Each morning, if we happen to wake around 5:30AM, we hear a cacophony of bird calls, and a lone rooster. Roll over and go back to sleep, and get up around 8:00, and it is completely quiet. We have been here for two weeks, and the only birds we have seen are a few pigeons […]
Banos de Cuena y Una Nuevo Impresora
Today was a day of exploration and struggling with Spanish. It ended with a meal at Evelyn’s favorite restaurant (Chez Johnson) and a slap-stick bootleg DVD watched on a laptop. We started the day with taking the metro Blue Bus for the first time. After finding the bus routes online, we discovered that #12 goes […]
Independence Day Without Fireworks!?
[NOTE: Late Addendum] It is now just after 1AM, and the fireworks have started! I can see them over the tops of the houses in 2 different directions. Nobody we talked to knew when or where, but we apparently gave up many hours too soon. They were all over in about 5 minutes, but they […]
Dia de los Muertos
Dia de los Muertos is now over. It occurs on the second day of the extended Independence Day celebrations. Police presence in the city has been dramatically increased, with the newspapers explaining that they want to be sure no outside criminals come into town to prey on festival goers. I have seen no indication of […]
Cuenca Independence Begins!
Cuenca’s Independence Day is November 3, which is the day the city declared independence from Spain in 1820 (Quito had declared in August and Guayaquil in October earlier that same year). This is such a major celebration here that it actually covers 4 days — from November 1 through November 4 each year. Today started […]