After 2+ weeks of struggle, I published two books and created a website. I would not recommend trying to work on three projects at the same time. I was stressed to the 9s. My new books are: Panamá Sketches (eBook – a compilation of my Panamá blog posts), and Church Music Service Planning Notebook (print book – for church musicians). These and my other books are now available on my new website: www.SecondHarvestBooks.com.
Gold has always been sought in Ecuador. The Conquistadors scoured Ecuador for these deposits, as they did throughout South America. Their intent was to extract whatever resources they could from the continent, even while attempting to convert the indigenous to Catholicism. One of these resources was liquid chocolate, a commodity that became all the rage in Europe.
At the same time, the Incas used chocolate as currency, as it was valued for its taste and its perceived magical qualities. Francisco Valdez, an archaeologist, dug up some pottery that contained microscopic remnants of cocoa. Is it possible that Ecuador is the original home for the cocoa bean? This discovery in the Amazon indicates that cocoa beans were being harvested and added to the diet of the indigenous more than 5,000 years ago.
There was a chocolate boom in the 1800s and Ecuador, as the largest producer of cocoa, saw fortunes made almost over night. This was attributed to the high quality of the cocoa bean found in Ecuador. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, is attributed to making the first chocolate bar in 1847, a treat that soared in popularity throughout the world. The boom lasted until 1916 when the Ecuador crop was hit by a fungus that crushed plantations for many years. Abroad, Fry’s Chocolates survived for several generations, eventually merging with their strongest competitor, Cadbury Brothers. In 2011, the company closed its British operations and move to Poland.
Ecuador’s cocoa beans are known as Nacional or Arriba, the latter indicating the location of this delightful taste. The Arriba beans vary in taste and size relative to the area where they grow. With the advent of the popularity of dark chocolate, Ecuador became the pre-eminent exporter of fine beans until the growers realized that it was to their advantage to retain the beans and develop their own savory bars.
This new focus resulted in smaller-sized family operations, focusing on quality over quantity. These operations also made a shift toward the popular, producing dark chocolate. This has resulted in a market share of about 63% fine Arriba chocolate sold throughout the world. Ecuadorians continue to explore dark chocolate flavors by adding new ingredients such as hot chili, sea salt, and roses. The variety of Ecuadorian chocolate has expanded but one thing remains the same: it is still in high demand.
Fact: “Ecuador’s cacao zone is to chocolate cognoscenti what Bordeaux is to wine-lovers.” (The Economist)
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Along with the old in Cuenca is the new. Not long ago, there was a large plot of land on the south side of the city at the junction of two of Cuenca’s four rivers – Yanuncay and Tarqui. The site was ripe for development.
The City of Cuenca and nearby University of Azuay developed a project in 2020 resulting in the creation of Jardin Botanico. The Schools of Biology and Environmental Engineering have accepted responsibility for the development of this garden. Both students and faculty are making this into more than a garden. It will also be a research center.
The School of Biology is charged with installing native plants in addition to creating a pollinator garden. The School of Environmental Engineering is establishing a weather station to research the quality of soil and water. Their research will look at nature-based solutions for environmental issues. The garden will serve as a natural living laboratory, to gain knowledge of and solutions to our growing environmental crises.
This garden is in its infancy, but the infrastructures have been put into place. An extensive network of boardwalks was built, travelling along and arching over the planned-for vegetation. The grounds include a pond and waterway, complete with ducks. Next, a series of low-lying buildings were constructed, including an auditorium, cafeteria, administrative offices, and potting sheds.
Botanical gardens grace the other three large cities in Ecuador. Cuenca’s garden will take time to further develop, for plants and trees to grow, and for the citizens to visit. Appreciation will grow along with the vegetation, and Jardin Botanico will take its place among Cuenca’s other must-see important sites.
Fact: Cuenca’s green belt project has given 12 square meters of green space to each citizen
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What’s a lover of French Impressionism doing in a contemporary art gallery? Art is art, and I need to continually expose myself to its new forms. I surprised myself recently when I paid a visit to the Oꟻꟻ Gallery (Oꟻꟻ Arte Contemporáneo) in Cuenca. My friend Michael M. suggested I visit this gallery created by the sister and her husband of a friend of his. She had also reached out to me to offer any help I might need in getting acquainted with Cuenca. It was time for a visit.
The gallery is a 5-story contemporary (what else?) building sitting upon a hill top commanding outstanding views of the city. I wandered in unannounced to the first floor which is an unattended entryway enhanced by several art works. At the end was a stairway (alongside an elevator) curling up to the next floor. There I found several spaces occupied by varied works of art, large and small. Going back to the stairway, I climbed to the next floor and found more exhibits. These works helped break my orderly mind and I found myself gazing with rapture at many of the pieces.
