Earlier this month, Juan Cordero, Jennifer Guzmán, Alejandra Ortiz and Francisco Vicuña arrived in Sweden to present “Movimillas,” a project focused on promoting the use of public transport in Cuenca. With Movimillas, the young students of the Universidad del Azuay proposed adding a magnetic field to the Movilízate card to allow patrons to collect points that could then be exchanged for other products. […]

This past week merchants in San Francisco Plaza were told to remove any canvases that they are using to cover their products from sun and rain unless they were specifically installed with permission from the city. If they did not, they were told the municipality would “take measures.” The coordinator of the Municipality, Pablo Figueroa, […]

Nearly 2,000 Venezuelans waited for days at the Binational Border Care Center, CEBAF, in Peru, for an opportunity to continue their trip last week. But, since June 15, those who wish to enter Peru have to obtain a visa or a certificate of refuge—to obtain them has become an barrier that causes the exodus to the […]

The Corporación Financiera Nacional (CFN), is now offering a special loan program to dedicated to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This is the SME Express and the SME Prospera, two products defined as the new “star” credits of the corporation. The loan products are aimed at boosting these two sectors of the industry. The first offers […]

The Azuay prefecture is asking some of its employees to ride bikes to work. The purpose of this initiative in to reduce the number of official vehicles currently being used. This will hopefully reduce the amount of traffic in the city. These bicycles had been acquired by the previous administration, but they were stored in […]

The individual known as ‘Mangajo’ (meaning a despicable person), Juan Andres V., this week received the maximum sentence of 29 years and four months of jail-time after being convicted for sexually abusing a 15-year-old teenager. But she was not the only one to be abused or molested by this individual. Over the past year, three […]

The BPA, which stands for Good Agrarian Practices in Spanish, is a certification being issued by the Plant and Animal Sanitary Control and Regulation Agency (Agrocalidad). This is with the aim of ensuring healthy and harmless produce from the national agriculture. Agrocalidad will aim to certify 1000 farmers per year. Soon, 800 technicians from the […]

This week, the Ministry of the Environment gave its first workshop in the program of “rescue, quarantine and reintroduction” of flora species. The program’s goal to provide training on the management of endangered vegetation. Fernando Juela, a wildlife technician of the Provincial Department of the Environment, said that they worked for two days with park […]

The Municipal Directorate of Markets, in conjunction with the Agency for Regulation and Control of Fito and Zoosanitary (Agrocalidad) carried out a quality control operation in the different meat stalls in the El Arenal market this week. The operation was carried out between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM on Tuesday as vendors arrived with their […]

In May of this year, the Constitutional Court reviewed a series of cases concerning the penal Code article 202. This article stated that “Any person that carries, guards, sells or stores objects without proof of purchase, or contracts that justify their possession or ownership, would be penalized from 6 months of jail and up to […]

The Corpus Christi festival is of Christian-European origin. It has the meaning of the “Body of Christ,” being symbolized by the sacramental bread. The festival is coming to Cuenca and Azogues; festivities started on June 20th and will continue thru June 30th. For the festival, about 117 candy booths will be installed all around Parque […]

On Tuesday, the national channel TVR HD was launched. This channel was created by Ivan Rodriguez, a journalist with a longstanding career. He gathered a team with a group of colleagues, as well as his brother, Geovanny Rodriguez, to help him fill the television channel with programs. “Our desire is to inform instantly, to entertain […]

Despite Ecuador having cocoa and chocolate products as two of its main exports, the Ecuadorian population does not consume much of either product. It is estimated that the average Ecuadorian consumes about 10 oz. of cocoa or chocolate a year. Meanwhile, some European countries have an average consumption of 2 lbs. per year, per person. […]

This past Tuesday, June 18th, many evangelical organizations marched in Guayaquil in reaction to the Constitutional Court’s decision to allows same-sex marriage. Their main argument is that this resolution threatens the family. The demonstrators marched through the Av. 9 de Octubre in Guayaquil, heading towards their gathering point, Parque Centenario. Pastor Francisco Loor was in […]

