It’s a New Year – Let’s hope the world can make the most of it and recover! A year ago was the first New Year’s Eve in more than a decade that we did not even create a blog post, because we were all locked down in our homes, to avoid further overloading hospitals with […]
Cuenca – Pase del Niño Parade 2021
This year’s parade was like no other before it… and yet it was exactly the same. Read on to see why… In 1823, the Vicar of the Archdiocese of Cuenca took a doll of the baby Jesus to various Holy sites around the world. The pope blessed the doll when it went to Rome. This […]
Cuenca – Festival de Luces 2021
Every year, shortly after sunset on December 7, families gather in front of the Santo Domingo church, and light more than 5000 lanterns in honor of the Our Lady of the Rosary. This is the 88th anniversary of the coronation of the “Morencia Virgin of the Rosary” as the patron saint of Cuenca (our city) […]
Carnaval Cuenca 2020
When we first arrived in Cuenca in February 2012, we had high expectations for Carnaval. Instead, we found a sleepy town that was mostly shut down, as residents went to the coast or the mountains for the week. Festivities in Cuenca were limited to roaming kids with squirt guns or water balloons. The city has […]
Cuenca New Year’s Eve 2020
How can it be 2020 already? This was a date in the mist of the far off future. The one with flying cars, life expectancy extended to age 150, robots doing laundry, self-driving cars and permanent moon colonies. Yet here it is, and even more amazing, we’re alive to see it! It’s hard to imagine […]
Pase del Nińo Viajero 2019
Christmas Eve is always the biggest event of the year for Cuenca. The parade is called “Pase del Nińo Viajero” or “Passage of the Traveling Child.” This parade has been held every year since the late 19th century. The main guest of honor is a small sculpture of Jesus, that was made in 1823, then […]
Cuenca New Year’s Eve 2019
Saying goodbye to the old year with fire destroying the negative aspects of the prior year is a traditional way of celebrating New Year’s Eve in Ecuador. This New Year’s Eve appeared to be “the year of the jumpers.” There must have been a Zhumir (a locally made strong alcohol drink) or Pilsner contest, as […]
Cuenca: The Traveling Child
This was our 6th year following the annual Christmas parade in Cuenca, and we wanted to show the annual parade from a different perspective. This year, Burt captured the parade from his drone at 150 feet above the gazebo at Parque Calderón, as seen above. Many visitors lined up along calle Simón Bolívar both inside […]
Ecuador – Latacunga Mama Negra Festival
We have heard of the famous Mama Negra festival in Latacunga for years. This year Esteban Arevalo was setting up a trip to visit, so we jumped at the chance. As it turned out, we were the only two taking him up on the trip. Esteban took just the two of us as a result, […]
San Francisco Pride Parade
We were staying with friends in San Francisco in a houseboat near the AT&T park, and our niece told us that the LGBT Pride Parade was happening the same weekend. Though we lived most of our lives a short distance from San Francisco, we had never seen this parade before, which is one of the largest […]
