Cuenca High Life

The constroversy surrounding the 1981 death of Ecuadorian President Jaime Roldós has been resurrected by a new documentary film, “The Death or Roldos.” The film, directed and produced by Manolo Sarmiento and Lisandra Rivera, includes film footage from the brief Roldós pre... [More]

Editor's Note: Cuenca continues to receive major media coverage as a place for North Americans to retire. Tuesday night, ABC News ran a feature on its nightly news program about Cuenca expats, focusing on the attraction of the city's low cost of living. The article below is posted on ABC&#... [More]

Facing growing shareholder unrest over asset seizure actions and forced to testify about his alleged misconduct in the $19 billon Ecuador case, Chevron CEO John Watson again will be on the hot seat at the company’s annual meeting in late May where rainforest indigenous villagers and investor... [More]

Speculation about who will lead Ecuador’s “Citizens’ Revolution” in four years, when Rafael Correa’s second full term as president ends, has been quieted, at least temporarily. Correa’s heir apparent appears to be Gabriela Rivadeneira, elected last week as pr... [More]

After a several false starts, the owner of  the new Cuenca airline Línea Aérea Cuencana, or LAC for short, was scheduled to begin service this morning. The first flight was from Cuenca to Guayaquil. Luis Miguel Astudillo, LAC founder and owner, announced on Friday that the ... [More]

More art, less graffiti. That’s the goal of Cuenca’s new graffiti ordinance, passed by the cantonal council last year, and both graffiti artists and and government officials agree that the new program is off to a good start. Martin Arevalo, a spokesman for a loose coalition of 18... [More]

Less than a week after resolving a diplomatic war-of-words with Peru, Ecuador finds itself in another one, this time with the United States. During his Saturday television broadcast to the nation, Ecuaddor’s president Rafael Correa called US. ambassador Adam Namm “metidito,” o... [More]

How prepared is Ecuador for a major earthquake? Not very, say some Ecuador's emergency management officials, who are reviewing emergency procedures that would respond to disasters similar to those suffered in Haiti. Peru and Chile in the last five years. Ecuador lies on the eastern rim o... [More]

He is called Wawa Grande by the indigenous people living in the Cajas Mountains west of Cuenca. He was called the Monstruo de las Cajas in a 1997 German magazine article. He can also be called the monster that won’t go away, despite the best efforts of Ecuador’s national park servic... [More]

President Rafael Correa has announced that Ecuador is beginning negotiations to join Mercosur, the South American trade organization, and is also working to close a trade agreement with the European Union the Ecuador. He made the announcement during his weekly radio and television programs, broadc... [More]

When a Tame Airline flight bound for Loja was diverted back to Quito Friday night, the plane's 90 passengers refused to leave the aircraft, demanding that they be taken to Cuenca instead. The pilot agreed. The Quito to Loja flight was turned back from the Catamayo airport, which serves the Loj... [More]

The city of Cuenca and a coalition of former graffiti artists are joining forces to wipe out graffiti. The graffiti artists who have turned to painting what are called urban murals, say they agree that random graffiti hurts Cuenca’s appearance. Jorge Alvarez, member of the coalition of 60 t... [More]

By Ana Cristina Alvarado Just as many westerners have turned to alternative remedies to seek cures for whatever ails them, Ecuadorians, too, have begun to reconsider ancestral medicine in light of changing attitudes. Indigenous caregivers and midwifes are coming out of hiding in Ecuador tha... [More]

A small group gathered Wednesday on the banks of the Paute River to remember family members killed 20 years ago in in what has become known simply as the Josefina disaster, a giant landslide that blocked Rio Paute and flooded parts of Cuenca. The March 29, 1993 landslide, named for the nearb... [More]

The Ecuadorian ministry charged with protecting intellectual property, the Instituto de Propiedad Intelectual (IEPI), is working with the national assembly to prepare legislation that would protect traditional medicinal plant knowledge used by Amazonian tribes such as the Tsachilas and Shuar. ... [More]

Recently I decided to revisit what have long been considered the best restaurants in Cuenca, Villa Rosa and Casa Alonso in Hotel Mansion Alcazar. Since Villa Rosa received the top accolade years ago in tour guides and magazine articles, including one by former New Yorker editor and food writer ... [More]

Cuenca’s Parque de la Madre reopened Friday night with a bash and a blast, a concert and fireworks, and the the fun continued Saturday as thousands turned out to check out the new facilities. Ecuador’s top singing act, Juan Fernando Velesco, performed for a crowd estimated at 7,000... [More]

“Welcome to space, Ecuador. Welcome to heaven, Pegasus,” was the way Ecuador’s first astronaut Ronnie Nader described the launch of the country’s first satellite Thursday night. Officially named NEE-01 Pegaso, the small satellite –or nano satellite in space tech j... [More]

Ecuador’s National Institute of Meteorolgoy says a jet stream “anomoly” is directing cool, dry air to Ecuador from southern Peru, causing unseasonable cool mornings and warm afternoons in the Cuenca area. According to the institute’s Hernán Parreño, “Thi... [More]

After several delays, including one last week, Cuenca’s Parque de la Madre reopens this weekend with three days of festivities. Popular Quito singer Juan Fernando Velesco presents a concert Friday night that will be followed by fireworks. A Saturday open house features food, crafts, music... [More]

After a decade of steady growth, Ecuador’s airline industry recorded a drop in the number of passengers on domestic flights in 2012, according to figures from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The number of air travel passengers fell 6% over the previous year, the statis... [More]

Organizers of Friday’s “Pedal Cuenca” International Bike Day event were overwhelmed by the turnout, estimated between 9,000 and 10,000, as local police were forced to call in reserves to assist in redirecting taffic. Based on last year’s turnout of about 4,000, organizer... [More]

In a visit to Spain, Italy and Germay last week, President Rafael Correa met with Ecuadorians who have moved out of the country over the past two decades. “I would like for you to consider coming home,” he told a crowd in Italy. “We need you.” By some es... [More]

New renovation plans for Cuenca’s San Francisco Plaza are drawing criticism from vendors who currently operate businesses in the area. The plans call for a landscaped open public plaza with businesses relocated to commercial space below street level. Currently, vendors occupy rows of corruga... [More]

Editor's note: North Americans are not the only foreigners living in Cuenca. In fact, immigration authorities report that there are almost twice as many non-Ecuadorian Latin Americans living in the city as U.S. and Canadians. The largest group, with about 2,300, are Colombians who have fled th... [More]