About Cuenca Expat

I'm a 27-year-old American who came to Ecuador in January 2024 after remote work stints in Mexico and Peru. By May 2025, I'd made it permanent — Cuenca is home.

My background is a weird mix: six years as a mortgage broker, a CS degree from WGU, and an IRS Enrolled Agent credential in progress (Part 1 passed January 2026). That combination led me to found EcuaPass after navigating the visa process firsthand, and FileAbroad for expat tax filing.

I built CuencaExpat.com because when I first arrived, I couldn't find a single English-language source that covered Cuenca daily. The Spanish papers are great — El Mercurio, El Tiempo, La Hora — but if you're new and your Spanish isn't there yet, you're flying blind on everything from water shutoffs to visa rule changes.

So I started reading the Spanish papers every morning and writing up the stories that matter most to the expat community. That's still what this site does, every day.

When I'm not writing, I'm usually eating encebollado at Feria Libre, exploring somewhere new in Ecuador (Vilcabamba, Loja, Tena, Puyo, Baños, Guayaquil, Quito — I've covered a lot of ground), or trying to convince other expats that the food here is seriously underrated.