I returned to the second floor office and met Karen Kennedy who, with her artist husband Boris Ordoñez, materialized their dream last April of constructing an outstanding venue for contemporary artists. The gallery opened with an overflowing collection of art lovers who had come to view the 160 works of 51 Ecuadorian artists. New exhibitions are continuing with more visual artists represented.
As the Athens of South America, Cuenca is a hub for the visual arts. A wide variety of spaces are given over to paintings in oils and watercolors, sculptures, solo artists, studios, and other media. The Oꟻꟻ Gallery, Ecuador’s largest, stands out as a mecca for contemporary art, rivalled by none. Yelp gives it a 5 out of 5 rating. A delayed opening due to Covid will result in more ratings to follow. I look forward to returning to this spectacular gallery many times in the future.
Fact: Cuenca is Ecuador’s City of Art
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Well, it seems that way. From where I’m living in Cuenca, Ecuador, the El Centro (old historic district) is straight up. Come, walk with me as we head up to El Centro.
I live in a part of Cuenca called El Vergel, a popular area with expats and Ecuadorians. It is composed of commercial and residential buildings. Let’s start by walking a few blocks of the business district, walking past the ubiquitous MacDonald’s and crossing a 4-lane street. We then arrive at the relatively large Parque de la Madre. This park is busy day and night with individuals, families, and groups. We are likely to see a bunch of young kids playing games or running off their energy. There’s probably an adult exercise group of some sort. We pass by some venders, cross a street to the Tomebamba River. Cuenca has four fast-flowing rivers with walkways alongside.
We’ll cross a bridge which I call the Women’s Bridge. Everything in Cuenca has a name, but very few structures or streets have these names posted. This bridge has been painted on each side with the yearly number of reported abuses against women. It’s a sobering observation.
Now our ascent starts. We will climb 88 steps to reach the edge of El Centro. I do this several times a week (good exercise for the heart) to reach my part-time job at Carolina Bookstore, the only English-language used bookstore in Cuenca (the store also has growing Spanish language sections). At the top of this ascent, we land upon Calle Larga (Long Street) which runs along one edge of El Centro.
Now, if you would prefer a shorter climb, you can walk up river to the next set of steps, a mere 84 steps 🙂 which rise alongside the Selina Hotel. Further upstream is another set of actual stairs (uncounted for now) coming from Cuenca University (there are 3 universities in Cuenca) paralleling a curving road.
Reaching the top, we find the streets of the old town jutting out in a grid pattern. Easy to circumnavigate? Yes, if you don’t care to know which direction you’re going. This grid, sitting askew to much of the rest of the city, is likely to have been structured by the river below. Despite the traveling I’ve done, I am totally confused with directions here. I’ve been lost numerous times and have had to ask how to get where I want to go. I made the mistake of thinking my base street ran in one direction when, in fact, it ran the other direction. I continue to have problems rotating my directions by 45º.
Having reached “up top,” we’ll explore El Centro next week. Come back and walk with me through this UNESCO World Heritage site.
Fact: Cuenca is described as the most beautiful city in all of South America
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I have found that making friends is one of the most important requirements when moving to a new community. I have been blessed to have made new friends who seem to have been just waiting to help me. My introduction to Cuenca would have been so much harder without their help.
I am subletting an apartment from a man who is in France for July and August. He has generously taken the time to frequently email or WhatsApp me with all kinds of information about the city. Additionally, he told me to look up a friend of his who has gone out of his way to show me around and given me helpful advice. We were sitting in the small park near my apartment when who comes walking by but Amelia and JP. I know there are those of you who have followed them on the Internet (website and/or YouTube). I started attending a church and I have been taken out to lunch and encountered a couple in a different restaurant. They started teaching me how to use a taxi app to get around. Where would I be without friends?
Generally, I am pretty good with directions. However, I made the mistake of thinking a major street through my neighborhood ran east and west when I later learned that it ran north and south. I have been working hard to reorient myself ever since. If only the streets ran in a predictable pattern, but they don’t. Add to that that there are few street signs, and I can become totally lost.
Fortunately, in El Centro, many of the buildings are numbered and there is a system to this. Numbers begin with 1 or 2 digits followed by a hyphen and then the actual building address. Those digits indicate the block, like 3-150. This is very helpful when you know the address of a store on a long street, for instance. Unfortunately, if you only know the name of the store, you don’t know in what block it is located. Outside of El Centro, house numbers and street names are almost nonexistent.
