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Retiring to Ecuador Can Be Stressful? Part 1
Retiring to Ecuador Can be Stressful? Part 1 We moved to Ecuador June 3 of 2016, and love it here, but retirement to a foreign country is not all smooth sailing. Having never retired or moved to a foreign country before, I didn’t expect a hard landing with choppy waters! Given my years […]
Fluffing our Nest: Prepping to Move into our New House
I can’t believe 2 months have gone by without blogging! Before another month slips away, I want to share some of what we’ve been up to. Mostly it’s been prepping to move into our new house. In a flurry of activity at the end of January, we secured our “Professional Residency Visas,” our cedulas (nat’l ID cards), and bought a […]
Holiday Celebrations in Cuenca: El Pase del Niño, El Año Viejo, & La Fiesta de los Inocentes
Holiday Celebrations in Cuenca: El Pase del Niño, El Año Viejo, & la Fiesta de los Inocentes If you’ll give me a moment I’ll share our observations about holiday celebrations in Cuenca. It’s fascinating and, oh, so different than North America. Think Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but rated PG. During the Christmas season in Cuenca there are […]
Furniture Shopping in Cuenca
Furniture Shopping As promised in the last post of 2016, here’s what we’ve learned about furniture in Cuenca to date. More challenging than finding a place to live has been shopping for furniture. There is a Cuenca style of furniture that we are not enamored of and our apartment is too small to fit a standard […]
Cuenca Housing Market: Renting and Buying
Cuenca Housing Market: Renting and Buying There are a number of Cuenca expat blogs that have discussed the local housing market over the past 8 years — see blogroll. However, a lot has changed since 2009, when International Living listed Cuenca as the #1 retirement destination in the world. As recently as five years ago […]
Artisan Festival — Festival de Artesanias de America
Artisan Festival — Festival de Artesanias de America Because the Dia de Difuntos and the Independence Day of Cuenca occur back to back on Nov 2 and Nov 3, the Artisan Festival is one of the biggest holiday weeks in Cuenca, if not the biggest. Although the main focus is native art, this week […]
Guaguas de Pan and Colada Morada
Guaguas de Pan and Colada Morada: Dia de Difuntos Celebration For North American expats in Ecuador’s highlands, trick or treating ghosts and goblins are replaced by guaguas de pan, colada morada, and visits to the cemetery this time of year. The early Christian holidays of All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls Day, […]
Habitat III: Part Two
Habitat III in Quito – Part Two Our Travel and Stay Flight to Quito on Tame Air The beauty of being Cuenca expats was that we could attend Habitat III with only a 45 minute domestic flight. But with Tame, the national airline, anything could happen. Shortly after everyone boarded the plane, it was announced […]
Habitat III in Quito (Oct 17-20) — Part One
John and I were among the 30,000 people attending Habitat III his week: UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. It’s the first UN event we’ve attended so we wondered how it would compare to professional conferences in the US. John was excited about networking opportunities regarding his work with Citizens’ Climate Lobby. I was happy […]
Priority Mail International: Not a Priority
I have read a lot of Cuenca expat blogs but never remember reading about the perils of Priority Mail International. So let me unload! This is what the USPS website reads: Priority Mail International: “6 to 10 business days. Reliable and affordable international delivery to more than 180 countries… Beginning at $23.95 […]