Posts:
Unseasonably heavy rains in the Andes have caused airport closures in Quito and Cuenca and triggered landslides on dozens of mountain roads. Ecuador’s National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (INAMHI) blamed conditions on the La Niña effect in the...
By Edd Staton You strike up a conversation with a cabbie in a city you’re visiting on the way from the airport. He mentions he knows of a great investment property you really should take a look at. On the way to your car the bag boy at the grocery store mentions...
The Yunguilla Valley is beyond and lower than Girón, so it’s a little warmer and drier, prime orchard country. You take dirt roads off the highway down into the hollows and up into the hills where the properties are measured in acres and tropical fruit...
On the last Sunday of our month in Cuenca, Shirlee and I joined Dave and Chela for an impromptu tour southwest of Cuenca on the road down to Machala and the coast. Our tourguide and driver was Carlos Lara, a young Cuencano who learned his English in the U.K. and has a...
In Cuenca, some ATMs are bilingual. Some aren’t. For example, several of the ATMs that surround Parque Calderón aren’t, while the ones at Banco Pichincha at the big intersection of 12 de Abril and Avenida Solano are. If you just want to siphon some...
Three members of President Rafael Correa´s Pais party have resigned in opposition to his plan to hold a voter referendum aimed at reforming the justice system. Several other members of the president´s party have indicated that they may not support the...
Outside the modest two-story adobe house, a flag of Ecuador flutters alongside a large sign that reads "Ikat: weaving demonstrations and sales." Hanks of yarn and colourful fabrics hang from the handrail running around the edge of the courtyard and balcony,...
The famous indigenous market in Otavalo, a two-hour drive north of Quito, is the best place to buy Andean art, crafts, textiles, jewelry, and more. But if you’re visiting Ecuador and your trip is limited to Cuenca and environs, you’ll find plenty of places...
By Edd Staton I took the time to read through some of the online forums dedicated to Ecuador this weekend and noticed something interesting. On the one hand, there were folks totally gung-ho about making the “big move;” others were quite timid and unsure,...
Appealing directly to Ecuador´s citizens, President Rafael Correa is complaining that his call for a national referendum on issues he says are critical to Ecuador´s future is being opposed by political opponents he calls “the old guard.” Twice...
Reportedly, Cuenca´s historic district has 53 churches, one for every week of the year. You can see the oldest, the largest, and the most ornate within three blocks of the central plaza. Another two mark the east and west boundaries of colonial El Centro....
[Editor’s Note: This post, by Shirlee Severs, is about a day trip she took from Cuenca to El Cajas National Park.] A couple days before we were scheduled to depart for home, I woke up to what, here in Nevada, we call a “blue-bird day”: a picture-perfect sky without a...
La Vina, serving good hearty Italian for a decade at the corner of Luis Cordero and Juan Jaramillo, is a favorite of gringos. Shirlee and I were there on a Friday night when four parties at the five tables in the front room were Americans. La Vina’s menu is...
In our month in Cuenca, Shirlee and I made it a point to visit the four gringo-owned hangouts, along with two locally owned restaurants, one a tradition and the other a hit with gringos. The first haunt is also the restaurant you should try on your first...
We didn’t sample either of the two American fast-food operations in Cuenca: Kentucky Fried Chicken and Domino’s. (Nope: no McDonald’s or Burger King, Taco Bell, or even Starbucks.) I’m not prejudiced; I’ll try both when I go back (Lee at...
Editor´s note: Edd Staton is a Cuenca resident, writer and community activist. He is author of the Edd Said blog, www.eddsaid.blogspot.com, and writes a column for Cuenca´s afternoon newspaper, La Tarde. My wife and I returned home from the United States...
The least expensive “space” we examined in Cuenca was at the Hostal El Hogar Cuencano on Hermano Miguel just north of Calle Larga across from the Escalinata: $6 with shared bath in a dorm room with three twins. Private rooms are $8 per person, and among...
A plane from Ecuador lands in Europe. Those carrying European passports go quickly through migration, while the queue of Ecuadorians does not move. They are questioned at length, as their luggage is scanned. Eventually their passports are taken away, and they are all...
In a newspaper story translated by and posted on this website, the Ecuadorian Minister of Tourism claimed that Cuenca receives approximately 100,000 out-of-town visitors annually. If this is accurate, that averages out to a little less than 300 per...
One of the hemisphere’s fiercest sibling rivalries might get played out on a national stage. Fabricio Correa — the older brother of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa — said he would challenge him at the ballot box in 2012 unless a more viable...
