Posts:
Expats living on Ecuador’s south coast finally have their own communication network. The Ecuador Coastal Newsletter website launched in January, providing news, features, events announcements and a buy/sell forum for expats living between Playas and Manta. “Our...
By Larry Schunk Over the past four years, I’ve dined downstairs at the Restaurant El Jardin in La Victoria Hotel for many special occasions. I've never been disappointed. The nicely decorated room, linen tablecloths and great view of the Rio Tomebamba and the city of...
New Ministry of Health rules will lower the prices for most of the 1,700 medicines sold in Ecuador by an average of 30% over the next six months. The ministry is imposing price ceilings on drugs it considers "strategic" but is eliminating price controls on...
After Uruguay first moved to legalize marijuana in 2013, the approach has taken root in Latin America with several other countries now considering a revamp of their own drug laws. "Someone has to start in South America," Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said in late...
Ecuador wants more U.S. tourists. So government officials decided to make it a reality, they decided to reach out to Americans through the most popular sporting event in the United States – the Super Bowl. On Sunday, Ecuador will become the first foreign country to...
Editor’s note: Viktoria Vidali has been a piano teacher, publisher, TV and documentary producer, photographer, and executive director of an environmental and educational nonprofit organization. Her first children’s book, Francisco and Gabriel’s Blue Moon Adventure, a...
Cuenca’s Mall del Rio is getting bigger. New construction includes an 11-story Sheraton hotel that will be the city’s largest, as well as additional commercial and parking area. According to mall manager Juan Cordero, work on the new commercial space as well as 100...
Ecuador’s minister of telecommunications Jaime Guerrero says he has reached an agreement with the country’s largest cell phone service providers for use of the 4G cell phone and Internet network. The installation work for the network is underway and the service should...
By Rebeca Morla In order to confront what the president calls a “systematic smear campaign” from Ecuador’s opposition, Correa unleashed the website Somos + (We Are More), presented during his weekly radio and television address Citizen Link. According to the...
By David Morrill When I got my new U.S. passport in December, it also meant I needed a new Ecuadorian residency passport visa stamp. How hard can this be, I wondered, since I'd already been vetted by the immigration folks during the original visa process. The answer...
By Larry Schunk A few years ago, I spotted this place across the airport parking lot and gave it a try as hunger had set in. I left my car in the airport lot. The airport wasn’t charging for parking yet. It was midday and the place was filling up. Seating was (and...
Cuenca college students are demanding that city officials follow Quito’s lead and keep municipal bus fares at 25 cents. Following negotiations with bus companies, Quito Mayor Mauricio Rodas announced last week that fares would remain at 25 cents, although the city...
By Sylvan Hardy Uruguay has become the only country in the world with legal, regulated, recreational-marijuana sales, the world's first and only state-run marijuana marketplace. An omnibus marijuana law was passed in 2013, of which two major elements have gone into...
President Rafael Correa said Thursday that Ecuador is justified in imposing tariffs on products from Colombia and Peru to maintain its financial stability. "I have been in discussions with the presidents of Colombia and Peru and we are working to reach a consensus and...
By Simon Romero and Jonathan Gilbert Argentina’s government asserted on Friday that an ousted spymaster was involved in the murky events around the death of the prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, with with President Cristina Fernández de...
By Manuel Rueda The president of Ecuador is sick and tired of ‘cyber bullies’ mocking him with Facebook memes. And now he’s fighting back by creating a “volunteer” cyber army armed with pro-government propaganda. Social media memes are ideas, information and web sites...
The United Arab Emerites (UAE) is putting blame from plunging oil prices squarely on the United States and Canada. UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mazroui said last week that it was impossible for Middle East oil producing countries to protect oil prices in the face of...
By Dr. Lee Dubs You can find a lot of articles that tell you that Ecuador is the perfect place to retire. Plenty of writers encourage you to move to Ecuador, and many want you to make that move for reasons of their own. Some even use words like “thousands” when...
Latin America should become an area free of extreme poverty, and one where living are raised in general, according to Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño. Patiño was speaking ahead of next week's Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) meeting...
A strong thunderstorm paralyzed parts of central and southern Cuenca Saturday afternoon, flooding streets, cars and homes, and briefly filling the Rios Tomebamaba and Yanuncay to their banks. Flooding caused minor damage at the both the University of Cuenca and...
