We celebrated our sixth New Year’s Eve in Ecuador, all but one of which has been in Cuenca (in 2015, we checked out Salinas). It seems that every year in Cuenca, the event has gotten smaller, and tamer. In 2012, there were half a dozen large staged exhibits in el centro, while this year we only saw […]
2017 Cuenca Pase del Niño Parade
This was our sixth viewing of the annual Pase del Niño parade in Cuenca (see here for the report of our first viewing in 2012). The festivities start with a Catholic mass at Iglesia Carmen de la Asunción, built in 1730 and located at the Flower Market, usually around 8:30 AM, but things were running late this time. (The […]
Saraguro Celebration
We joined Esteban Arevalo today, with 20 others, for a visit to Saraguro and their Kapak Raymi (December solstice) festival celebration. Saraguro is a tiny town of only 9000 residents, about a two hour’s drive outside Cuenca, and known for their traditions. We were told we would be seeing a parade in Saraguro, and have […]
Cuenca Christmas Concert 2017
Many thanks to the Cuenca International Chorale, el Coro Infantíl from the Conservatorio “José Maria Rodriguez” of the city of Cuenca, and the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra for their Christmas concert at the old cathedral (Iglesia del Sagrario). “Conciertos Navideños” was the 4th annual concert presented by the Cuenca International Chorale, with songs in Spanish, English, German […]
Tulcán, Ecuador
After our anniversary celebration, we drove to Tulcán, the highest city in Ecuador at 2,980m. There are two famous tourist sites in this area, though one is actually about 10 km across the border into Colombia. To get to the iconic Las Lajas Sanctuary (a Catholic church and pilgrimage site, as shown above), we took […]
Mindo, Ecuador and 45 Years!
We have explored most of Ecuador in past trips, but have never been to either Mindo or Tulcán. Since we were flying through Quito on our way from Panama back to Cuenca, we decided to spent a week in this part of the country. We rented a (highly underpowered…) car at the airport, and took off […]
The Magic Flute – Opera in Cuenca
We attended an opera tonight, Mozart’s classic fairy tale (Spanish version), The Magic Flute, where Evelyn’s Spanish teacher’s daughter, Estefani Ortiz, performed both in the youth chorale and aerial dancing. This is only the second opera performed in Cuenca, and was easily on the same level as we’ve seen at the New York metropolitan with strong […]
Cuenca Drone #1
I haven’t posted any new images since returning from our 3-month Europe/Asia trip in June. Partly from medical issues that came up, partly from “blog overload” and partly because I have been experimenting with a new toy. Evelyn bought me a Phantom 4 Pro drone for my birthday this year. Due to the difficulty of […]
Gualaceo Carnaval 2017
Vendors were selling food, cans of foam, and hats (including umbrella hats) Carnaval has traditionally been celebrated in various towns outside of Cuenca, so we decided to check out the Sunday parade in Gualaceo, about 45 minutes away. The parade was much larger than Cuenca’s, with some elaborate floats, performances by dance groups. There were […]
Cuenca Carnaval – Orquídea Parade 2017
Orquídea Cuenca 2017 was dominated by dancing and foam (from Burt Johnson on Vimeo). During our first Cuenca Carnaval in 2012, the city was practically deserted. In those days, Carnaval in Cuenca consisted solely of roving kids with squirt guns and occasional buckets of water from balconies overhead in El Centro. More events have been […]
