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Yunguilla is a long valley that begins just south of Cuenca and ends near the seaport city of Machala. Its elevation ranges from about 7,000 feet near Cuenca down to 4,500 feet at the Santa Isabel side (closest to Machala on the coast). At its highest point, Yunguilla is 1,500 feet lower than Cuenca, which translates to a warmer climate and very short rainy season...
“Hey, where do you want to go eat tonight?” was not a question we asked each other much when we moved to Cuenca, Ecuador six-and-a-half years ago. It wasn’t that we weren’t hungry.
International Living readers often ask me, “How many other places did you visit before you decided on Cuenca, Ecuador for your overseas retirement home?” They’re stunned when I answer, “None.”
Much has been written in International Living by me and others about the tangible benefits of living in Cuenca, Ecuador—the low cost of living, temperate climate, lovely colonial architecture, excellent medical care, cultural amenities, and modern conveniences.
For many reasons, Cuenca, Ecuador earns top billing as one of the world’s top expat destinations. The cost of living is low—three-course lunches start at $2.50—the weather is great, usually around 65 to 70 F during the day, and it’s never too cold or hot.
Yesterday my wife Cynthia and I discovered Greek yogurt in our grocery store for the first time. We can almost hear your collective response: “So what? Big deal.” We get it. Whenever visiting our family in the States, we invariably go to a humongous supermarket stocked with everything one could possibly need or want. In the U.S., grocery shopping is a chore to be squeezed in with all the other activities that fill life.
In preparing for our move abroad, we did as much research as possible. We even went on an investigative trip to what is now our hometown of Cuenca, searching for potential red flags. We arrived in 2010 thinking we had a pretty good handle on what to expect, but nothing prepared us for the possibility of defying the aging process. This has been a most pleasant surprise, to say the least.
That’s the usual reaction my wife Cynthia and I get when we tell attendees at International Living conferences that we haven’t owned a vehicle since we moved to Cuenca, Ecuador, six years ago. When we were considering the notion of relocating abroad, part of our strategy was to find some special place in the world where as many of the negatives as possible could be eliminated from our lives. That included having to climb into a vehicle every time we left our home. After too many years on the suburbia merry-go-round, we were more than ready for a change.
Dining out is perhaps the favorite activity of gringos. (That’s what expats are called by locals, and it’s not a derogatory term here as it is in other parts of the world.) That goes for Cynthia and me, too. So I’m excited to take you on an all-day culinary tour of Cuenca to highlight some of our favorite places to eat.
Our daughter in New Jersey hasn’t seen her yard for months because it’s covered with snow. Our son in North Carolina finished raking leaves a while back just in time to get out the overcoats in preparation for the frigid weather ahead. My wife Cynthia and I, we’re weather junkies, who, like Goldilocks, want our weather “just right”…not too hot and not too cold…