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Cuenca New Year’s Eve 2022

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 dying COVID patients. Then came the miracle of COVID vaccines, and hope arose that by the time we reached 2022, the pandemic would largely be behind us. Unfortunately, too many people chose to believe that a virus was somehow political. As a result, we are in many ways, in worse shape than a year ago with the surge in new infections around the world.

This was the smallest New Year’s Eve celebration we have seen in Cuenca since we started here in 2012. Because of the still rampant COVID virus, the first public celebration since 2019 did not have the neighborhoods competition with elaborate manigote (aka “effigy”) displays. The Ecuadorian Health Department outlawed public fireworks, manigote displays, burning of manigotes, parades, shutting down bars and basically any activity that resulted in large numbers of people congregating. After two years of such restrictions though, many people are eager to resume a semblance of their earlier lives, and gathered in smaller, mostly private groups to carry on traditions. The police were around, but opted to only keep the peace, and did not interfere.

A significant tradition in Ecuador is to make monigotes (effigies), which are generally paper mache or cloth bodies filled with sawdust (and sometimes with fire crackers), to be burned at midnight. A person traditionally writes a note stating things that he wants to eliminate from the past year, pins it to the dummy, and lights it on fire at midnight, thus burning away the bad parts or memories of the past year. In prior years, I have seen such notes that said smoking, or unemployment, or drinking, or similar sentiments that in North America would be called “New Year Resolutions.” Interestingly, of the monigotes that we saw burning this year, none had any notes that were visible.

The monigotes in Cuenca have always been rather crude. As can be seen above (upper-right and middle-right), the majority are not much more than stick cloth figures filled with sawdust. The buyer then chooses a paper mache mask of his favorite villain (bottom-right) to place on the neck before burning.

In 2015, we spent New Year’s Eve on the Ecuadorian coast, in Salinas. We discovered that the monigotes there are much more sophisticated. In wandering around town this year, we saw very few that were of the caliber that is more standard on the coast (upper-left Yoda, and middle-left COVID virus). Our friends Kris and Peter purchased their Covid monigote (middle-left) from the coast and burned it at midnight.

It has been tradition for people with some of the better designed monigotes to tie them to a car and drive around town. There was a parade of such cars briefly planned for this year, but the police nixed it just hours before it was to begin. As such, we only saw a few scattered through traffic around town this year, as seen above.

Sky lanterns (aka globos) are basically very light bags with a small platform for twigs and flammable materials in the bottom. People traditionally light these on New Year’s Eve. We have heard various explanations of the reasons, but mostly they are just fun and require cooperation of several people to get them airborne.They have been outlawed in Cuenca and most of the US for many years, because of the risk of their coming down, still with fire burning, on rooftops. Indeed, parts of two churches burned down in Cuenca in 2013 from these lanterns landing on the straw roofs.

Families still gather to light them though. Here are some photos of some children lighting one tonight. They tried for quite awhile, and when it finally took off, their faces lit up as much as the lantern itself.

Burning the monigotes at midnight is a long tradition in Ecuador. As stated in the opening of this blog post, it symbolizes burning away the bad things of the past year, so the New Year can start with a clean slate. There were elaborate displays of monigotes in many past years with political statements, as we saw here in 2018. Those displays were forbidden this year, because of COVID and the crowds that surround those displays. Families and businesses (lower-right) still gathered to burn their own problems away though throughout the city, and fireworks lit up the sky.

As with any fire, there will always be someone that gets impatient. Here was a neighbor of ours who could not get his monigote to ignite, so he poured alcohol on it… and nearly immolated himself! (right).

Along with the tradition of burning the effigies, is the tradition of jumping over the fire. It is believed that if you successfully jump over the fire three times, that you will have good luck in the coming year. Above you can see a sequence of photos showing one boy trying to improve his luck…

Note that every year, there are those who start the year off with a bit of bad luck, as they fall into the fire instead of clearing it. A couple years ago, we saw one expat slip and fall into the fire, and social media has videos of someone last night plowing headfirst into his fire. Also, the local hospitals report on occasional NYE firework enemas, as it is not unusual to find occasional fireworks explode just as a person jumps over it.

