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La Vida Local

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La Vida Local is my coverage of living the local life in Cuenca. It's no longer the Dream; I'm here for six months (at least, depending on what happens in my quest to stick around) and I'm popping up frequent posts about what that's like, with plenty of information and details about, and images of, settling into a new scene in South America.

Note that La Vida Local is organized from the oldest to newest posts (unlike a blog, organized from newest to oldest), so that it unfolds exactly as I'm living it. Scroll to the bottom to see the newest posts. Members can click the Recent Posts link on the Member home page; new pages are posted regularly all over this site.

 

Articles

  CUENCA OR BUST
I made it.
  SUITES PASEO REAL
Suites Paseo Real are located on Avenida Paseo de los CaNaris at the corner of Camilo Egas. It’s on the east side about 20 blocks, or a little less than a mile, from El Centro, on the flats of the river at the edge of the bluff.
  THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF CUENCA

My second night in Cuenca, I attended an event at La Camara de Comercios de Cuenca, otherwise known as the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce, to commemorate the launching of its new website, CuencaForExpats.com.
  EMPANADAS CHILENAS
I stumbled across Empanadas Chilenas on the way back to the apart hotel from my lawyer’s office, where I was attending to the bureaucratic details concerning my 12-IX tourist visa.  
  THE BUSES OF CUENCA
Among the first sights newcomers to Cuenca notice, along with the billowing white clouds, the rolling green hills, and the red-tile roofs, are the big blue buses that spew black diesel fumes into the otherwise colorless alpine air.
  SHOPPING FOR A COMPUTER PRINTER
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 FIRST ECUADORIAN ATTORNEY
I handed over my passport and the two visa documents to Francisco Astudillo el abogado, then watched him frown and shake his head. My heart sunk a little and I thought, already?
  IN NEED OF VEGGIES? TRY CHIFA HONG KONG
“Chifa” is the term used around here for Chinese restaurant. According to Wikipedia, it was introduced into the Spanish lexicon in Peru in the 1920s to designate the new type of cooking that substituted local ingredients in traditional Chinese cuisine.
  ROTISSERIE CHICKEN IS BIG IN CUENCA
They’re clean and bright. They're friendly fast. They’re not especially inexpensive (for Ecuador, though they’d be the cheapest joints in town in the U.S.), but the portions are large.
  IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE BARRIO
Today's my day for errands. So let's take a walk in the neighborhood.
  SO YOU THINK YOU DON'T KNOW SPANISH?
I did something dumb in high school: I took French. Don’t ask me why. The French teacher was sexy. A girl I had a crush on was in the class. Two friends talked me into it. I grew up in New York, where French and Italian and Yiddish and even Greek seemed more important than Spanish.
  SO YOU THINK YOU DO KNOW SPANISH?
It's not like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, or Russian, where you have to learn a whole new alphabet (though you do need to learn the pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet, so you can ask for things like the ATM machine; imagine someone in the U.S. asking you where to find the Ah Tay Eme). But it's still, to be sure, a foreign language.
  GRINGO BINGO
Two weekly Gringo Nights take place in Cuenca: one 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 Gran Colombia, starting at 5:30 p.m.
  VEGETARIAN LUNCH AT GIVEAWAY PRICES
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 (New Paradise) almuerzo vegetariano is probably the least expensive restaurant in Cuenca, and perhaps in Ecuador, or maybe even the world.
  I LOVE A PARADE
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 554 years ago (in 1557, partly on an existing Inca settlement).
  CUENCA'S ORGANIC-FOOD COOPERA
The Coopera, an organic-agriculture, financial-services, and social-support cooperative based in San Joaquin village on the outskirts of Cuenca, was established in January 2004 by eight founding members with a total investment of less than $50 (each contributed six dollars). Today, it has more than 60,000 members and assets of nearly $30 million.
  RANDOM THOUGHTS AFTER LIVING HERE A MONTH
I’ve lived here five weeks today. The following are some discursive observations after spending 35 days and nights in a new homeland.
  VISAS AND MORE VISAS
Another week, another several hours spent in the attorneys’ office. The following is what I believe to be factual background on Ecuador’s residency and visa processes. Again, do not take my word for it.
  ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA JUVENIL
On the east side of Parque Calderón stands Catedral El Sagrario, also known as Catedral Viejo. The cornerstone of the original mud-and-straw chapel built on this site in 1557, shortly after Cuenca was founded, was taken from the Inca palace at Pumapungo (on the grounds of the Banco Central near Calle Larga and Avenida Huayna Capac) and the original structure was completed, then expanded, in 1568.
  EAT NOW, OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PIZZA
The only “cuisine” that gives chicken a run for its money in Cuenca and Ecuador, in terms of availability and variety, is, probably, pizza. Including our month in October and my six weeks living here so far, I’ve sampled pizza at nine different restaurants. I do like the stuff, but this has been more of a quest, for research purposes, than any pizza compulsion. Honest.
  THE WORK VISA REVISITED
A strong rumor has been swirling since late last week. According to my source, Immigration in Quito “has put a four-month hold on new residency applications, due to a backlog from 2010.” The rumor is that applications will be accepted, but will not go into process.
  "ETERNAL SPRING"

