Posts:
The rock-bottom cost of living in Ecuador, where retirees can live comfortably on less than the average U.S. Social Security payment, has seen the country remain firmly at the top of International Living's annual Global Retirement Index for the third successive...
by Susan Schenck Before moving to Ecuador, I had been a very strict raw vegan for six years — until I started getting deficiencies. My brain didn’t function without DHA and B12. I also lacked vitamin D and K2 for the bones. A vegetarian diet doesn’t...
GringoTree and two of Cuenca´s top tour agencies are teaming up to offer a series of tours of the Cuenca area and beyond. The first tour, “Two Worlds of Yunguilla,” is Tuesday, Sept. 6, and will visit Giron, the Tarqui Battle Memorial and Museum, the...
As Calvin Trillin wrote in the November 2010 Condé Nast Traveler, the central colonial section of Cuenca “doesn't look like a sixteenth-century city that has been preserved; it looks like a city that has been in use since the sixteenth century.”...
By Susan Schenck Ten days of no talking, no dinner, no reading or writing, no TV, radio or internet, no meat, no caffeine, no contact with the opposite sex, 12 hours of sitting, getting awakened at 4 a.m. with the sound of a clanging gong—sounds like hell? For...
by Susan Schenck I’ve been fascinated with belly dancing for 30 years. I took classes in San Diego and even performed a couple of times. Then I was invited to an all-women party in Cuenca, celebrating the revolution of Middle Eastern women. We were each to...
Ecuador sees the loans it has agreed to with China as "good news" because they are long term, and all that is required in return is "oil, and not the horrendous adjustments imposed by the IMF [International Monetary Fund]," left-wing Ecuadorian...
by Susan Schenck “Cadelaes, Casa del las especias” is a great little store in Cuenca that has top-quality items, as well as some obscure items unavailable elsewhere. For one thing, they have the best walnuts in Cuenca. I'm a fan of walnuts because they...
While Cuenca's real estate market continues to show strong growth, the inflow of immigrants from North American is only a small part of the reason why. "What's driving the local market is the return of Ecuadorians from overseas to live in Cuenca, or who...
by Susan Schenck Cacao (chocolate in its pure form) may be one of the planet’s greatest sources of nutrition. As state in my book, The Live Food Factor, “It’s high in magnesium, making it a powerful brain food and natural laxative. Ten percent of its...
by Susan Schenck I hate working out at the gym. Give me yoga, walking, dancing, hiking, biking, skiing, and the mini-trampoline anytime over weight training. Even though lifting weights has never been a joy, I forced myself to do it for the better part of the last 26...
The Fundación para la Sobrevivencia del Pueblo Cofán (FSC) and its US-based branch The Cofan Survival Fund have launched a new fundraising campaign, "The Campaign for 5000" to support the one-of-a-kind Cofán Ranger Park Guard program....
Ah, pizza. Some aficionados consider it the perfect food. A slice of pizza has only 30 grams of carbohydrate in the crust of a slice of mozzarella, and that tomato sauce is packed with lycopene. Whether it's perfect or not is arguable, but pizza is loved by just...
If this is southern Ecuador´s dry season, why are we getting so much rain? And why is it so cold? According to the experts, there are two explanations. The first is the strong La Niña that has raised Pacific seawater temperatures by two to three...
by Susan Schenck What is a health-conscious, primarily raw fooder to do when hunger strikes while shopping or running errands downtown? At the risk of creating massive inflation for my favorite Cuencano snack, I’ve decided to share this incredible secret with...
Although it has been called the "Gringo invasion" in newspaper and web articles, Cuenca's influx of foreign residents hardly represents the action of conquering hordes. There is, however, no denying the city's growing popularity among foreigners...
by Susan Schenck The raw-food movement is growing fast in the U.S. And there are plenty of reasons for it. Humans are the only animal that cooks food. Cooking began only 20,000 years ago, very recently compared to humankind’s 2.5 million years of existence. This...
Hundreds of Latin American indigenous rights activists gathered in Cuenca, June 17 to June 23, to disucss and plan strategies to defend water rights. According to organizers, the Continental Conference in Defense of Water and Mother Earth, was intended as an act of...
Rachel Zeigler is the representative from American Citizens Services (ACS) for the district that includes Cuenca. She's based at the U.S. Consulate in Guayaquil, a division of the U.S. State Department. She visited Cuenca a few weeks ago and held a lunchtime...
by Anne Carr The third health discussion group was held Friday June 3. The consensus was that a survey might help in planning various kinds of quality care for expats who might need extra support in daily living activities at some time in their life in Cuenca....