This was mostly a night for families to get out and celebrate the upcoming New Year. That includes some that dress up in drag and then go from car to car asking for $1 donation (upper-left). All in good fun, and most people dance along with them, and many cars gladly hand over $1 for the entertainment.

Here a few final random images from around town last night. Top-left is a vendor selling masks to go on the monigotes, while top-middle is a vendor selling personal fireworks. The two images on the far right were in the only elaborate block party we came across near Calle Larga, while the “Old Cathedral” had its tower lit in the lower-middle.

Police were on hand (middle), though they never interfered with anyone’s party. They were there just to keep the peace, and indeed, the entire evening was peaceful in a party atmosphere. And, of course, we should never forget the “Green Army” (lower-left) that keeps our streets spotless every day, even when others are taking a holiday.

You can only get part of the atmosphere by looking at the photos above. Here is a short 20 second clip showing friends and family dancing happily around a fire, just a few minutes after midnight.

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Cuenca Soup Kitchen Santa 2021

Cuenca Soup Kitchen is one of our favorite charities in Ecuador. We have written about them before in our blog, and encourage others to help their main mission of providing food, clothing, and other necessities to Ecuadorians and refugees in need. They are currently serving 175 families, but there are 300 more on the waiting list in this community. I would personally like to encourage you to help them out, either with a year-end donation, or better yet, a monthly donation to help them plan for their ongoing requirements.

This year they added a special Christmas (aka Angel Tree) program, which provides each of the 183 children of those 175 families with a Christmas gift from their wish list. There were stuffed animals, giraffes, skate boards, Barbie dolls, clothes and even a bed on the wish list. The families also received two full chickens, a dozen eggs, plus a basket of other food to help feed them through the holidays. One little girl was so excited with her gift that she tumbled down the steps, but the tears quickly turned to joy when she unwrapped her doll.

Evelyn and I also contributed a holiday portrait of each of the children. We attended both days of the primary event which distributed a food basket, chicken, eggs, lunch to the families and Christmas gifts to the children. We spent the last few days editing the images, and the final prints will be distributed to each parent the first week of January, 2022.

Above, you can see a small sampling of the children, as they posed for their Christmas portrait.

Cuenca Soup Kitchen in partnership with Hearts of Gold staff kept everything flowing smoothly on both days. Each family was given an appointment time, and the flow through the building was organized to keep people as separated as possible, as part of the COVID precautions. Masks were required for everyone, except when posing for photos, or when the staff was actively eating (during the scheduled breaks in families arriving).

This was a massive undertaking. There were 22 staff on hand for the first day, plus 23 for the second day of the event. In addition, behind the scenes were another 15 people baking treats for both clients and staff. The above images shows only a few of the people working to bring this entire event together. The lower-right shows the small studio that was assembled, to provide portraits of the children and yes, that is Burt behind the camera.

This couldn’t have happened without the donations from the community, or from the large number of tireless staff that worked the event. When there were brief breaks in the portrait sessions, a few of the staff also sat to have their portraits also taken.

This is the Thank-You video card created by Cuenca Soup Kitchen for all who helped.
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Cuenca – Bienal and Urban Street Art

Exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art, Sala Proceso, and Museum Remigio Crespo

The Biennial is an international art event held worldwide every two years. It is held in 50 cities, including Venice, Havana, Singapore, Prague, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Barcelona, plus others. Due to Covid, the 15th Bienal de Cuenca was postponed from 2020 and instead runs from December 10, 2021 through February 28, 2022. This year’s Biennial event is substantially scaled down, and has not been well promoted.

As a result, the exhibits in Cuenca have generally been quite small this year with the theme of nature and sustainability. The Spanish curator of the show, Blanca De la Torre, chose the participants for the current show, based upon his perception of the artists alignment with that theme.