The weather in Cuenca, at 8,400 feet and close to the equator, is often described as “mild,” “spring-like,” and “rarely changing.” This is true, to the extent that the consistency in temperatures eliminates the necessity for built-in heat and/or air-conditioning units in houses, condos, apartments, and commercial establishments here. But what does it mean in terms of the comfort levels of day-and-night living conditions?
  HIGH-RISE CONDO LIVING
In my quest to experience as much of Cuenca in as short a time as possible (I also want to start exploring the country and after seven weeks here, my traveling shoes are calling to me), I’ve determined to change homes bases every month for a while.
  RUM AND MILK TOURS DRAW DIFFERENT CROWDS
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.)
  ALTITUDE SICKNESS
Thinking of zipping down to Cuenca, Ecuador, for a long –- though inexpensive -- weekend with Deke? Think again. Cuenca is situated at 2560 meters (about 8,400 feet) above sea level and 22% of people who travel too quickly to altitudes between 7,000 and 9,000 feet get acute mountain illness. (Upwards of 42% of people reaching 10,000 feet without acclimatization come down with it.)
  THE DESTINY OF THE U.S. DOLLAR IN ECUADOR
I’m not an economist. I have no background in economics, fiscal management, financial policy, or the like. But I do know a freight train full of fireworks crashing into a warehouse full of dynamite when I see it.
  AROUND HERE, INFLATION HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
In terms of Cuenca’s micro economics, Dave Morrill, the original realtor to the gringos who’s lived in Cuenca for seven years, tells me that he’s noticed prices going up some. When he first came here, he cold buy two pineapples for a dollar; now it’s one. In the past year, he says, a box of milk has gone from 80 cents to $1.20. And real estate prices have been climbing slowly but surely ever since he bought his first condo in 2004.
  WORLD-CLASS HELADERIA OPENS IN CUENCA
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.
  THE NEW HOUSE
So here I am, in my third month in Cuenca, having moved to my third habitation. It’s quite a departure from an apartamento turIstioco and a high-rise condo. It’s a three-story, five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath furnished house, which rents for $450 a month, in the “suburbs” -- an arbitrary designation of my own, based on being on the south (far) side of the second river, the Yanuncay.
  SATURDAY AT THE MALL
Cuenca’s big mall, the Mall del Rio, is walkable from my new house (as well as being on the bus line I take to and from El Centro, the 7). Since I’m planning on sticking around the suburbs awhile, my first Saturday here, I took a walk -- to see how far it was, grab a bite at the food court, and shop for a few things I could use for my room.
  THE CUENCA HOTEL
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 crowed by an hour, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves.
  JUST ANOTHER COUPLE DAYS IN CUENCA
A meeting about driver's licenses in Ecuador, tours of two old mansions, the Tuesday-evening gringo event at Di Bacco, a night in an $8 hostal room, a beginning-Spanish class in the morning, and a gringo open house that evening -- just another couple days in Cuenca.
  DRIVER'S LICENSES IN ECUADOR
The ad went out over Gringo Tree, Cuenca’s premier email listserve with nearly 2,300 recipients: “Fifteen spaces are available for a Cuenca driving-school program that includes an English translator. The program is for five days, four hours a day. Cost for translation services is $5 per day. To sign up, or for more information, contact Andrea Jaramillo.”
  CASA DE AGUILA
