Considering an Expat Year? Consider Cuenca or San Miguel de Allende
Enjoying coffee at wireless cafe in Cuenca, Ecuador
I'm riding a bike through a Latin American colonial city’s smoothly-paved streets, heading toward a park where locals are practicing Tai Chi on lush-green grass. Snow-peaked mountains appear before me as their veils of mist vanish ghost-like into the sky. The air is fresh, mysteriously missing that Latin American aroma of diesel fumes. But maybe that’s because last night’s rain cleansed the air—the rain I didn’t hear because no midnight fireworks woke me up. Where am I? I’ll get to that. All I can say now is…
I’m so not in Mexico.
Specifically, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I lived for nine months over the previous two winters. Set a mile high in the arid mountains of central Mexico, the city of San Miguel de Allende is to Mexico what Boulder, Colorado is to the U.S. Or what Victoria, B.C. is to Canada. With maybe a bit of New Orleans thrown in for extra fun. The colonial city of 80,000 contains a mix of Mexicans and foreigners (10% of its residents are expats from Canada, the US and Europe). Not only is San Miguel shrieking with colour and light, a photographer’s dream, it’s also lively, dynamic and full of eccentric artists and writers. Just my style of town. Sure, a few things about it perhaps aren’t ideal, such as the fireworks that explode over your rooftop at least once a week, set off not by delinquent brats, but by the church—the church! Also not ideal are the noxious car fumes emitting from the congestion of vehicles in the otherwise lovely Centro, fumes that can get, you know, a little lung cancerous. Oh, and you could never ride a bike through the town’s narrow potholed cobblestone busy streets without ending up as road kill.
But other than that, San Miguel is hard not to love. This city that once enticed Frida and Diego, the muralists Siqueiros and Orozco, portrait photographers and Beats, continues to lure writers, artists, and musicians. And this town likes to party. It’s full of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and cafes, and along with all of Mexico’s regular holidays, San Miguel celebrates at least 50 fiestas a year. Expats sit in the town square (known as the Jardin) drinking espresso and reading the local English newspaper, the Atencion, to discover the daily offering of events: films, lectures, concerts, art openings, plays, classes in photography, sculpture, dance, meditation, zumba, yoga and belly dance. The town also hosts the popular San Miguel International Writers’ Conference, this year headlined by Margaret Atwood.
But what about that other colonial town where I’m riding a bike, where it’s lushly-green, rainy and fresh? The city without the fireworks blasting into your dreams and the snowy mountains in view? Those mountains are the Andes and I’m riding a bike through the city of Cuenca, Ecuador.
Larger and even higher in elevation than San Miguel, with a population of 420,000, Cuenca somehow feels like a small town, an utterly entrancing place. At the heart of the city stands a magnificent cathedral, a monumental edifice that was completed in 1947 after 80 years of construction. Its massive walls of pinkish red Cuenca marble overlook a bustling central square of trees, fountains, and people.
The streets are a joy, filled with tiny shops selling traditional clothing, baked goods and coffee. Straw hats abound, and for good reason. Cuenca, not Panama, is the home of the world famous Panama hat.
Rivalling Quito in old colonial architecture and historic significance—there are pre-Incan ruins here which local kids actually climb on—Cuenca is, not surprisingly, slowly becoming another escape for expats. Wireless internet cafes are springing up in the town centre, along with fusion restaurants, bookstores and language schools.
According to retire-in-ecuador.com, it’s possible to live in Cuenca for $660 a month. Rentals and housing prices are certainly cheaper than in San Miguel (although housing prices in San Miguel have dropped significantly in the past two years). Cuenca doesn’t have anywhere near the population of expats San Miguel has, nor does it have its accompanying amenities, such as San Miguel’s gorgeous indoor-outdoor English-language library and Waldorf school. Nonetheless, Cuenca feels like it’s on the edge of something big, how San Miguel must have 25 years ago. If you like the idea of escaping to a place barely discovered, where you yourself might have to put in the work to make it more liveable to suit your needs, consider Cuenca. If you’d rather many services and fellow expats were already there, which can be a turnoff for some, San Miguel might be your wiser move.
