Cuenca High Life

Atahualpa. Gil Ramirez Davalos. Luis Cordero. Padre Aguirre. Presidente Borrero. Remigio Crespo. Abdon Calderón. These names fill the history books of Ecuador, and dot the city map of Cuenca. But who were these people? And what about those dates? In the United States we often find Indepe... [More]

“It reminds me of Austin, Texas." “It’s straight out of San Diego.” “It would be right at home in Boston.” These are a few of the comments from expats about the San Sebas Café, which opened in mid-December on Mariscal Sucre and Coro... [More]

Motorcycles. Far more than just transportation, motorcycles have always been associated with thrill-seekers and daredevils, rebels and outlaws, escapists and freedom-lovers. No mere car ever fueled the fantasies of an entire generations like the bikes ridden by Marlon Brando in The Wild One,... [More]

For nearly two decades, if you wanted Mexican food in Cuenca, you had only one choice: El Pedregal Azteca (“The Rocky Aztec”), where María and Juan Manuel Ramoshave been serving authentic northern Mexican cuisine since 1989. Located in the heart of El Centro on Gran Colomb... [More]

Guayaquil declared its independence from Spain on October 9, 1820, seizing military control of the city in a nearly bloodless coup. Less than a month later, on November 3, Cuenca won its own independence after a handful of skirmishes between revolutionaries and Spanish soldiers that lasted two day... [More]

Though he says, “Everyone thinks I’m an extrovert, but I’m not really,” Lee Dubs can often be found chatting with customers at Carolina Bookstore, which he co-owns with his wife Carol. He’s not only one of the friendliest and most visible gringos in Cuenca, he’s... [More]

The Coopera, an organic-agriculture, financial-services, and social-support cooperative based in San Joaquin, a village on the western outskirts of Cuenca, was established in January 2004 by eight founding members with a total investment of less than $50 (each contributed $6). Today, it has more t... [More]

The famous indigenous outdoor market in the town of Otavalo, a two-hour drive north of Quito, is one of the best places to buy Andean art, crafts, textiles and indigenous jewelry in Ecuador. But if you're visiting Ecuador and your trip is limited to Cuenca and environs, you'll find plenty ... [More]

Among the first sights noticed by newcomers to Cuenca, along with the billowing white clouds, the rolling green hills, and the red-tile roofs, are the big blue buses that spew black fumes into the otherwise colorless alpine air. Hundreds of them bomb around town, from roughly 5:45 a.m. till ... [More]

Heading southwest from Cuenca on the road to Machala and Loja, you leave the city behind fairly quickly and enter the ranch country of the Tarqui Valley, with cattle grazing on rich green grass and the Andes towering over everything. You pass a couple of dairy stores, such as Lacteos Compero... [More]

As Calvin Trillin wrote in the November 2010 Condé Nast Traveler, the central colonial section of Cuenca “doesn't look like a sixteenth-century city that has been preserved; it looks like a city that has been in use since the sixteenth century.” Trillin describes himself as ... [More]

Sometimes the biggest is also the best and in the case of museums in Cuenca, Museo Pumapungo del Ministerio de Cultura proves the rule. From portraits to ponchos, from 50,000-sucre bills to shrunken heads, Cuenca’s most extensive and impressive artistic, historical, cultural, and ethnologica... [More]

Gualaceo is a big town located 36 km (22 miles) from Cuenca, a bus ride that takes 45 minutes and costs 60 cents. Known as “La Jardin del Azuay,” Gualaceo has a population of just under 50,000. Its tourist information center is next to a suspension bridge over the Rio Santa Barbara; Pl... [More]

With all the talk about gringos in Cuenca, the question arises, what exactly does the term "gringo" mean? And where might it come from? "Gringo" is a demonym, which has nothing to do with demons. Rather, it's Greek for the name (nym) of a populace (demos), a linguisti... [More]

Ah, pizza. Some aficionados consider it the perfect food. A slice of pizza has only 30 grams of carbohydrate in the crust of a slice of mozzarella, and that tomato sauce is packed with lycopene. Whether it's perfect or not is arguable, but pizza is loved by just about everyone, you... [More]

Rachel Zeigler is the representative from American Citizens Services (ACS) for the district that includes Cuenca. She's based at the U.S. Consulate in Guayaquil, a division of the U.S. State Department. She visited Cuenca a few weeks ago and held a lunchtime meeting at California Kitchen. It a... [More]

Quick: Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? How long was the Hundred Years War? The Canary Islands are named after what animal? And what country do Panama hats come from? If you answered General Ulysses S. and his wife Julia, 116 years, the dog, and Ecuador, you’re smarter than yo... [More]

Photographs by Edd Staton Edd Staton (of the eddsaid blog) and I met for lunch at Carbón, the parillada (grill) at the Cuenca Hotel, centrally located on Presidente Borrero between Gran Colombia and Mariscal Lamar. Meeting at noon, we beat the downtown lunch crowd by an hour, so we... [More]

Mixx isn’t merely a new ice cream shop in a city and country full of ice cream shops. It’s a world-class operation, with a great location on Plaza de San Blas, state-of-the-art equipment, and flavors limited only by the raging imagination of the Canadian proprietor, Tom Carbone. ... [More]

It's a common topic of discussion around here in expat circles: What impact will the fate of the U.S. dollar have in Ecuador, which uses the U.S. dollar as its currency? Everyone seems to have a different idea about the future of the U.S. dollar in Ecuador. Some people point to evidence ... [More]

My first night in Cuenca, I attended an event at the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce launching its Cuenca for Expats program. I ponied up $100 to join the Chamber, buying access to the members-only content at CuencaforExpats.com and invitations to Chamber functions. (For that story, click here.) ... [More]

April 1 isn't April Fools Day in Cuenca. Rather, it's the launch day of several weeks of parades, art shows, concerts, fiestas, and the kind of partying that goes on in a city that's celebrating its founding a mere 454 years ago (in 1557, partly on an existing ... [More]

I've never seen anything like it. At least not without a coupon or a comp or a cook in my own kitchen. El Nuevo Paraiso comes about as close as you can get to a free lunch.   I met Jim Rathjen there who, chatting (or more like shouting over the max-volume TV and the blar... [More]

Two weekly Gringo Nights take place in Cuenca. One is on Fridays at Zóe restaurant on Presidente Borrero between Mariscal Sucre and Presidente Cordova starting at 5 p.m. The other is on Tuesdays at DiBacco restaurant on Tarqui between Bolivar and... [More]

My luggage was already overflowing and I needed a new printer anyway, so I left my old printer behind, planning on buying a new one in Cuenca. My friend Greg Madeiros, an expat computer guy, recommended the store CompuFacil. Armed with the address on Remigio Crespo Toral near Avenida Loja, ... [More]