There were many small films depicting a bleak environmental future, extinction, as well as art created from recycled materials. One display is a frozen book series (top-middle) created by an American artist, Basia Irland, located at the Museum of Modern Art, located at San Sebastian Plaza.

The bottom row of images are of ceramic pre-Colombian art, displayed at the Museo Remigio Crespo on Calle Larga. The artist and archaeologist, Pamela Cevallo, shows the pottery work of a village La Pila (Manabi), using techniques from 2500 years ago. The faces are painted (bottom-left and bottom-right) to help distinguish the copies from the authentic statues, since it is illegal to sell antiquities in Ecuador.

Exhibits at the Museo de Cuidad, located on Benigno Malo and Gran Colombia. The bottom-right image depicts water portraits in woven cotton textiles by artist Carolina Caycedo.

A map of the artists and display locations can be found by clicking here. We recommend reviewing the description of the the 34 artists, then using the map to route which of the 15 exhibits are of interest.

Fabiano Kueva from Ecuador won first place, Tania Candiani from Mexico received second place, and Christian Lucas from Spain was awarded third place.

Urban Street Art Workshop taught by well-known muralist, Topher Man and Suka held at IdiomArts on December 9th, 2021

Many people are not aware that urban art (which combines street art and graffiti) can be a highly developed skill, and a form of visual art “expression” in urban areas. When poorly done and without permission, they are often viewed as vandalism and destruction of public property. However, they can also be forms of art that entertain the public and become attractions that draw tourism, when done properly.

A month-long art exhibit was shown with works by Topher Man (top-left) and Suka (bottom-middle) at IdiomArt located at Presidente Cordova 1-77. IdiomArt is now directed by Sarah HB (Hanenbauer) (top-right), who has raised the bar for Creative Art Centers and has elevated the art scene in Cuenca.

Robert Bradley recently wrote an article for CuencaHighLife on the new leadership at IdiomArt.

The bottom-right painting by Suka was made from a stencil, shown bottom-left. As part of the workshop, Suka showed the class how to make stencils cut from plastic or X-ray film, that can be then be sprayed onto walls as part of graffiti art.

Suka presented a short history noting that urban art began in the Brooklyn Bushville area in the 1970s. Suka stated that to be successful, a street artist has to remain “detached” from their creations, as it is common that other graffiti artists will spray paint over their art.

Interestingly, we have seen murals in Valparaiso, Chili (part 1 and part 2), and Bogota, Colombia, where it would be blasphemous to tag or deface the works of revered street artist by the graffiti culture. In those cities, the only defacing tagging is done on walls with no murals.

Workshop class members(top), Topher Man (bottom-Left) demonstrating techniques, Evelyn with her cat stenciled sprayed onto wall (middle-bottom). Sarah HB, IdiomArt, will be using the resulting graffiti wall as a platform for their music stage.

In the afternoon, Topher Man discussed various brands of spray paint cans, ranging from the inexpensive $2 cans from Coral to higher quality $6 cans. Then Topher Man demonstrated how to make thin and thick lines using the many variations of spray paint nozzles from low pressure to high pressure to create gradations, signatures, and various line work. It was clear that muralists, such as Topher Man, are highly skilled artists.

Recent Street Art in Cuenca

When we walked around Cuenca, we saw that there have been many new murals created. Along Solano Avenue at the school (bottom-right), there is a complete wall section that is signed by a number of different artists. A new art neighborhood along Calle Mariscal Lamar across from La Guarida Restaurant shows the works (middle-left) of Eduardo Segovia, renown Ecuadorian ceramicist.

Evelyn and her Art Buddy, Janda Grove, can be found painting on the streets of Cuenca. Janda’s art is currently showing at Cafe Flores at Otorongo Plaza (top-middle) with other artists (bottom-left and bottom-middle). Bottom-right is Evelyn’s commissioned art piece.

During this pandemic period, many of the art galleries that we visited were mostly empty. We visited the Miguel Illescas Gallery, the Olmedo Quimbita Gallery, Arrebol Artespacio, plus several others that have quality art.

