exploration, President Rafael Correa said that country must use its national resources to advance education, health care and infrastructure projects. Several indigenous tribes...
Cuenca’s water quality has again been rated the best in Ecuador according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). The quality was rated 4.63 on INEC’s five point scale based on samples taken in June 2012 and subsequent analysis....
In a post on its “Americas Views” blog, the Economist magazine reports that Quito’s new airport at Tababela "does not make the cut" as an international airport. Although the blog notes that the airport runway and control tower are among the...
Amazon tribesmen have killed at least 30 people in an apparent revenge attack against a rival group in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, an indigenous leader says. Citing information from people who participated in the attack, Ecuador President Cahuetipe Yeti, of the...
Cuenca isn’t the only city in Ecuador building a light rail transportation system. Quito’s Metro Tram project broke gorund in March and is scheduled to open its first metro line by mid 2016. A total investment of $1.4 billion USD, the project will be...
Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China's insatiable thirst for energy. On Monday morning a group of...
According to real estate agents, several local condominium developers are having second thoughts about selling to foreign buyers. According to one agent, at least two developers, including one who is constructing a large project on Av. Ordonez Lasso, have cut off...
Operators of Cuenca’s municipal buses say that the 25 cent fare they currently charge passengers isn’t enough to properly maintain the fleet of almost 500 buses. Municipal officials who oversee transportation agree there is a problem. The current fare was...
According to a study by the Quito consulting firm Habitus, Ecuador’s middle class has grown dramatically in the last decade. Habitus reports that, as of late 2012, 35% of the population met the middle class criteria, while only 14% qualified in 2003. According...
Ecuador recorded the third largest gain among Latin American nations in the United Nations 2013 Human Development Index rankings. The index, which was based on statistics from 2007 through 2012, measures a country’s educational system, quality and length of life...
Boutique hotels in Cuenca’s historic district are sprouting up all over. The provincial association of hoteliers reports that 10 new hotels have opened in the past 18 months and that other projects are either under construction or in the planning stage. The new...
Editor’s note: Even though Ecuador’s adoption of the U.S. dollar as its currency in 1999 followed a period of near economic collapse, it continues to be controversial. Although almost everyone agrees that the country has undergone a period of unprecedented...
Azuay’s Red Cross and police have figured out a way to reduce response time as well expenses in the city’s historic district: put first responders on bicycles. Freddy Sempertegui, risk management coordinator for the Azuay Red Cross says the change can get...
Nine months behind schedule, a new Cuenca-based airline says it will try again in April to get airborne. The first aircraft of Línea Aire de Cuenca, or LAC for short, was delivered almost a year ago and the airline said it would begin flying in May 2012....