Even taxi drivers have some difficulty finding their way to a specific location. These drivers can drive around circles, intentionally or not, to keep the meter advancing. I’ve learned to hand the driver a note with an address to try to prevent this. However, if my destination is not marked, it’s nothing but a guessing game. I’ve had a driver tell me he couldn’t take me where I wanted to go because he had no idea where it was. Another drove around and around not finding the location and finally told me to just get out of his cab, in the rain no less!
I haven’t begun to tackle the bus and train (think above-ground subway) systems yet. So, I walk when I can. Walking in Cuenca is really the best way to encounter this city and its many charms. I will write about this in my next post.
Fact: The riverside trails extend 13 kilometers through Cuenca (8 miles)
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Numbeo.com, a collaborative online database, provides cost of living comparisons between cities and countries of the world. It has just released its first six-month index for 2022. From this, let me point out some data for the US and Panamá (where most of my readers reside) and then Ecuador (where I’m currently based). Other indices presented are rent (with and without cost of living), groceries, restaurant, and local purchasing power (the amount of goods or services that a unit of currency can buy at a given point in time).
In the paragraph above, the most important word is collaborative. This database is made up of information provided by individuals; it is not fact checked. Despite this criticism, I think the data it provides is worth considering. My blog is intended to be a travel blog (though I didn’t do much traveling during the pandemic); it is not intended to seduce people to move to one of the countries I have attempted to explore.
The big picture shows that parts of the United States, Bermuda, and Switzerland are the most expensive countries in which to reside. The least expensive are parts of the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. Ground zero for comparison is New York City with a score of 100. All cities and countries are reflected either side of this figure.
Based on 510 cities of the world with cost of living and purchasing power, Hamilton, Bermuda ranks at 145.98 (81.89) while Peshawar, Pakistan comes in at 15.69 (27.15). Quite a spread. In the United States, Honolulu at 101.93 (92.17) and Santa Barbara at 100.58 (84.95) are the only two cities to rank higher than New York City. The least expensive US city, of those compared, is Wichita, Kansas at 59.45 (96.19). Panamá City is the only Panamanian city on the list, showing a cost of living of 50.27 (33.42). Cuenca, Ecuador’s cost of living is 38.19 (29.92). Two other Ecuadorian cities, Quito and Guayaquil, show up as 37.77 (31.37) and 36.12 (38.83) respectively.
For me, all of this means that I can live more cheaply almost anywhere than I can in the United States. From this list, there are only 9 cities more expensive than New York City, but 499 less expensive. The world is my oyster. Perhaps I’ll find a pearl in it.
Fact: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shock to the world economy, resulting in higher prices.
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Is there a best way to travel? Of course not; it has many individualistic factors to consider. What’s right for you may not be right for me, and I’m beginning to think that what was right for me may not be right for me forever. I travel lightly: backpack and computer bag only. Let me tell you about my trip to Ecuador.
I flew from David to Panamá City and that’s when the problems began. Copa airlines landed at their new Terminal 2, but I had to walk outside to Terminal 1 in order to find a shuttle. I discovered there would be no free shuttle to the Crowne Plaza Hotel due to the strike that was taking place. Consequently, I tried to use Über to get to the hotel, but the Über drivers couldn’t get through. I had to cancel three requests. Finally, a fourth drive got through, but we could not find each other, even after extensive communication back and forth. I still would like to learn if there is a specific spot at that airport for Über pickups. Let me know.
All the while, what taxi and van drivers were at the airport kept hassling me to take their $10.00 ride. I refused, knowing I could do better. After an hour of standing in the hot sun, a man came up to me and said he had seen me standing there for a long time and was there anything he could do for me. I told him I was trying to get an Über driver. He then gently told me he was a taxi driver and that he would get me to the hotel for $5.00. I took him up on the bargain. However, that left the last Über drive hanging and I was charged over $12.00 for cancelling that ride.
The taxi ride to the hotel took an hour due to the strikers nearby when it otherwise should have taken 5 or 10 minutes. The ride went through slums and down dirt roads in a circuitous route, through areas I would never have seen or wanted to see. But he got me there. He was an educated, English-speaking former Texan driver I can recommend to anyone who like to use him when in Panamá City.
I had to leave the hotel early the next morning before the strikers took up their stoppages, so I was able to use the shuttle and got there in time. I had to wait a couple of hours, only to find in the last 20 minutes that they departure gate had been changed from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. This time, I could move to Terminal 1 through the inside, but I had to run with my backpack and computer bag flaying on my sides. I had done a self-check in originally, but for some reason my name wasn’t in the system. So, I arrived at the gate with the wrong boarding pass. This took a while to straighten out, but because of the gate change, the plane left late.
