Cuenca Independence - Part II

Dear Family and Friends,

As I promised yesterday, this is the continuation of the Cuenca independence celebration. Yesterday we went to San Sebastian plaza to see the parade of the indigenous people who live in the surrounding mountainside villages.


Although the parade is very colorful, it is by far NOT the most popular parade during the independence celebration. Most of the local people were attending the military parade which was going on at the same time.

I, myself, had looked forward to this parade all week. This was the one event of the celebration I wanted to be sure to witness.

The costumes were very colorful and the participants were happy and dancing in the street.

Some of the attire seemed more authentic than others. For example these children seem to be wearing hand made clothing. You will also notice that they do not have shoes on. They walked the entire cobble stoned parade route (approx. 2 miles) barefoot. I am positive if they were used to wearing shoes every day they would not have been able to do this. I know I could not walk across the street barefoot today, but when I was a kid down south, I went all summer without shoes and my feet were tough.


There were not many people along the parade route. Most of the people in the plaza seemed to be relatives and friends of the parade participants. A peppering of tourists, like us, had chosen this parade over the military parade.

After the parade ended and people were milling around the plaza there were many photo opportunities.


Besides the parade, there were food vendors. Does this scene look familiar? This is a common sight in Cuenca. We see whole roasted pigs everyday.


Chuck and I enjoyed ourselves right along with the others. Fun and smiles were everywhere. We were so glad we went to this event.

Thank you for letting us share with you.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Cuenca Independence - Part I

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I have had a fabulous weekend. So fabulous that I will have to send two separate blogs to share the pictures.

One hundred and eighty seven years ago Cuenca gained its independence from Spain. The celebrations have been going on all over town. We had a hard time deciding which venues to attend. There were many artisan markets, parades, concerts (outdoor and indoor) and fireworks. The newspaper was full of activities to do. We had a hard time deciding on which ones to participate in as many activities were happening simultaneously.

On Thursday we went to several artisan markets. The picture below is one I took at a market. The police band was performing in the entertainment area. I found that children and dogs alike appreciated the music.
We bought tickets to a concert at the Banco Central auditorium. They had four hours of entertainment from Argentina and Mexico. We went with two friends we have met since being here. We met at our apartment and then took a taxi to the theater. The streets were so crowded with traffic that, although we left the apartment in plenty of time, we arrived just a few minutes before the performances began. Since we did not have reserve seats we were seated in the nosebleed section of the balcony. The first hour or so was Tango musicians and dancers. It was only after they were finished and the Mariachi bands from Mexico were performing that I even tried using my camera.

The featured artist for the evening was a singer from Mexico, Sandra Argudo. Her voice was spectacular. Toward the end of her performance she brought her son on stage to sing with her.


Friday morning, we got up and went to the Feria Libre market. This is the biggest market in the city of Cuenca. They were supposed to have entertainment, but we must have arrived before it began. There were many food vendors set up such as this lady below. All I can say about this picture is the folks at Country's Barbecue, down home in Georgia could take some tips from her.


We came home and I took a nap because I knew we had a big evening ahead. The main Plaza in the center of town was having a celebration that we did not want to miss. We arrived early and watched the people assemble the fireworks towers. The towers were made from bamboo cane and decorated with spinners, flags and colored paper.

They stacked the pieces together to make a huge tower. Actually there were four towers, one on each corner of the square.

During the construction of the firework towers there were at least four bands. The odd thing is that they were in different sections of the park and were all playing simultaneously. It was so different from anything we have ever experienced.

About 9:00pm the first tower began it's fireworks display. The fireworks started at the bottom of the tower and progressed up to the top with a fabulous waterfall display.

During all this, the parade of dancers came through the crowd. They were huge doll heads with a couple of people under them to hold them upright. My picture is not very clear since it was taken at night, but I hope you can get a sense of the crowd and excitement there.

The crowd was huge and we knew getting a taxi home would be impossible. I am sure the buses were also packed. So we walked home. On the way home (about a 30 minute walk) we passed three other outdoor entertainment venues.

My next blog will be about the parade we went to this morning.

We are almost partied out, but we are going to the Azteca Mexican restaurant tonight for a night of Boleros and Bohemia.

