I am putting a thread here as an invitation for you to describe your observations in your travels through Ecuador at this time. If you don´t want to share them in public, you can reply to the e-mail that I will send you in about 1 minute. By now most of us are used to your bluntness, so I don´t think anyone will get offended by your observations. A lot of your blunt posts crack me up.
So you are in Cuenca now? I saw lovely Christmas lights hanging over the streets of Cuenca at night in 2007.
Since you and your wife speak Spanish, you´ll have a different experience than that of many other foreigners.