Claudio Alberto Soriano’s Art Reception at La Guarida Restaurant December 10, 2021

Alberto’s reception was well attended, but the attendees were there for the food and socializing at La Guarida Restaurant, rather than for the art. The guest gallery is tucked into a small secondary venue that is easily missed. The larger main gallery displayed the works of Eduardo Segovia, the renown ceramicist.

Lorena Duca Art Exhibit Reception,” el Pase del Niño Viajero”, at Museo at Museo Alfarero on Calle Mariscal Lamar y Convención del 45, held December 15, 2021

Lorena Duca’s reception was held at a cultural arts museum, Museo Alfarero, and quite well attended by art enthusiasts.

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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 doll was returned to Cuenca in 1961, where it was proclaimed that “The traveling Child has returned!” That was the first year that a parade was held in Cuenca on Christmas Eve, in celebration of the return of the Baby Jesus statue.

The parade has occurred every Christmas Eve since that year, with the exception of 2020, due to COVID. Even that year a celebration was held though, as the Archbishop flew in a helicopter over the city with the doll, blessing all the neighborhoods of Cuenca.

Our first experience with this parade was in 2012, when it was estimated that there were 800 floats and 60,000 participants! That number continues to grow every year, and was estimated to include 70,000 participants in 2019. This was easily the largest Christmas parade in all of South America.

This year’s Pase del Niño parade was mired in confusion from the start. In November, the government stated that the parade would proceed normally this year. Then, on December 19, just 5 days before the parade, the government changed their mind and said that the Cuenca parade was being cancelled, and could not proceed at all. The response by nearly everyone was shock and outrage. The official government position was that the Catholic Church had not applied for the necessary permits by December 14 (an arbitrary and after-the-fact date they came up with).

The parades in other cities, such as Gualaceo and Paute, were allowed to proceed normally, apparently for no reason other than their church officials had applied for their parade permits early enough. Those parades are normally much smaller than Cuenca. I have not read any official results from those parades, but I expect that many of the groups who had planned to march in the Cuenca parade went to those nearby cities instead.

On the very next day, the government changed its mind about Cuenca, and said the parade could continue, but only with motorized floats. No marching or dancing would be allowed. Further, all onlookers must maintain “social distancing” of 6 feet between people, and that people should watch from balconies, rather than on the street. That only brought the complaints from a deafening roar down to a shouting match.

At the last moment, the route also changed to start at San Sebastian Plaza and go along Calle Mariscal Lamar and finish at Parque Calderon. The entire parade was completed in 1 hour this year vs the 7 hours it has taken in past years.

After mass at the New Cathedral, the Traveling Child statue was placed onto a military transport (center), and the parade began at around 10:00 AM. A truck led the Niño Viajero sculpture, overflowing with journalists vying for position to document the procession (top-center, top-right, bottom-center) along Av. Simón Bolivar. A double decker bus, normally used for tourists around Cuenca, followed the statue, filled with various Cuenca dignitaries (bottom-left), including Cuenca’s mayor.

After four blocks with only those three vehicles, other motorized floats were permitted to join the procession at Calle Mariscal Sucre and Colonel Talbot, and this started to take on more of the flavor of an actual parade, albeit solely motorized.

As you will see below, the government rules were ignored by many groups, but the result was that this year the parade was vastly smaller than in all prior years that we have attended. The upside for us was that we were able to get much closer to the action than before, and did not have to fight the non-existent crowds.

As has been seen in prior years, many of the parade participants had their own Baby Jesus dolls that they carried in the parade. There were several people walking alongside the official military escort, while others were on the motorized floats.

Then the surprise followed. Just the day before, it had been declared that ONLY motorized floats would be allowed in the parade. Yet, after 23 floats has passed (compared to the 700 floats of prior years), a marching band joined the procession. I never heard any official announcement that participants would be allowed on foot, but the multiple marching bands, one of which was a military band (lower-left and center-right), indicates that word reached some people that the Ecuadorian government had changed the rules yet again at the last minute.