I will finish sending celebration pictures tomorrow.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Halloween

Dear Family and Friends,

Yesterday we waved good-by to our house guests, Jim and Robin. They are headed back home after spending 3 weeks in Ecuador. They spent one week in the Galapagos Islands and had a wonderful time.

It is hard to believe that we have been in Ecuador for almost one month. We have settled into our apartment and really feel at home. Chuck has our terraces full of beautiful plants. Today he brought home a lemon tree. It is going to be beautiful. I don't know what we will do with all the plants when we leave in April, but I do know we will have beautiful terraces until then.

I bought a small bag of candy today on the outside chance that we might have some children come and "trick or treat" us. It is a good thing I did because just a few minutes ago I answered the door and saw this great sight.....


Hope your Halloween night is as special as ours turned out to be.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Chuck's Birthday

Dear Family and Friends,

On Monday morning we waved good-by to our friends, Robin and Jim Morris, as they headed off for an adventure in the Galapagos Islands.

Chuck's birthday was on Monday so we celebrated it - just the two of us. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant. I gave Chuck a Spanish/English phrase book that I bought at a local bookstore that specializes in English books.

This has been a quiet week for us since all our guests are away. It has given me time to reflect. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe we are living in South America. The weather here is incredible. Not too hot and not too cold. The fact that we are high in the Andes counters the fact that we are so close to the equator. Houses in Cuenca do not have heating systems or air conditioning. The apartment we are renting, which is fairly new, does not have either. We either open the windows or shut them. That is all we need. A light breeze blows through our apartment most of the time.

It seems to rain some every day. Usually it is sunny or partly cloudy in the mornings and in the afternoon the clouds tend to build up over the Caja mountains and most days we get anywhere from a few drops of rain to a nice shower. The rains only last about an hour at most.

I am looking out the window at this moment and the sun is shinning and it is raining. Pretty awesome.

We decided not to buy or rent a car during our stay here. We live within walking distance of the city center. We tend to take the local buses or a taxi for transportation. I like riding the buses. The cost for me is 25 cents. The cost for Chuck is 12 cents since he is considered "old." I love watching the indigenous women get on the bus with their colorful dress and baskets full of vegetables, flowers or whatever they are taking to sell at the market. Since most people that look like Chuck or myself do not choose to ride the public bus, I know we provide as much entertainment for the regular riders as they do for us.

In this blog I am sharing a picture of the spires of Cuenca.



Our days are filled with wonder and excitement as we continue to make new friends and learn more about this wonderful corner of the world.

Our love,
Nancy and Chuck

Friends and Inca Pirca

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I have had a wonderful week with our guests. Ricardo and Vanessa Santos, from San Pablo, Brazil and Jim and Robin Morris from USA - Richland, WA.

Ricardo and Vanessa prepared several dinners typical of Brazil for us. We enjoyed a Caribbean inspired dish of black beans, many types of pork and rice. On another occasion Ricardo prepared a barbecue of Argentina beef. It was all so delicious.

Here is a picture of Vanessa in our kitchen. I am sure she knows her way around my kitchen better than me.



We went to Inca Pirca, ruins from an Inca city located north of Cuenca.

I sent pictures of this site last spring upon our return from Ecuador. A picture of Chuck and me, with the ruins in the background, from this trip.




Going to the ruins was one of the highlights of Vanessa's trip. This trip was very spiritual for all four of us. One special gift we had was a spectacular rainbow circling the sun. We had never seen anything like this before. I tried to photograph it, but my picture does not do it justice it all.



After Jim and Robin arrived, we all went out to a get acquainted dinner at a Cuenca restaurant.



Tonight we celebrated Vanessa's birthday. Our new friend and neighbor, Milena, went with us. She is the lovely lady in the bottom left of the picture. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Ecuador, wore Japanese "Hello Kitty" birthday hats, and sang Happy Birthday to Vanessa in Portuguese. We had much to eat and drink and a wonderful time was had by all. We will miss Vanessa and Ricardo as they leave tomorrow morning going back to Brazil.

Have a nice week.

Our love,
Nancy and Chuck