Newspaper Article on Expat Blogs

We are delighted to be featured in another article in the newspaper, along with our friends, the Watsons and the Bluefields.  The topic is our blogs:  Los jubilados son los cronistas en Cuenca

It's a follow-up article to the previous article on expats, here:
http://richandnancy.blogspot.com/2010/07/were-in-newspaper.html

Here is the link to today's article: 
http://www.revistalideres.ec/Generales/solo_texto.aspx?gn3articleID=24820
Our picture is on the link.

For those who don't read Spanish, you can read the Google translation to English here:

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Retirees are the chroniclers in Cuenca


In Spanish, the literal translation blog blog. Americans Chuck and Nancy Watson have limited knowledge of Spanish, however watsontravels.blogspot.com used their site that accurately. A log of his travels and his experience in Ecuador Cuenca, home since 2008.

In the past 30 months this retired couple has had 224 stories about the country. The site, which emerged as a mechanism to save the writing of e-mails to his family, has made some 58 933 visitors from 115 countries.

Nancy Watson admits that when he created the blog was indeed his intention to reach out to other readers. What was not expected was to become a sort of reference for other retirees, who were exploring the possibility of moving to Cuenca.

His blog was selected as one of the top 10 blogs on Ecuador in www.gooverseas.com and one of the top 25 blogs of the world upon retirement in www.onlinemba.com.

This is not an isolated case. Since last year, International Living magazine put Watershed as one of the best cities for retirement, these experiences grew.

There is no exact data on the number of retirees living in the capital Azuay. But a score of blogs linked together in the lists of recommended attest to a trend.

To Fernando Ortiz, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cuenca, this phenomenon is the logical consequence of a society that increasingly depends on new technologies. Web 2.0 tools, he says, can trace matches.

It also explains, in developed countries Internet access is more common in countries like Ecuador. "Therefore, although these bloggers are the elderly, are accustomed to using Internet technologies and tools."

Richard Hedges and Nancy Hamm live in Cuenca and have their lives in the city on his blog richandnancy.blogspot.com. There are specific information on housing, jobs, procedures, banks, health ...

Hamm think your blog is part of a network that provides all the information that other people seek. The majority of retirees from developed countries seeking a place to retire, but are also visited by tourists arriving in Cuenca for distraction.

Australian knows that Jenny Bluefields, who changed his native Brisbane in May 2008 Cuenca. His decision was based largely on what he could investigate blogs as referrals.

Already Basin opened a coffee shop called Kookaburra and relate their experiences through the blog kookaburra.typepad.com.

The presence of foreigners also encourages business initiatives. Perry and Michael Edwards Challender Central Basin founded to help foreigners to find accommodation in Cuenca.

They also use the web as a tool. They have a web site and created the community www.cuencacentral.com myecuadorspace.ning.com, which dispelled doubts about Cuenca. In addition, patterns in Facebook, real estate portals and sponsored links on Google.

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