One of the primary requirements we had for any retirement location was that it be “walkable.” In searching cities, we found that word had very different meanings in different places. Many US locations that we considered, talked about being “walkable neighborhoods,” when what they meant was “you can walk to a strip mall not too far away and get a Taco Bell lunch.” Not really what we had in mind…
When we visited Cuenca for three months last year, we were impressed by how close everything is. Within half an hour’s walk (from our apartment on the Tomebamba river), you could get almost anywhere in the central part of town, including dozens of good restaurants. We had decided on living in a roughly circular area maybe a kilometer in radius, from behind the University of Cuenca into the Southern half of El Centro. The condo we purchased is on that Southern end of El Centro, and we really hit the jackpot!
Berkeley, California (where we lived for the last 25 years) has an area known as the “gourmet ghetto.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourmet_Ghetto) This area is renown for the number of excellent eating establishments in a small area.
They are chump change when compared to Cuenca! There are six excellent restaurants on our one block! The photos above are each taken on our block (Luis Cordero) within 1/2 block of our front door. TripAdvisor says there are 24 such restaurants within 1/4 mile of our condo — and we know of at least four good places that are not even listed. Expand that search to include all of Cuenca, and TripAdvisor says there are 119 restaurants, most with excellent (4 star or higher) ratings.
We eat out every day for lunch, and have only repeated restaurants a few times — there are so many choices that it will be awhile before we have tried them all. It is entirely possible to get a good lunch here for $2 to $3 by choosing the ‘almuerzo’ (fixed lunch plate of each restaurant), though we frequently splurge and spend closer to $5 and buy various meals off the main menu.
Originally we had planned on eating out for dinner 3 nights per week, and cooking at home the other 4. Well, that pretty much went out the door once I could walk again (got off crutches). There are so many good choices so close that we eat out almost every night too. Dinner for the two of us, including a glass of wine for each of us, usually comes in right around $20.
There are also more restaurants starting to provide live jazz entertainment several nights per week. We have been to three such places so far, and there are others we will go to in future weeks. These all have the music free, as a draw to bring in dinner patrons. Sometimes they include a tip jar, and the band tells us that they live off those tips. In those cases, the suggested tip is usually about $3 per person.
Berkeley — eat your heart out! ☺