The driver’s license get-together was held in the second-floor meeting room of the Casa del Aguila (ah-GEE-la: House of the Eagle). This was no coincidence: Andrea Jaramillo’s family owned this house at one time in the distant past; her great-grandmother lived in it while her grandmother was growing up in it. When her grandmother’s mother died, the house was sold. But when the Casa came up for sale recently, Andrea and her husband Jorge bought it. Now, after decades under previous owners, it’s back in the family.
  CASA DE ABUELA
After our tour of the Casa del Aguila, Jorge and Andrea walked us next door to the “casa de abuela,” where Andrea’s aunt let us into her little toquilla hat store and sold a fine sombrero to Bill Bushnell, with Bush’s partner Leita and Jorge looking on.
  VILLA FLORA AND COFFEE TREE
The front-desk clerk at the Hostal Villa Flora told me, in Spanish of course, that a room with a baño privado cost $10. I grimaced, hesitated, scratched the back of my neck, and sighed, then stood there frowning. The clerk smiled, then said that tonight only, he’d give it to me for $8. With that, we were fast friends.
  SPANISH FOR BEGINNERS
A few weeks ago, the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce, through its Cuenca for Expats program, held a Spanish-language class, Sobreviviendo Espanol (Survival Spanish). Taught by Nancy Mora, an excellent local language teacher, it was an extremely enjoyable and educational couple hours –- for me, my roommate Greg (whose Ecuadorian girlfriend Estela speaks almost no Spanish) and Noel (whose wife Christine grew up in a missionary family in Bolivia and is perfectly fluent).
  HAVE I BEEN BUSY OR WHAT?
It’s been a wild and crazy month since I last posted anything on AccessEcuador or sent out an eletter. And I suspect that the easiest way to recap the madcappery is to review my finances during that time, with commentary when appropriate.
  SPANISH FOR BEGINNERS PART TWO
Right after my third Chamber of Commerce Spanish class (click here for the tale of how I came to teach a such a class), which topped out at 19 students and pretty much blew us out of the conference room, I started seriously considering expanding the operation.
  UNCLE SAM PAYS A VISIT
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 couple weeks ago and held a lunchtime meeting at California Kitchen. It attracted more than 100 American expats.
  THE GRINGO "INVASION" OF CUENCA
Although it´s been called the “Gringo invasion” in newspaper and web articles, Cuenca’s influx of foreign residents hardly represents the action of conquering hordes. There is, however, no denying the city´s growing popularity among foreigners looking for a new home.
  THE WORD "GRINGO"
With all this talk about gringos in Cuenca, the question arises, what exactly does the term “gringo” mean? And where might it come from?
  GRINGO OBSESSIONS
The historical, traditional, and cultural differences between Ecuadorians and Xpadorians are distinct enough that they shine a sometimes harsh spotlight on gringo obsessions.
  CUENCA -- THE CENTER OF ECUADOR'S PANAMA HAT TRADE
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?
  MUSEO PUMAPUNGO-- SHRUNKEN HEADS AND MORE
Sometimes the biggest is also the best and in the case of museums in Cuenca, Museo Pumapungo del Ministerio de Cultura, also known as Museo Pumapungo (formerly Museo Banco del Central) 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 ethnological exhibits are housed on three floors in a large wing of the Central Bank.
  THE FLU (AT 8.400 FEET)
My local friends refer to it as la gripa. My gringo friends, however, are a bit more emphatic about it; they call it the “Cuenca plague.” And it is a nasty little bug –- to us. We Xpadorians not only don’t have any immunity to it, but the thin air up here in the Andes makes it even worse.
  DÉJÀ VU (IN SPANISH)

