We left the house today heading toward a major festival (see tomorrow’s post for details). As soon as we were on the street we heard music and started walking towards it. We had stumbled upon yet another small parade. We hit these by accident throughout the year. We have never been able to find a […]
Sleeping Is Not An Option
Boom!… Boom, Boom, Boom! That is the sound of bottle rockets going off starting around 6AM this morning and continuing several times an hour for the rest of the day. They are often followed by the sound of car alarms being triggered, so the noise continues long past the initial explosions. These rockets and fireworks […]
Dummy!
This effigy head is about 4 feet high, and will sit upon a huge dummy on New Year’s Eve Ecuador has an exciting way of celebrating New Year’s Eve, unlike anything seen in North America. (see here for last year’s report on it) Each family creates or buys an effigy, or dummy, for the celebration. […]
Massive Pase del Niños Viajero Parade
Niños Viajero statue is center of attention Every Christmas Eve, Cuenca puts on a massive parade that goes all day, from 8AM till around 6PM, and consists of some 60,000 participants (in a city of only 400,000 residents!). We first saw this last year, and you can read that post and see those photographs here. […]
Rockets, Dancing, Waffles and Birds
Before we get into today’s adventures, I thought I would give a quick rundown of the progress of my broken ankle. I have been free of any crutches or cane for three weeks now, and can walk unassisted. Progress the first couple weeks was so fast that I thought I would be walking fully normally […]
Happy 4th of July!
For the last few years, we have gone to the Richmond Crane Pavilion on July 3 for their “early July 4th” fireworks. Various music groups play for a couple hours, then the Oakland Symphony plays for an hour leading up to the fireworks, following with more music while the sky lights up. The area is […]
Don’t Rain On My Parade
or Halloween In January?? [Note: I haven’t posted for a few days because I have been sick with a bad head cold, and have been staying mostly indoor for the past couple days. This will probably be our last post before returning home Tuesday.] Today marks the end of Santos Inocentes, and includes the second […]
Looks Like a War Zone Out There!
New Year’s Eve in Ecuador in unique, and Cuenca celebrates it larger than any other Ecuadorian city. For the week leading up to NYE, people make elaborate or simple effigies. Some families manufacture them and sell them to those who don’t want to make their own. On NYE, they write notes about things they want […]
Yet Another Unexpected Parade
There are celebrations and parades all over Cuenca this time of year. The trick is finding out where and when they will be ahead of time. There have been many nights that we hear fireworks, step outside and see them glowing from one direction or another. The times and locations vary all over the map, […]
Two Parades, a Party, and a Deluge
Christmas Day was different here than back at home in Berkeley. We started with a parade we knew about (from our earlier trip to the Catholic Archdiocese). While taking a nap (ah… the life of Riley!), we heard a band and ran outside to find another parade going by our front door. Later, we attended […]