You’ve been seeing them on wrists everywhere: colorful (or black) bands of plastic, sometimes metal, some of them with digital displays. Digital fitness trackers are all the rage and Livescience.com says that the overall market for devices for sports and fitness tracking devices, which includes things like heart-rate monitors, GPS watches and biking computers, is predicted to increase by 10% by the end of 2017. The market for physical activity trackers will grow by 25%. Venturebeat.com reports that 60 million fitness trackers will be in use by 2018, triple that of 2014. Prices can range from a simple step-measuring pedometer […]

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The National Corporation of Popular and Solidarity Finance (Conafips), is in the process of evaluating savings and credit cooperatives where $15 million granted by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), will be allocated. This amount will be channeled into small business (cooperatives) that they believe will help build Ecuador’s economy. With the start of this process, the National Popular Finance and Solidarity Network of Ecuador, Renafipse, composed of 200 savings and credit cooperatives nationwide, have already begun submitting credit applications to Conafips, informed Dolores Solorzano, president of the network. According to the Conafips, the institutions that will get access […]

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Ever feel helpless when one of the city or inter-city buses cuts you off? Or blows by you in a non-passing lane?  Well, you CAN do something about it. A driver of an intercity bus that ran the Tarqui-Cuenca route, was suspended last week after passing a truck in a non-passing zone. The traffic infraction was recorded on video by a driver who was behind the bus and then posted on social media.  The responses from people overwhelmingly chastised the driver. But better than that, it ended up in front of Carlos Balarezo, the Manager of Traffic Control of the […]

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Last week, a 9:00 a.m. traffic accident simulation on Av. España and Valencia was staged involving a tram unit and a vehicle. The exercise, organized by the Risk Management Department of the Municipality of Cuenca together with the Citizen Security Council, lasted one hour.  In the end, the positive response of all involved was encouraging according to a Twitter post by Tranvía Cuenca: Positive results left the first # SimulacroTranvíaCuenca that served to evaluate the security protocols of the Tram. pic.twitter.com/0Q7R3tUNNr – Tranvía Cuenca (@Tranvia_Cuenca) February 8, 2019 Rescuers, paramedics, police, citizen guards and volunteers participated in the mock drill […]

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We all have our special comfort foods that we grew up with:  liver, spinach, beets … oops, wrong list. I’m thinking more along the lines of mac & cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, miso soup, warm apple crisp, takoyaki (don’t ask), bread fresh out of the oven . . . (This column is paused briefly for a snack break.) OK, back again, he said, wiping chocolate from his mouth. So what do we have here in Ecuador?  One of my faves on a cold drizzly day is locro. Ecuatoriano, a simple, hearty potato soup, which we have tweaked a bit […]

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Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been found guilty on all 10 counts at his drug-trafficking trial in federal court in New York. Guzmán, 61, was convicted on numerous counts including the distribution of cocaine and heroin, illegal firearms possession and money laundering. He has yet to be sentenced, but the verdict could mean life in jail. Guzmán was arrested in January 2016 after escaping from a Mexican prison through a tunnel five months earlier. He was extradited to the US in 2017. The Mexican was accused of being behind the all-powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, which prosecutors say […]

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Last week, the Ecuadorian Police reported several arrests that remind us that while Ecuador is an extremely safe part of South America and the world, there are still some criminal elements that citizens need to be aware of. In the El Oro province, in a 1:00 a.m. raid, police arrested an individual found to be in possession of multiple handguns they believe were going “to be marketed to and use by some critical organizations, “ according to a twitter post from the Ecuadorian Police. The post said that through “specialized investigative techniques,” personnel from the Police Anti-Discrimination Intelligence Unit arrested […]

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The National Transit Agency, ANT, announced last week that the operations of the Súper Taxis Cuenca cooperative are suspended on the Cuenca-Quito route and vice versa. The sanction is a result of an accident that occurred on February 4, in the Moya sector of Alausí canton, in the province of Chimborazo.  The accident, which was attributed to speeding, claimed the lives of five people and left 30 injured. The resolution of the ANT said that the suspension would continue until the company complies with a plan to improve the service, in accordance with current regulations to avoid road accidents. The […]

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Azuay was ranked as the third province with more accidents in 2018, According to a report by the National Transit Agency (ANT), Azuay province continues to increase its accident statitstics each year.  In 2018, ANT recorded 1,528 accidents, that’s, 31 more than in 2017. The consequences of these accidents are often deaths or serious and irreversible injures for survivors. Just this past weekend, a Supertaxi cooperative bus overturned leaving five people dead and injuring 29 others.  Investigations indicate that this accident occurred due to excess speed, the second highest cause of accidents in the whole country (15.93%) according to the […]

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The Association of Small Agricultural Producers Esperanza de El Verde, from the Tarqui parish in Cuenca, received its legal status from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG). A total of 15 members, mostly women, completed the process to be recognized as an agro-productive organization. With this new designation, these producers can access benefits in different public and private institutions. For three year, the producers of the El Verde community have been working in an organized manner. During this time, as announced during the recognition ceremony, MAG provided them with livestock technical assistance. Manuel Merchán, president of the association, thanked […]

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