Either way, there’s another life out there waiting for you should you choose to find it.
~Laurie Gough
I’m so not in Mexico.
Specifically, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I lived for nine months over the previous two winters. Set a mile high in the arid mountains of central Mexico, the city of San Miguel de Allende is to Mexico what Boulder, Colorado is to the U.S. Or what Victoria, B.C. is to Canada. With maybe a bit of New Orleans thrown in for extra fun. The colonial city of 80,000 contains a mix of Mexicans and foreigners (10% of its residents are expats from Canada, the US and Europe). Not only is San Miguel shrieking with colour and light, a photographer’s dream, it’s also lively, dynamic and full of eccentric artists and writers. Just my style of town. Sure, a few things about it perhaps aren’t ideal, such as the fireworks that explode over your rooftop at least once a week, set off not by delinquent brats, but by the church—the church! Also not ideal are the noxious car fumes emitting from the congestion of vehicles in the otherwise lovely Centro, fumes that can get, you know, a little lung cancerous. Oh, and you could never ride a bike through the town’s narrow potholed cobblestone busy streets without ending up as road kill.
But other than that, San Miguel is hard not to love. This city that once enticed Frida and Diego, the muralists Siqueiros and Orozco, portrait photographers and Beats, continues to lure writers, artists, and musicians. And this town likes to party. It’s full of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and cafes, and along with all of Mexico’s regular holidays, San Miguel celebrates at least 50 fiestas a year. Expats sit in the town square (known as the Jardin) drinking espresso and reading the local English newspaper, the Atencion, to discover the daily offering of events: films, lectures, concerts, art openings, plays, classes in photography, sculpture, dance, meditation, zumba, yoga and belly dance. The town also hosts the popular San Miguel International Writers’ Conference, this year headlined by Margaret Atwood.
But what about that other colonial town where I’m riding a bike, where it’s lushly-green, rainy and fresh? The city without the fireworks blasting into your dreams and the snowy mountains in view? Those mountains are the Andes and I’m riding a bike through the city of Cuenca, Ecuador.
Larger and even higher in elevation than San Miguel, with a population of 420,000, Cuenca somehow feels like a small town, an utterly entrancing place. At the heart of the city stands a magnificent cathedral, a monumental edifice that was completed in 1947 after 80 years of construction. Its massive walls of pinkish red Cuenca marble overlook a bustling central square of trees, fountains, and people.
The streets are a joy, filled with tiny shops selling traditional clothing, baked goods and coffee. Straw hats abound, and for good reason. Cuenca, not Panama, is the home of the world famous Panama hat.
Rivalling Quito in old colonial architecture and historic significance—there are pre-Incan ruins here which local kids actually climb on—Cuenca is, not surprisingly, slowly becoming another escape for expats. Wireless internet cafes are springing up in the town centre, along with fusion restaurants, bookstores and language schools.
According to retire-in-ecuador.com, it’s possible to live in Cuenca for $660 a month. Rentals and housing prices are certainly cheaper than in San Miguel (although housing prices in San Miguel have dropped significantly in the past two years). Cuenca doesn’t have anywhere near the population of expats San Miguel has, nor does it have its accompanying amenities, such as San Miguel’s gorgeous indoor-outdoor English-language library and Waldorf school. Nonetheless, Cuenca feels like it’s on the edge of something big, how San Miguel must have 25 years ago. If you like the idea of escaping to a place barely discovered, where you yourself might have to put in the work to make it more liveable to suit your needs, consider Cuenca. If you’d rather many services and fellow expats were already there, which can be a turnoff for some, San Miguel might be your wiser move.
Either way, there’s another life out there waiting for you should you choose to find it.
~Laurie Gough