Peter Dudar, a gringo expat actively involved with various Ecuadorean charitable causes, led the parade as one of the Three Kings The Christmas Eve el Pase del Niño (the passing of the child) parade is claimed by its organizers to be the largest in all of Latin America. This year, at least 100,000 people lined […]
Festival of Lights
Last night was the Festival of Lights (Festival de Luces) at Santo Domingo Plaza in Cuenca. This is an annual event, honoring Our Lady of the Rosary. However, in past years, we always heard about it after the event. This was the first year we learned about the event in time to attend. The schedule […]
CID 3 – Soap Box Derby & Markets
Cuenca Independence Day #3 The 2016 Cuenca Independence Day blog concludes with a look at the annual soap box derby. This race always starts on Calle Larga, just a little over a block from our apartment. The contestants race down this gently sloped road for 4 blocks, then down a steeper incline for 2 blocks, […]
CID 2 – Military Parade
Cuenca Independence Day #2 The Cuenca Day Independence celebrations continued this morning with a military parade. Apparently, the military parade only occurs every two years. Prior to this year, it was very difficult to discover what special events were going on, and catching them was mostly through serendipity, unless you read the newspapers or listened […]
CID 1 – A Parade and Magic Show
Cuenca Independence Day #1 The battle for the independence of Cuenca was held 196 years ago, on November 3, 1820. Though the battle only lasted one day, in typical Ecuadorian fashion, the celebration lasts three days each year. One of the first events of this year’s celebration was the Desfile Estudiantil, or Student’s Parade. Most […]
The Russian Circus is in Town
The Russian Circus (Circo de Rusia) is in town this week for the Cuenca Independence Day celebration. We went to the Sunday matinee show yesterday, and had a grand afternoon. There were no animals (other than a small dog masquerading as a lion), however there was cotton candy, candied apples, popcorn, hot dogs and chili […]
Cuenca Independence Schedule 2016
This is a a quickie post to help out those in the Cuenca area. This weekend launches the 196th anniversary of the independence of Cuenca, Ecuador, and whole slew of events over the next couple weeks. You can get an electronic version of the official schedule by clicking here. It can also be read online […]
Cuenca Art Walk 2016
Last Friday was the art reception at the Mayor’s Gallery that launched the Cuenca Art Walk 2016. This was followed by a self-guided art tour of 55 locations throughout the historic el centro district of Cuenca, all day Saturday and Sunday. Evelyn Johnson and fellow artist Garry Kaulitz exhibited at the Casa Artesanal, AKA Carolina […]
Manabi Earthquake Relief
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Ecuador on April 16, 2016. We were in Istanbul, Turkey at the time. The couple that was staying in our Cuenca, Ecuador apartment said they could feel it, though we were 180 miles from the epicenter. More than 650 people were killed in the quake. 200 schools and thousands of […]
Turkey 14 – A Dervish Delight
Today we watched a Whirling Dervish performance in Istanbul. The dervish were a Muslim sect that originated in Konya, but were outlawed by the first Turkish president, Mustafa Kemel Atatürk, in 1923. The whirling was part of a religious ceremony, in which the person was supposed to lose his ego to the wider universe. The […]