Sure enough, following the bands were groups of dancers, and others in traditional indigenous costumes. Just like any prior year, though with far fewer participants. Official estimates indicate there were approximately 1,500 people in the procession this year, vs the 70,000 estimated in 2019.

Those who did join the procession dressed in the same costumes with the same level of detail as in all the prior Christmas parades that we have seen.

Past years included hundreds of horses, most with small children riding with elaborate costumes. This year there were only three adults on horseback, including expat Peter Dudar (lower-right). Some of the children that you normally see riding on horseback were instead riding on decorated pickup trucks.

With over 50,000 people in the audience in past years, it was very difficult to get near the action on the street. The audience was extremely sparse this year with an estimated 15,000 viewers. Many sections of the short parade route were no more crowded than a normal shopping day. In fact, Evelyn was able to stand next to the Archbishop carrying the Niño Viajero doll and photograph as the glitter canon was shot.

Cuenca and Ecuadorian officials had told people they should watch the parade from balconies, to avoid crowds this year. Though there were a few people here and there watching from balconies, I estimate that 90% of the balconies along the route were totally empty of people (lower-right).

One of the unsung miracles of Cuenca is how clean it is. This is largely due to what I have taken to calling “The Cuenca Green Army.” This is a crew of people that start cleaning our streets every morning at 5AM. They also come out for every parade, following half a block behind the last parade participant. Within minutes of a parade passing, of any size, there is no litter, no horse excrement, no indication that it was anything other than a normal day in the city.

Here is a short video of some of the segments from the 2021 parade in Cuenca.

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Cuenca – Music and Theater 2021

Cuenca is filled with music and theater year round. With the pandemic, Azuay Community Theater (ACT) endeavored to remain active by creating a series of Radio Talk Shows. For this time of year, they chose to perform Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, adapted by Anthony E. Palermo. Directed by Paula Bailey, the show opens up with sound effects techniques used in the old radio shows before TV, and are quite authentic. The actors and actresses really got into character with their voices, which were amplified with reverbs to help set the tone and mood. The show was quite uplifting and got us into the Christmas spirit.

The cast included several friends we have known for years, including Cody Hamilton, Bob Fry, Ray Lewis, Linda Lewis and Martha Hooper.

This two minute video shows short segments of the play, to give a sense of the “radio show” with a live audience.

Another favorite venue is The Jazz Society of Ecuador, which used to be located a half a block from our apartment. It is now located in Gringolandia. The Jazz Society was founded and underwritten by Jim Gala, a jazz pianist and former owner of a jazz club in New York City. Its mission has been to present live jazz perfomances throughout Ecuador and the volunteer society includes musicians, music teachers, jazz enthusiasts and features different performers weekly, so we recommend getting reservations.

Tonight’s performance featured The Jim Gala Quartet, with Jim on piano, Francisco Lara Marrero on sax, Christian Torres on bass, Pedro Ortiz on drums with singer Mariangel Mundaray and the Jazz Devils. The restaurant was packed for this performance. It’s always an absolute joy watching Jim Gala on the piano–he’s an absolute musical phenomena.

Jazz Devils playing at the Jazz Society of Ecuador tonight.

Mariangel sings Come Rain or Come Shine with the Jazz Devils.

The Eleventh Guitar Festival (Festival de guitars EC) in Cuenca is an annual event, with a series of concerts most evenings, plus daily workshops and exhibitions of string instruments by the luthiers in the Azuay province. The guitar is a 230-year-old tradition in Cuenca, and the city is known for their high level of classical guitarists. One performance near the end of the Guitar Festival was Modo Avion Tango Dúo, starring Juliano Ponton on violin and Adrian Steinsleger on guitar.

This performance was held at the Abraham Lincoln Center, a US government facility two blocks from our apartment (upper-left). Masks and social distancing were mandated (bottom-right) at all concerts.

