Independence Day, Cuenca 2015

Today is officially Independence Day in Cuenca, Ecuador, though the celebration has gone on for four days already.  See our earlier post here and here for the start of the weekend.  We started the day by taking the bus to Parque Paraiso, the largest public park in Cuenca, and one that we hesitate to admit we have not visited in all our time here.  We had heard about a “parade of the giant mannequins,” but never saw any sign of such.  Instead, we saw the typical Cuenca park, filled with families having a good time and having fun together.  There was a kid’s racetrack, where they could peddle around the loop, or (more commonly) the younger ones were pushed by their parents.  There is also a lake with paddle-boats, but surprisingly, the boats were locked up today.

Of course, what is an Independence Day celebration without street food?  There were plenty of vendors for candied apples, papas fritas (freshly fried potato chips), watermelon, cuy (known as guinea pigs in the States), chickens, and our choice for the day — BBQ pork (they BBQ the entire pig, and you can choose which part of the remaining pig you want).

After leaving the park, we went to the Metallurgy street (“avenue of blacksmiths”) in Cuenca and wandered through their displays. To our surprise, we saw and fell in love with a bicycle converted into a plant stand and bought it for our apartment (upper left and lower right above).  A clever use of recycled materials (the theme of the exhibit) for $50.  How could we refuse?

As we carried our new bicycle planter treasure back, we were surprised there were no taxis to help us with the load.  We carried it a couple blocks, then noticed a hundred or more people lining the streets.  We asked one couple that came up with chairs to wait, and they said Correa (the president of Ecuador) was coming.  We knew he would be in town today, so apparently he was coming here. We sat and waited.

After about half an hour, police on motorcycles came racing down the streets, clearing it of pedestrians (cars had been blocked a long time earlier).  Shortly after that, kids on go-karts came racing down the street.  Seems we had stumbled upon an Independence Day Go Kart race!  I had seen one of these before, where they send off teams 3 or 4 at a time, and that was what we saw today.

After about half the kids had passed us, ten adult men dressed in drag came dancing down the street!  No signs or other indication of reason, but I am guessing they were Cuenca’s version of Gay Pride parade (lower left image above).  Most people ignored them, other than to glance and then look to the next karts.  As soon as they passed, the rest of the kids came by. One very young boy had trouble, and the drag queens joined in to give him a push to get him back in the race.

Such is another day in this paradise called Cuenca.  We never did see Correa though…

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