A very good friend of mine in the US committed suicide about 8 weeks ago. I had seen her only a month or so before that. She seemed more upbeat than she had been in the past year or so. I’m at a loss to understand it and for a long time I will wonder, “what did I...

Did you know that before being called Parque Calderón, the central square of Cuenca was called Vargas Torres? No? Well, don’t feel alone. Even most Cuencanos don’t know it. But if you take a look at the monument at Sucre and Benigno Malo, next to the Municipality of Cuenca, you’ll see why. Luis Vargas Torres was […]

[by Irene Gardner] 24 September 2019 Be sure to check your calendar!  For a limited time, a new production of “Morning’s at Seven”, by playwright Paul Osborne, will be offered at the Azuay Community Theatre (ACT)!  Written in 1939, “Morning’s at Seven” focuses on four aging sisters (the Gibbs sisters), ages 65 to 72, who […]

Alex Galvez has always been passionate about decorating her own homes and helping others decorate theirs. So, when she decided to launch a new career as a real estate agent, she knew precisely what her focus would be. Helping clients with handicaps find the homes that were designed specifically for them in mind. “What I […]

Cuenca becomes a city of theater! This past Wednesday marked the beginning of XIII edition of the International Festival of Performing Arts ‘Scenarios of the World.’ During this year’s festival, the scenic expressions of eight countries will be performed until October 6h. Of the works being presented,15 are national proposals and nine are from Cuenca. The groups that […]

Banco Pichincha was the sole Ecuadorian financial institution to participate in the drafting of the Principles of Responsible Banking. This document is part of the United Nations Environmental Program Financial Initiative. Thirty banks began work on these principles back in November of 2018. The principles were officially presented at the Climate Action Summit of the […]

Despite the arrival of new airlines to the competition and improved routes, flight tickets in Ecuador have not had a significant decrease in price, and in some cases, they’ve gotten more expensive. The executive director of LATAM, Daniel Leng, has stated that the in order for ticket prices to go down, two things are needed: […]

On Tuesday, September 17th, with 85 votes in favor, 23 against and 23 abstentions, the National Assembly in a plenary session approved the use of medicinal cannabis in Ecuador. This measure reforms the Organic Penal Code (COIP) in order to not penalize the cultivation of medicinal marihuana plants with less than 1% of THC composition […]

“Memorias de Playa” (Beach Memoirs) is the name of the digital photo book created by the townspeople from Valdivia and Dos Mangas, in the Santa Elena province. This initiative was created by students from the Universidad Casa Grande. The project aims to rescue the customs and cultures of these coastal towns, and draw the attention […]

Due to the violence and tension in the recent years near Esmeraldas, tourism dropped significantly in 2017 and 2018. Added to that were the continual recovery   the 2016 earthquake. However, in 2019, tourist spending has increased 67% compared to 2017. In 2017, there was a lot of tension between the newly elected administration and the […]

On September 23, people from many indigenous nations gathered in Cuenca for the first fair of the Killa Raymi (also Kulla Raymi or the Festivity of the Moon, in honor of creation and feminine fertility). This holiday is historic and was always celebrated during the winter equinox. Nevertheless, formal festivities had never been organized. The […]

In commemoration of the International Beach Cleanup Day on September 21st, nearly 30,000 volunteers gathered in 250 bathing and tourist spots in Ecuador to clean up piles of trash and accumulated waste. In some tourist spots, the volunteers collected over a ton of waste products. The Ministry of Environment (MA), the Scouts Foundation and Nestle […]