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Editor´s note: The following is from the Smithsonian Foundation blog by Alastair Bland, "Off the Road: The Travel Adventures of a Nomad on the Cheap." Alastair Bland is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco who writes about international...
"Grandma, I won the Oscar," was the first thing Angelita Espinoza of Azoguez heard when her granddaughter, Fatima Ptacek, called her Sunday night following presentation of the U.S. Academy Awards. Ptacek, who is 12-years-old and best known as the voice of...
Police say they have nothing new to report in the murder investigation of a Vilcabamba expat. Glenn Sanderse, a 53-year-old Canadian, was found dead Feb. 20 at his Vilcabamba real estate office. Police investigating the crime believe he died two or three days...
Editor’s note: Steve Pomerance, a former Boulder, Colorado city council member, describes his first visit to Ecuador in an article in the Boulder Daily Camera. I just returned from a great trip to Ecuador. It was my first visit there before, although I've...
Cuenca’s Mariscal La Mar Airport has purchased equipment from Quito’s old airport, including three jet ways, and is planning several remodelling projects. Airport director Juan Pablo Proaño said the jet ways, or jet bridges, will be installed by...
Ecuador's president has vowed to deepen the "citizen's revolution" that has lifted tens of thousands of people out of poverty. "In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital," said Rafael Correa, who was elected to a third term...
Public investment in Ecuador reached $6.3 billion in 2012, a sixfold increase since 2007, according to the Ministry of Planning and National Development, Senplades. The ministry also reports that Ecuador has the highest rate of public investment as percentage of gross...
On a campaign stage, Rafael Correa is a dancing, singing, swirling tornado of energy. Ecuador's president doesn't make promises. He's way past that. With characteristic bravado, Correa instead reminds the enthusiastic crowd in a northern Quito suburb of...
By Alejandro Morales The Galapagos Islands, home to unique species that led Charles Darwin to establish his Theory of Evolution, continue to evolve with the world’s first environmentally friendly airport. The new airport is on the island of Baltra and required...
By John Otis Like many upper-class Ecuadoreans, Lenin Moreno rarely noticed people with disabilities. A successful businessman and politician, he was too busy being an overachiever. All that changed in 1998. After buying bread at a Quito grocery store, Moreno...
By Susan Schenck Cuenca now boasts an English-speaking marriage and family counselor and hypnotherapist. Cuenca and its immigrant community continue to attract interesting, professional, and caring people in search of new and improved lives. And when they...
While the government maintains that the time it will take airline passengers to get back and forth between downtown and the new Quito airport at Tababela will be about an hour, taxi drivers and private bus operators say is will be closer to one and a half to two...
Although Cuenca is known for its historic district boutique hotels, four large, modern hotels are either under construction or in the planning stages outside of the district. A 50-room, six floor hotel is nearing the half-way point in construction on Avenida del...
By Julia Heinrichmann Ecuador's plan to refrain from drilling for oil in its rainforests in return for international financial support, remains controversial. Critics have questioned the tangible benefits of the project for the forest and its residents. In 2007,...
What does crossing the street in Cuenca teach us about the expat lifestyle? How can attitudes about “gringo prices” predict success or failure at adjusting to the Ecuador culture? Why is it so hard to get an accurate weather forecast for Cuenca? Who might...
Sometimes the biggest is also the best and in the case of museums in Cuenca, Museo Pumapungo del Ministerio de Cultura proves the rule. From portraits to ponchos, from 50,000-sucre bills to shrunken heads, Cuenca’s most extensive and impressive artistic,...
Officials of Quito’s new international airport are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the possible negative impact on in-country flights when the new facility at Tababela opens February 20. President of the airport commission, Marco Subía, says it is...
By Sarah Zielinski Chef and culinary historian Maricel Presilla owns two restaurants and has written many cookbooks. But her new book, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, is her attempt to give fans a heaping helping of the many cultures she blends into her...
By Anna Marie De La Fuente The past few years have seen a boom in local films in Ecuador. Whereas a mere five pictures were made in the entire decade of the 1990s, this tiny Andean nation of 14 million is now churning out an average of four to five films a year. And...
Ecuador and Cuenca continue to strengthen their respective reputations as top destinations for international tourists and expatriates. Lonely Planet, publisher of the world’s best selling travel guide, has named Ecuador number four in its 2013 “Best in...