The supermarket chain store Gran Aki is still in the process of finishing its new branch in El Centro. It will be located at the Rafael Maria Arizaga street and Tarqui. The construction began in February of this year. All the foundations, floors and columns are already done. At the moment they’re preparing the beams […]

The Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso has started treating 57 cerebral palsy patients, all under 16 years of age, withbotulinum toxin injections. This campaign is carried out with the support of the Specialized Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center (CERI), the institution which provided the botulinum toxin and took care of most logistical issues. This a second phase of […]

As Expats from North America and other foreign lands start their new lives in Cuenca, health insurance is just as necessary to have in Ecuador as it was “back home”, and as will be discussed in a future story, obtaining and maintaining your health insurance policy is, at this date, mandatory to not only receive […]

Linda Guamanis a 33-year-old teacher and researcher—with a PhD in Microbiology—at the Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccial. She was recently selected to attend the Gap Summit 2019, organized by Global Biotech Revolution.Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are also partner hosts of the event. This summit appoints different teams of leaders to work on specific […]

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility reported that the country obtained the final authorization for Ecuadorian shrimp to enter the Commonwealth of Australia market. According to Foreign Affairs, the authorization was given after almost two years of intense diplomatic efforts before the Australian authorities. During the process, the quality of Ecuadorian […]

Over 150,000 cars circulate in Cuenca daily, according to the EMOV (Municipal Mobility Company) estimate. But in 2018, only around 85,000 of them passed the Vehicle Technical Revision (inspections). Currently, the air pollution in Cuenca does not surpass the Ecuadorian Air Quality Norm (50 micrograms per cubic meter), but it does surpass the average annual […]

The Ministry of Education, through its Zonal Education Coordination, invested over $110,000 dollars for the construction of a semi-Olympic pool in the Benigno Malo High School. On June 31st,a number of authorities from the Government of Azuay, along with school authorities and the students, inaugurated the newly added installation. This school is one of the […]

According to the Ecuadorian Red Cross, Ecuador needs 2,000 blood pints a month to meet the demands of the country’s health system. At the moment, they are able to meet 25% of this amount. The health organization, with the help of the Chamber of Industries of Cuenca, have initiated the ‘Emabajador de Vida’ (Ambassador of […]

General medicine services and basic specialties such as gynecology and pediatrics, dentistry service, maternity, psychology, among others, will be part of a Type C health center to be built this year in Cuenca by Ministry of Public Health (MSP) with the help of Italian funding. The money will come as a loan from the Italian […]

Of the 14 current programs, four correspond to birds, among them the Andean condor. Six other plans are aimed at mammals such as the jaguar, the spectacled bear, the vicuna, the primates, the tapir and the peccary. The results of the Center for Monitoring Environmental Conservation, published in the National Geographic magazine, highlights that Ecuador […]

Ouch, this is gonna hurt.” That’s a thought we have all had when we’ve had to make the decision about whether to pull a Band-Aid off quickly or slowly.  I’m not sure if either way is really better.  But for me, I tend to be a “rip it off!” kind of guy. I’ve made a […]

With the participation of some 1,430 people—among them students from the schools of Cuenca—the first minga of cleaning the banks of the rivers of Cuenca was developed as part of the celebration of World Environment Day. Children and adolescents belonging to the schools: Garaicoa, Daniel Cordova, César Dávila, Oblates, Benigno Malo, Miguel Merchán, Sagrados Corazones, […]

The official value of a 15-kilogram cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for domestic use is $ 1.60, according to the Hydrocarbons Regulation and Control Agency, ARCH. Andrés Donoso, regional director (s) of the ARCH, stated that the official value of the cylinder has not changed and that at the national level, the deposits of […]

Tourism is on the rise in Ecuador and it’s Minister of Tourism, Rosa Prado de Holguín, believes new airline routes can boost it even higher. According to the ministry, foreign tourism grew by 7.5% since the first of the year. The country expects to close the year with a 15% increase—well above the Latin American […]