[Note: This post by Evelyn] I had my last watercolor lesson with Alberto Soriano, a world class Ecuadorian painter, today. It was an honor and privilege for me to learn from such a talented artist, and be so welcomed into his world. Alberto is quite passionate, warm, with a positive energy, that is absolutely inspiring. […]
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 […]
I Can Read Elven! (Plus Gualaceo Market)
We finally got into a local theater tonight to watch The Hobbit. If you are fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as we are, then you will love this movie. We saw the 2D version, largely because it was in English with Spanish subtitles, while the 3D version was purely Spanish. Our command […]
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 […]
800 Floats! 60,000 Participants! What a Parade!!
As the the parade wore on, most of the kids became bored or plain unhappy Today was Pase del Nino Viajero, or Parade of the Traveling Child. It is the largest celebration and parade of the year, taking place on Christmas Eve day each year. All the towns of Ecuador have such a parade, but […]
Procession of the Jesus Statue
This is the statue that is moved from church to church every four days Prior to arriving in Cuenca, we had read in various sources that there were 50, 52 and 55 Catholic churches here. Everyone seemed to have a different number. The actual number turns out to be 67, as evidenced by the official […]
Orchestra Sinfonica de Cuenca
The Cuenca Symphony put on a free Conciertos Navidenos (Christmas Concert) tonight, so we decided to go see them. We had passed the theater many times while walking in the past couple months, but never realized what it was. They were playing at the University theater, about 6 blocks from our apartment. The announcement said […]
We’re Still Here…
The Mayan calendar has expired, but we are still here. If only those that thought this would end the world would just go jump off a cliff, our national IQ could would experience a nice jump… We spent the Winter Solstice visiting Saraguro to photograph their solstice celebrations. We paid for a guide to take […]
Dancers in Motion
Last week I tried using hand-held long exposure photography for the first time. Tonight we visited The Jazz Society again at Nektar. On Thursday nights they have dancers in addition to the jazz music, and I was anxious to try this technique on dancers, where their motion can be captured. For a first attempt, I […]
