We went to a magic show tonight. This was a special event for a couple of reasons — perhaps the biggest being it was the first time I walked 3 blocks since breaking my ankle.

The theater is just off the Park Calerderon square in the center of town. There were two shows, and we got tickets for the first show at 6:00. We showed up at 5:30, and found ourselves maybe 15th in line standing in front of a closed door.  The doors didn’t open until 5:52 — just 8 minutes before the scheduled show start.  We then remembered the same thing happened when we went to the symphony here last year.  The time on the schedule seems more when doors open rather than when the show actually begins.  Since the shows are all open seating, getting there early got us 3rd row seats, so it was a benefit to get there early.

There were 5 magicians in the show, all Cuenca based.  All of the tricks were ones we have seen before, but they were mostly very well done.

The show opened with a magician and his assistant switching places within an instant between a tied up bag in a logged trunk and standing on top of the trunk raising — and then instantly lowering a curtain.  I’ve seen it before, but I am still pretty darned impressed, both with the trick itself and how well this magicial pulled it off less than 10 feet from me.

Tricks that followed included the standard range of levitation, card sleight-of-hand, kerchiefs that go on for miles and then burst into flame turning into flowers, newspaper torn to shreds and returned whole with a single shake of the wrist, etc.  The grand finale was with Mauri Mogoo, who did a series of tricks with doves, having them burst into flames, or turn into shards of ribbon, from which he plucked dove chicks, etc.  His tricks were pretty good, but I’m not sure I would have made him the headliner — a couple others, such as Daniel who opened with the box escape, seemed better showmen.

Only one of the magicians used any words in his show.  The announcer went on in Spanish that we couldn’t understand, but 4 of the magicians did their complete show in pantomine, which was an extra benefit for the language impared in the audience. (Actually, we appeared to be the only Gringos in the house.)

After we got back home, we heard BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Looked out our living room window and saw fireworks at Park Calderon. This was a fairly long display, so I grabbed my Sony RX-100 point-and-shoot, opened the window and grabbed a few shots, as seen above.

Last year we noted that we often heard fireworks, but almost never managed to see them.  That has changed this year — because of our location.  During the current Independence celebration, we hear fireworks almost every hour at night.  If we don’t see them in the living room window, we just shift to the office or bedroom window, which points West to Otorongo Plaza.  They are usually there.  Most of the displays only last a minute or so, meaning you get a quick look and they are over.  We do get to see them now though!