Articles

Ecuador's controversial mining reform bill just cleared committee with 8 votes and heads to the National Assembly floor this week. Meanwhile, Cuenca's Cabildo por el Agua is mobilizing at Parque Calderón to demand lawmakers kill the bill. The stakes? Cuenca's water supply.

Mayor Zamora signed a deal to acquire 105 hectares of critical watershed land bordering Cajas National Park. The $180,000 price tag? Funded entirely by ticket sales from the Carnaval Nicky Jam concert. Sometimes the math really does work out.

Ecuador's public health system has a bizarre problem: too many general practitioners and not enough surgeons, anesthesiologists, and specialists. Cuenca's José Carrasco Arteaga Hospital is short on oncologists while 13,000+ patients wait for operations nationwide.

Residents in Barabón Chico are still cleaning up from last week's flooding — and INAMHI says the rains are coming back next week. Here's what you need to know about the forecast, the damage so far, and how the city is preparing.

ETAPA is shutting down the Cuenca-Azogues highway on Saturday afternoon for a 20-minute controlled blast at the new wastewater treatment plant. Here's exactly when, where, and what to do if you're driving that direction.

The national numbers are in from Carnival 2026 — Ecuador's tourism sector pulled in $81.9 million over four days. But Cuenca's story was more complicated, with the city ranking third nationally in emergency calls. Here's the full post-Carnival breakdown.

Cuencanos consume about 200 liters of water per person per day — nearly twice what the WHO says you need. At $0.60 per thousand liters, there's no financial incentive to cut back. But the city's rivers aren't infinite.

Cuenca remains one of the most affordable cities for expats in the Americas, but costs are rising faster than they used to. Here's an honest, line-by-line breakdown of what it actually costs to live here in 2026 — and how to stretch your dollars further.

After the devastating rolling blackouts of 2024, every expat in Ecuador has the same question: will it happen again? New plants are online, Turkish floating generators are humming, and the rain is helping — but one massive vulnerability remains. Here's the full picture.