The Modo Avion Tango Dúo with Juliano Ponton and Adrian Steinsleger

There are also many street performers, including expat favorite, Luis Ullauri (left) singing Hallelujah, and Luis Alfredo, a singer from Venezuela. The performers are always moving around el Centro (the neighborhood where we live in Cuenca). The police have designated places approved on the South side of the new cathedral for street performers, which is not always desirable due to weather. You can also hear Luis Ullauri perform at La Yunta and Don Colon Restaurant weekly.

Luis Ullauri sings Hallelujah on the street, outside the New Cathedral.

Luis Alfredo, a singer from Venezuela, also performs on the streets of Cuenca.

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Cuenca – Festival de Luces 2021

The Festival of Lights kicks off the beginning of the Christmas Season in Cuenca, in Plazoleta de Santo Domingo, Cuenca, Ecuadpr

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) and Azuay (our province). At 6:30PM, families light candles or cigarette lighters, then proceed to light the lanterns on the ground. Families enjoy shooting photos of their children in the candlelight.

This event is sponsored by the Order of Preachers, of the Catholic Church, but is also intended to help bring tourism to Cuenca. The lanterns are all laid out in a pattern resembling the crown on the statue of the Virgin of the Rosary, seen upper-image as she is brought out of the church to preside over the evening’s activities.

Several of the neighboring buildings have already put out their Christmas decorations (Grinch, lower-right). As the sunset approaches (bottom-center), decorative lights start to play over the front of the church.

Pedro Palacios, the mayor of Cuenca and his wife were there to help with the ceremony (upper-left) and posed for photos with many members of their constituency . All events like this attract food vendors (lower-right), so there is always plenty to snack on while waiting. As always though, it is the families, often with young children that are the most entertaining to watch.

After all the candles had been lit, we walked home. The Santo Dominique church, where this event occurred, is in the old part of town, called “el Centro,” which is also the section we live in. This is a very walkable part of the city, and as we walked home, we again passed the iconic domes of the New Cathedral in the very center of Cuenca.

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Cuenca – Jazz Jam Session

Some consider Cuenca as the cultural capital of Ecuador, which is filled with art of all types. There are visual arts galleries, weavers, quality crafts, ceramics studios, and there are also a variety of music and theater venues available every week, all year long. You can hear blues, country, pop, classical, trova, jazz, traditional Latin American, Cuban, the symphony, choral groups, opera, and more.

Most recently, we attended a jazz jam session at the Azuay Community Theater, which was part of the Humboldt Jazz Festival, sponsored by a number of German institutions. They showcased in 4 cities in Ecuador, including Quito, Loja, Guayaquil and Cuenca. Some of you may know that there is a German consulate located in Cuenca.

The audience was invited to join playing with the faculty of Taller Encuentro de Músicos en el Jazz, based in Quito, which train aspiring jazz musicians throughout Ecuador. The faculty artists included Su Terry, clarinet and saxophone, Juanpa Naula, guitar, Giovanni Bermudez, bass and Fidel Vargas, percussion. Ecuador Encuentro is a contemporary music ensemble that fuses jazz with Ecuadorian rhythms. It was originally formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013 to unite Ecuadorian musicians who were living there.

The first 90 minutes was a series of jazz standards and improvisations by the four faculty members, seen above. After the faculty group completed their main show, they invited members from the audience, both instrumentalists and vocalists, to jam with them. The first was a friend of Su Terry’s, Steve Ellison, who sang “Just In Time,” as heard above.

He was followed by various other members of the audience who signed up to jam with the faculty quartet. They included Ali Apca from Turkey, Cindy Benson, Jan Wallace, Christian Tenorio, bass, Martin Navarro, guitar, Isaac Neira and Jaun Pablo Galan, drummers, and other skilled students from the jazz education program. Some came with their own amplified guitars, while others used the drums and equipment donated by Paco of Paco Blues.