I arrived in Quito and had to wait a couple of hours. I then quickly made it to Cuenca, when a 6.1 earthquake occurred upon my arrival (no smart remarks!). Whatever could happen next? Fortunately, nothing. I got to my apartment and settled in. I then discovered I had two bruises on my right hand from constantly having manhandled my backpack.
Why am I telling you all of this? Probably to relieve my own frustrations with travel. I had waited two weeks for the strikes in Ecuador to come to an end, only to then have to endure strikes in Panamá. Traveler beware. Never travel during strikes. I recommend flying with only carry-ons, but not when those carry-ons contain your whole life. Luggage or shipping would be better in that case.
As a traveler then, how am I going to travel the next time I make a major move? I’ll have to let you know what I decide. In the meantime, I will start to write about Ecuador, with the sights and learnings that I am encountering.
Fact: Only 19% of travelers carry on their luggage
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Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon – er, plane. I’m off to the world’s third highest capitol city – Quito, Ecuador – at 9,350 feet. From there, I drop down to Cuenca, Ecuador at 8,400 feet. The big news is I bought a one-way ticket. Yes, I have left Panamá to spend the next two years in Ecuador.
Panamá gave me the joy of traveling, of experiencing a new culture, and a permanent visa with e-cedula (permanent residence card). I will miss all the wonderful friends I made in Boquete. However, I can see them when I return every two years to keep my permanent visa active.
Why two years in Ecuador? Besides the acquisition of a permanent visa, I want to further exercise my goal to travel slowly. Slow is a concept originating with food – the desire for better food cooked well. It has extended to all facets of life, advocating slowing down and experiencing a simpler life. This idea began with Carlo Petrini in Rome when he protested the opening of a new McDonald’s fast food restaurant. The year was 1986. From that protest, the slow movement grew fast.
In the book, In Praise of Slow, Carl Honoré describes the movement as a philosophy which
is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.
Slow travel is not about traveling from one place to another but immersing into an understanding of a place. How long should this take? There is no answer to the question. Some say a week, others say a month or more. I say six months or more. The real joy of traveling is to have no agenda but to stop and smell the roses. This is my aim for Ecuador. I hope you’ll come along for my slow experiences.
I will begin my stay in Cuenca, the most European city in South America. It has also been called the “Athens of Ecuador,” implying Cuenca is famous for its architecture – churches, cathedrals, cloisters, and homes – and its literary and artistic novelists, poets, and writers. I’m excited to find out for myself why these attributes have been assigned to Cuenca, and you can feel certain I will be sharing these with you.
Fact: Lhasa, Tibet is the highest capital city in the world at 11,995’
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At the western edge of Panamá lies Chiriqui Province, the second-most developed province in Panamá (after Panamá City’s province). Its diversity means there is something for everyone. There are miles of deserted pristine beaches along the Pacific Ocean, scenic mountain regions with numerous hiking trails and waterfalls, and Panama’s only volcano Volcan Baru (dormant). This volcano is the highest point in Panamá, and from its peak of 11,398 feet, both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans are visible.
These pristine, often deserted beaches, allow not just sunning but big-game fishing, diving, snorkeling, and bird watching. Among Central America’s densest mangrove forests is the National Marine Park, home to 25 islands and 19 coral reefs. Las Lajas and Boca Chica are two of the best seaside beaches. Further out in the Pacific are Boca Brava and Playa la Barqueta which will feel like your own private beach.
This Province is also a mecca for the adventuresome hikers and rock climbers, as well as the waterfall sightseers. These upper elevations bring cooler temperatures with lush rain forests and coffee farms. Flower growing is big business here in Chiriqui, also. These activities center around the small towns of Boquete and Volcan. Both of these have drawn international visitors and retirees.
Chiriqui Province is the bread basket of Panamá. Fruit and vegetable farms dot the landscape. Boquete is the center for Panamá’s award-winning coffee, while Volcan and Cerro Punta are known for their prolific crop farms. The cattle industry is also not to be overlooked.
There is always something to do in Chiriqui Province, from major shopping in its capitol city David (da-VEED) to quiet contemplation in the forests. Boquete has become a major location for about 5000 international expats, making English the second predominant language. Still, the province is Panamanian, with local festivals throughout the year. The colors of Chiriqui Province shine in its natural surroundings and in its people.
Fact: At least some English is spoken in many of Panamá’s larger towns
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