In the Jazz Bars of Cuenca, It’s All About Sax
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With a pastor father who used music to inspire, an actress mother who was a stand-in for Joanne Woodward and sang in the theater, and a brother who founded folk-punk favorite Violent Femmes, Glenn Gano’s DNA has music running through it. “My brother and I loved to sit around and listen to my father play,” says Glenn. And now, after moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, Glenn has the time to reclaim his dormant talents.
B.J. McNally knew it was time for big changes in her life when John, her husband of 48 years, nearly fell face-first into a plate of food after they had gone hiking in a state park in Wisconsin. That was the day they both knew John had to stop working 13-hour days at his hospital facilities management job and concentrate on his health. “He was working himself to death,” B.J. says. It was time to retire.
With a pastor father who used music to inspire, an actress mother who was a stand-in for Joanne Woodward and sang in the theater, and a brother who founded folk-punk favorite Violent Femmes, Glenn Gano’s DNA has music running through it. “My brother and I loved to sit around and listen to my father play,” says Glenn. And now, after moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, Glenn has the time to reclaim his dormant talents...
Before you shout “No, it’s Everest”, let me explain a little geology here so you can impress at dinner parties.
Laura and I are in our early 60s, and we are neither athletes nor daredevils. But we used to be. We come from an era where parents pushed you out the door at dawn and shouted, “don’t come back till dark.”
I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, where seniors flock to retire because they can lounge in the warm weather, drink pina coladas under the shade of palm trees, and not have to pay state income taxes. So why would I leave my seaside home by one of the best beaches in the U.S.? Well, Florida’s not so cheap anymore…and it’s hot.
There are two Cuencas in the world, one in Spain and one in Ecuador. Cuenca, Ecuador, shares a lot with its Spanish cultural twin, including art, food, architecture, and religion. Even the fresh trout from the rivers that run through the city, and the affinity for fiestas remind me of Cuenca’s Spanish ties right down to the Picasso-influenced murals that line the streets.
Franny Hogg and her husband Robert Lochow found their dream home just a few months after coming to Cuenca, Ecuador in 2012…the only problem was…it belonged to someone else.
Since moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, in 2013, Louis Bourgeois, 63, has proved you can change your life when you embrace the Ecuadorian lifestyle. Louis’s spiritual philosophy toward life led him to settle in Ecuador. But he’s also found it to be a place where he can successfully— and happily—live on an extremely small budget: his $500-a-month Social Security pension (expat couples in Cuenca typically spend around $1,700).