Jan Wallace, one of our favorite local vocalists, wrapped up the show with several songs. Above, you can hear her with Su Terry and Martín on electric guitar, singing Days of Wine and Roses.

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Cuenca – Thanksgiving 2021

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends. We’re thankful we were able to get together with others this year. We had several Thanksgiving invitations, and had to choose. In the end, we decided to go to two dinners, based on timing. Yes, we were stuffed on Thanksgiving and wished we had “stretchy pants”!

Our first stop was a supporters’ dinner for Cuenca Soup Kitchen. This is a charity that provides food for the needy in Cuenca, year-round. They currently support 750 people, which as they say, is only a small part of the need of the community. They work closely with another, more broadly based charity in the Cuenca area, the Hearts of Gold (logo middle-right).

The directors are Des Dizney (lower-left) and her husband Bill (with her in upper-left and lower-right), and have been friends of ours for years. We strongly support this effort, and would love to see you help out also. Click here to go to their donation page. $25 per month will feed a family of four to those truly in need (all families are vetted before being accepted into the program). The large teddy bear was a donation for the upcoming angel tree for kids event. The kids make a wish for shoes, clothing, toys or whatever they really want for Christmas, and the goal is to make them happy.

There was food suitable for a Thanksgiving feast plus lots of left overs, including some of the best turkey we have tasted in a long time. After being filled on turkey with all the trimmings, everybody rolled back to the food table for dessert too (left)– at least 5 different types of pies plus cookies ! Kudos to Marjorie Grillo for making 2 types of pies and her husband Frank for making the yummy stuffing.

Tables were spread throughout the home used as offices for the Hearts of Gold Foundation, where friends gathered to tell stories and reconnect after long months of COVID separation.

We were joined by Brian Quigley (lower-right) who is the US Consul General and was the guest of honor. He joined us, along with his wife, Cynthia (lower-left) and their two children. Brian talked to almost everyone in the room, and often regaled us with his stories and humor (bottom-center). We learned that Carrie Underwood’s song Stretchy Pants has gone viral, as well as stories about his career in the foreign service.

There were too many other supporters there to name, but everyone seemed to have a good time… and pleasantly stuffed.

After leaving the Cuenca Soup Kitchen dinner, we headed over to the home of Rick and Linda Berke, where we have enjoyed many meals for the past several years. Rick was the Turkey Master (lower-left), while Lin was our chef for most of the rest of the meal (upper-right). Tom and Rose (upper-middle) also joined us. It was a great time for all vaccinated adults to get together for the first big meal since COVID shook up all our schedules.

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Cuenca – Return to Ecuador

After six months in our new paradise home of Hawaii, we returned to our second home in Cuenca. We were in for a series of surprises though…

  • As we arrived at the Honolulu airport, I realized that I had forgotten my glasses. Oops. I was nearly blind for the remainder of the trip to Cuenca, and am now wearing a 5 year-old scratched backup pair.
  • We arrived in Guayaquil, where our driver picked us up to take us home. Normally a 3 hour drive through the Cajas, but the constant heavy rains had washed out the road, so we had to take the long way around, adding an hour to the drive.
  • We chose to return in mid-November because the rains almost always end by mid-October and do not start up again until March. Not this year… Heavy rains every day for the past month, and thunderstorms forecast for every day for the next week. This is a la niña year.
  • Upon arriving at our apartment building in Cuenca, we came across the scene in the top image. The elevator was broken. The lower-left image shows what the 5 floors of stairs looks like. Scary when trying to carry four 50-pound suitcases! Fortunately, our driver is a strong young man and he agreed to carry everything to our front door (lower-right). An extra $20 thanked him for saving our backs… ☺ A week has lapsed, and the elevator is still down.
  • Once we got inside, I set up the computer systems, only to discover that there was no internet. After a couple hours of techie frustration, I gave up. I had a Spanish speaking techie friend call our ISP the next day. After some office tests, they determined that a transformer had blown due to the heavy rains and they said they would fix it the next morning. Surprisingly, they followed through and did fix it that morning…