On Monday July 11, I received the following letter from Cate Hart, the gringa paralegal at Coloaustro, my Cuenca law firm.

Dear Deke, The immigration office in Cuenca has stopped accepting all applications, including renewals. This has us worried about your work visa. So we need to get a head start on your documentation. Could you come in about 30 minutes early for your Friday appointment, so we can talk to you?
  DÉJÀ VU (IN SPANISH) PART 2
My law firm, Coloaustro, had set up my Ecuadorian company, Inca Ink, in May. It took exactly six weeks, as Galo, the business lawyer, predicted. Meanwhile, Francisco, Coloaustro’s crack visa lawyer, was maximizing the time on my existing 12-IX by not applying for my new 12-VI work visa, for which I qualified now that I had Inka Ink, till the last minute.
  DÉJÀ VU (IN SPANISH) PART 3
Before leaving Coloaustro that day, I made an appointment for 10 a.m. the following Monday to meet Francisco, so we could go to the Ministerio and submit the work-visa application. I showed up on Monday at the appointed time and the next thing I knew, Francisco, a twenty-something African from Liberia named Michael, and myself were piling into Francisco’s SUV on an immigration quest.
  DÉJÀ VU (IN SPANISH) PART 4
Dear Deke, Francisco says your visa is ready at the visa office. You are required to go to the Ministerio and have your interview. Once you interview, they will give you your new visa. Can you go today at 3 p.m.? Let me know if you have any questions! Cate
  DÉJÀ VU (IN SPANISH) PART 5
By this time, my wagon was draggin pretty slow. After my Spanish lesson, lunch with Dave, and my interview, the flu was getting the better of me. I’d been speaking Spanish all day. And I still had to go to the bank and deal with whatever awaited me there.
  SPANISH-IMMERSION SCHOOL IN CUENCA
Last Wednesday, I took my final exam at Nexus, the Cuenca language school I’d attended since mid-June. Three days a week –- Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday –- the class convened at 8 a.m., which necessitated getting up at 6:30 to be out of the house by 7:45 for the drive across town to school. Over a period of eight weeks, I attended three two-hour classes a week, taking, in all, 50 hours of intermediate Spanish, taught immersion-style.
  FLOUNDERING WITH FELIPE FROM CLASS TO CLASS
I left Nexus last Wednesday morning, having graduated from intermediate to advanced Spanish. I was feeling a little thrill from the accomplishment, but I was also relieved to be done with it. That eight-ayem roll call is a killer. Waiting outside as I burst, newly graduated, from the building was my cab driver, Felipe.
  TEACHING AT THE CUENCA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Felipe, I came to realize, was a fittingly surreal transition between a Spanish class where I sat as a student and a Spanish class where I stood at the teacher. I’d launched my new career -- indeed, answered my new calling –- with this Spanish for Beginners class at the Cuenca Chamber of Commerce nearly four months earlier. (For that story, click here.) Those 15 classes, from 10:30 to 12:30 on Wednesdays, had been a wild ride, to say the least.
  GIVING THE FINAL EXAM AT HOSTAL HARO
I’d announced in the previous week’s classes that there’d be a test, a final exam, the last week of the cycle and I prepared a 100-question test that covered most of what I’d taught over the previous nine weeks. Not being a teacher (until now) and having just taken a final exam in a Spanish class, it was, to say the least, enlightening and entertaining to be giving a test of my own.
  RANDOM THOUGHTS AFTER SIX MONTHS IN CUENCA
They like to see me coming: Omar and Geofry at CopyMax, Raquel at Lava Fácil, Clarita at Estancia Clara, Grace at the no-name almuerzo, the chuzo vendor at the bus stop, the shoeshine man outside El Cenáculo.
  LEE DUBS: A CUENCA -- AND LATIN AMERICA -- PIONEER
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 also lived here since 2003, an eternity in expat years.
  BORN IN THE U.S.A.
It was the first time I returned to the homeland in exactly six months. It’s hard to describe the sensation of landing in New York, calling the airport-shuttle 800 number from an actual pay phone, and hearing, “Eahpawt Tranzpuhtayshun. Kin I elp yeh?”
  NETFLIX IN ECUADOR
Six or so weeks ago in early September, Netflix became available in Ecuador. I was a long-term Netflix subscriber in the States, so I immediately signed up for the 31-day trial subscription.