Holi is an ancient religious festival, also known as the festival of colors. It celebrates the start of spring, the end of winter, good over evil, thanks for a good harvest, and in 2018, starts the evening of March 1st, ending March 2nd, 2018 (though celebrations start a week earlier). This festival is celebrated throughout India […]
El Pase del Niño Migrante Parade Cuenca 2018
Yes, it’s another parade. There are three large parades at this time of year, before Carnaval. The first was the Passing of the Traveling Child held on Christmas Eve (el Pase del Niño Viajero). The second was the Day of the Innocent’s parade. The third is today’s Passing of the Migrant Child. Today was the ninth El […]
New Year’s Eve 2017, Cuenca, Ecuador
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 […]
Festival de artesanías de América 2017
November 3 is Cuenca Independence Day. Ecuadorians love to celebrate, and this 197th anniversary of independence from Spain was a chance for a 4-day holiday weekend. The city puts out a booklet listing scheduled events through the end of November that was 66 pages long, and copies ran out in the first 2 days. There is no […]
Fantasy Circus from Moscow
Every year during the Cuenca Independence Day celebrations, the Moscow Circus comes to town. The image above was on the screen during part of the performance. The first poster I saw in town had some other posters plastered over the top of it, and all I saw was the image of Elsa (from Frozen) and […]
Symphony in the Park
Ecuadorians love to celebrate and have parties. There is some festival going on in Cuenca pretty much every month. Whereas the US celebrates Independence one day per year on 4th of July, Cuenca makes a four day festival of its independence from Spain every year. This year is the 197th anniversary of that independence. There […]
Art Exhibition – Visions Beyond Frontiers
It seems that every time Evelyn has an art reception, it’s pouring rain. Some of the guests came in soaked, and we heard many others could not find taxis. Even with the inclement weather, more than a hundred braved the storm to attend the opening night, which was located at the Miguel C. lllescas Art […]
