This week, I was going to do another restaurant review, but my klutz factor kicked in and I wrenched a muscle in my back. I wanted to lay around the house eating Bon-Bons and feel sorry for myself. But instead, Jackie suggested doing a restaurant review in absentia, and called La Gran Muralla for some […]

The presence of alcoholics, as well as the use of the walls as a public bathroom and the disorder of the workers, are the main reasons why the change of Plaza San Francisco, an open space recently renovated, is becoming a prolonged process. “There is a plan for the alcoholics who are in the square, […]

A study on the labor situation and the economic contribution of immigrants in Quito reveals that more than 80% of the income of 2,938 respondents stays in local economies. The remittances sent to their countries of origin are low. Also, 22% of the respondents to the study are unemployed. The rest work in precarious conditions, without […]

A total of $65 million were delivered yesterday by the Development Bank for several projects that will boost the development of the region and in seven cantons of Azuay, Cañar and Morona Santiago. The project with the greatest impact will be the construction of the Minas De Huascachaca Wind Project – phase two B, which will […]

On Tuesday, the Mobility, Transit and Transport Company, EMOV, announced the launch of it’s new parking application, ‘”Apparquear.” Now, Cuenca drivers can download the Apparquear app to their mobile phones and end the need to walk around the block looking for a place to buy more Tarifado Rotary Parking System, (SERT) tickets. The user can […]

A 7.5-magnitude earthquake has struck Ecuador, near the country’s border with Peru The epicentre of the quake was in a sparsely populated area 139 miles (224km) southeast of the city of Ambato. It originated struck at a depth of 82 miles (132km) at at 5.17am local time (10.17am UK time) on Friday. The ground was felt […]

The corpse of a humpback whale that measured 11 meters long and is estimated to weigh about 10 tons was found in the middle of the Brazilian jungle near the mouth of the Amazon. The question that authorities and scientists asked themselves is: how did it get there? The whale was located in the undergrowth […]

According to a study published by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), the average life expectancy for women in Azuay increased from 81.1 years (2015) to 81.9 years (2020). With this increase, Azuay becomes the Ecuadorian province with the highest life expectancy for women, higher than the national one, calculated at 80,1 years. […]

F orest fires, deforestation, “conflicts” between humans and wild animals are some of the causes that put plants and animals at risk of extinction. On February 19, the Ministry of the Environment (MAE) presented the results of some studies that conclude that in Ecuador there are 40 species in critical danger of extinction. There are […]

In the presence of the Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Marcelo Fernández, The International University of Ecuador and the Santa Inés Clinic of Cuenca signed a cooperation agreement in which undergraduate and graduate students will move between the two entities.  The agreement also entails a research component. Luis Mario Tamayo, President of the Santa Inés Clinic, explained […]

Recently, one of our customers began to tell me how he thought International Living was a scam magazine because it painted a picture of how inexpensive Cuenca would be and he has found that “none of it is true.” I didn’t try to debate him on the merits or lack there of regarding International Living.  […]

Your mother always told you, “look both ways before you cross the street.”  Well, that important warning is going to take on even more significance once the Tranvía begins running in the coming months. In fact, seven new signs/signals have been incorporated into the transit language that Cuencans already knew, said Jaime Guzmán, director of […]

The 154 countries that are part of the Global Forum of Transparency and Exchange of Tax Information will report to the Ecuadorian Internal Revenue Service (SRI) information about monies that Ecuadorians have abroad. The data is related to balances in accounts, interest, dividends, income from sales of financial assets and others that people and companies […]

Kim Curls spent 25 years of her life in ranching and raising a family, but when events caused changes, she slogged through 60 to 100 hours per week working in the fast food industry in the United States. During those times, she fantasized about a less hectic life and to have more time for meaningful […]

Salt is an acquired taste. You may love it now, but you weren’t born that way. Just consider what happens if you put salt on a baby’s tongue – that poor kid will screw up his face and …well if he could talk! But give that same child a taste of sugar and… then, you’ll […]

A video that shows that a radar screen placed on the Cuenca-Azogues highway (Ucubamba sector), marked different speed ranges—despite the fact that there was no vehicular traffic—went viral on social media this week. The video generated a series of negative comments from some users of the road. Several people complained that they have been accused […]

A massive landslide has indefinitely closed the Cuenca-Girón-Pasaje highway, at kilometer 86, south of the Santa Isabel canton. The road connects the provinces of Azuay and El Oro and has been disabled indefinitely since Monday by the fall of 8,000 cubic meters of land that covers a stretch of 80 meters of road. A Ministry of […]

A giant turtle that was considered extinct for almost a century was found on the island of Fernandina, in the Galapagos, according to Ecuador’s Environment Minister, Marcelo Mata. Mata said that an adult female of the species Chelonoidis Phantasticus was found on an expedition led by the authority of Parks of Galápagos and the Conservation group […]

Cuenca’s ECU 911 has a new channel to receive emergency warnings. It is a mobile application. By using geo-positioning, the app is able to determine the exact location where an incident is occurring.  This will help relief agencies respond to both Spanish and non-Spanish speakers. The options on the application are to make contact with […]

A local Cuencano group, Citizen Front for the Tram, Transport and Mobility is claiming there has been a “lack of oversight” on the part of city councilors regarding Tranvía.  Now they are demanding something be done. Eulalia Freire, representative of the group, said that in 2016 she denounced the economic situation of Isolux Corsan, the main […]

The Municipal Cleanliness Company (EMAC EP), has a program in place to reforest and protect the environment; in fact, in 2018, through the Mingas de Arborización prgram, 38,294 trees were planted in urban, peri-urban and rural areas of the canton, said Andrea Artega, manager of the company. The trees were also planted to compensate for […]

In Quito last week, the president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, praised Ecuador  for it’s path to towards “the democracy of the future.” Steinmeier was in Ecuador for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the German researcher Alexander Von Humboldt. Ecuador  “is a country that is looking for its own path to […]

“The Ecuadorian authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to deepen the dialogue with the objective of working towards a possible financial agreement supported by the IMF as a strategic partner,” Gerry Rice, spokesperson for the IMF, said in a statement. Rice added that the program would seek to “protect the poor and most […]

This past weekend the Civil Traffic Agents (ACT) of the Mobility Company (EMOV EP), of the Municipality of Cuenca, stepped up surveillance on Bajada de Todos los Santos in order to reduce accidents and to ensure drivers had the proper registration and licenses.  What they ended up with were a lot of arrests for drunk […]

When Codie and I went back to the US last month, one of the things on our list of “to dos” was to get my driver’s license renewed.  Now, we all have DMV stories that are a great source of amusement at dinner parties and can make people laugh in a “shared pain” kind of […]

In 2018, Ecuador exported $4.638 billion in industrialized products, an increase of 7% over 2017, according to data from the Central Bank. The main destinations for Ecuador’s products were countries from South America, Central America and the European Union (which accounted for 22% of total Ecuadorian sales). According to the president of the Ecuadorian Federation […]

This week President Lenin Moreno, signed the “Declaration of Chapultepec”, a set of rules and principles that was created in 1994 to support democracy and freedom of expression and the press throughout the Americas. The Declaration of Chapultepec established, among other principles, that “no law or act of government may limit the freedom of expression […]

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 […]

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 […]