There was even more, but let’s stop here rather than fill the entire blog with ruminations over the trials and tribulations of those first few days. I was wondering for awhile if Someone Above was telling me to return to our Hawaiian Paradise Right Away… ☺

Once we got things settled in our apartment, exploring Cuenca showed that our favorite memories have pretty much remained the same. Interestingly, Ecuador has the lowest COVID rate of any country in South America, and Cuenca has the lowest COVID rate of any Ecuadorian city, yet mask-wearing is at nearly 100%. Even outdoors. It is very rare to see anyone without a mask unless they are actively in the process of eating or drinking… or are a gringo tourist….

The mercados still have the same lush collection of fresh fruits and vegetables, available for a song. It is very easy — and inexpensive — to eat healthy here.

The Tranvia (red train in each image above) had a very troubled history in construction, and went online shortly before the pandemic caused universal lockdown in the city. Now that things are opening up, it is running regularly and pretty smoothly. Though it has a very limited route, it is a quiet, clean way to get through downtown. What is noticeable is that all of the facades along the Tranvia line have been cleaned up. As you walk along Calle Mariscal Lamar, there is a new “Arts District” forming with new museums and galleries. Evelyn saw a wonderful photographic exhibit by expat Jane Hiltbrand at the new Casa del Alfareros, that recently had a show of Eduardo Segovia’s ceramics.

People continue to enjoy the downtown area that we call el Centro (the historic district that we live in). Top-middle shows an altar still up from All Saints Day (November 1). Some tourists posed in the Cuenca sign in San Francisco Plaza, with the iconic domes of the New Cathedral in the background. You can tell they are gringo tourists by the fact that they are not wearing masks — the ONLY people we have seen all week who disregard health guidelines. The city is always kept clean by our “Green Army” (lower-right), who work around the clock picking up any and all litter.

Cuenca is a very artistic city. I have documented some of the hundreds of murals in town in the past in this blog. Here is a small sampling of new murals to add to the collection.

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Hawaii – Honolulu Museum of Art

The Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) has been called “the finest small museum in the United States” (J. Carter Brown). It was founded in 1922 and houses a museum, art school, art cafe, coffee bar and souvenir shop. The museum is the largest in the state and has the single largest collection of Asian and Pan-Pacific art in the United States, especially Japanese and Chinese pieces. The classical and contemporary collections include both two dimensional as well as three dimensional works of art.The museum also has a long standing tradition of promoting Hawaii-based artists and its culture.

The museum has a collection that includes Hokusai, van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Picasso, Mary Cassatt, Cezanne, Degas, John Singer Sargent, Hans Hofmann, Georgia O’Keeffe, Warhol and many more European and American artists.

Special for this Fall is an international quality exhibition showcasing the Artists of Hawaii Now. It features 18 artists including film makers, basket makers, photographers, visual artists, sculptors, and other artists. When you enter the first room of this exhibit, you step onto a large scale movie projected from above. As you step onto the moving projected watery surface, the guide tells you to hang on, as you feel so immersed into the scene that it’s easy to be swept away and feel sea sick. Some of the 13 original place-based installations are interactive, and the audience becomes part of the conversation exploring the past, present and future struggles of the world’s most urgent global issues. Several sculptures were made with found objects.

One intriguing installation were made from photographs of Hawaiian algae, Cyanotype Impressions by Gwen Arkin, an artist from Maui, printed onto hanging sheets of textile and paper. We had a chance to immerse ourselves with the art.

There is live music at the Art Cafe every Friday and Saturday evenings. After touring the galleries, we were treated to dinner and music at the open-air cafe located in the outdoor courtyard. As you look around, you can enjoy the colorful blown glass piece by Dale Chihuly, the burbling water feature, the 8′ tall ceramic “dumplings” by artist Jun Kaneko, and the shade from a 75-year old monkeypod tree.

Photo Galleries

At the top of this page is a menu that will take you to a variety of galleries showing our favorite images.
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