IMPRESSIONS OF CUENCA

Every time I visit Cuenca I am again struck by the beauty of the colonial architecture and

the cultural references to the indigenous roots

and by what is going on in and around Parque Calderone, such as new horses or

 fancy dogs or

good music nearby.

And there is always the draw of the new cathedral, not just because it dominates the main square but also because of its sheer beauty.

All of these are things I think of when I remember Cuenca, but most of all it is the relationships, however fleeting, formed with people that make coming to Cuenca so memorable.

Jim, Rich and Chuck

I especially value buying art from the artist.  I have had many lovely conversations with artists in Cuenca - such as the lovely man from Saraguro who introduced himself as Santiago in the process of my buying alpaca gloves in the Casa de Mujeres market next to my all-time favorite vendor from Saraguro, Maria.  (To read more about her see my earlier blog http://www.ajstephens.blogspot.com/2010/01/in-search-of-ponchos.html).  Downstairs at the same market is an artist who does paintings (mostly copies of famous latin painters' styles, like Botero) as well as some small frame-able greeting cards of birds (made of feathers) or cholas (native women) made of cut paper.  I neglected to get his name but here is his photo.

I told him he looked very serious and he agreed - normally he is a smiling person.

Over on Calle Larga Jim and I were walking to the outdoor cafe Coffee Tree to have some coffee and dessert and we saw a door opened into a studio-courtyard.  The artist does paintings, jewelry and sculpture.  We observed him pounding the fine feather details into a copper hummingbird wing which would later be attached to the body.  After some conversation we learned that our artist was Julio Machado and his work is currently being displayed at a gallery in Union Square, San Francisco.  For more information about that click here:  http://www.hardinggallerysf.com/#home.  Julio willingly posed next to his huge painting of hummingbirds.

Other meetings and conversations, however small - say with a taxi driver or the waiter at a restaurant - are the very real connections that make us want to return again and again to Cuenca, Ecuador, and the wonderful people here.

Audrey

PAPA NOEL AND THE PARADE OF THE CHILDREN

Christmas Eve in Cuenca is a BIG DEAL and nearly everyone who isn't in the parade of the children turns out to watch it.  Several years ago we were walking along the parade route and more than one group of kids ran up to Jim yelling, "Papa Noel!"  This year he decided to capitalize on that and has been growing his beard long for the last 6 months as well as collecting toys and crayons at garage sales and such.  We came with one whole suitcase full of dolls and matchbox cars.  Here is Papa Noel ready to head out with his three bags of loot.

Actually, I guess we have been planning this for over a year since we bought the Santa Hawaiian shirt in the Caribbean during our cruise last year.

We decided to go to the staging area for the parade instead of getting into the mobs of people along the actual parade route.  We barely got a quarter of a block before the word was out and both of us were mobbed with children crying "me, me" with outstretched hands.

 

At one point my back was against a fence and a sea of children was pressing against me.  This was a little unnerving and I wasn't totally sorry when my bag of toys was empty.

This group was from the float right in front of us and some of the older girls tried to keep the crush of children at bay (unsuccessfully) but we were grateful anyway.  They eventually all wore angel wings on their "float" which was a flatbed semi draped in blankets.

 This parade is so big that the area where we were (which was by no means the very beginning of the staging) did not move for over two and a half hours AFTER the parade had started.  Then the floats moved about 30 feet.

What I love about this parade is it's grassroots feel - participants are in costume or not, on floats made of cars or pickups decorated simply with a blanket or very elaborately with offerings, like this one with fruits, vegetables, cookies, candy and of course the pig.

Many, many people are just on foot or dancing their way through the parade.

Or, like these two cuties, on horseback.

The other thing I really love about this parade is that any costume seems to do.  There were plenty of Santas, boys, girls and dogs;

Josephs or generic shepherds

 traditional costumes;

 angels, of course;

 and Amazonians.

I also loved all the smiles we saw - not just the kids were enthusiastic about Papa Noel and the fun of the parade.

Before we had gone more than 1/2 block all of the hundreds of toys we brought were gone.  After that there were just many, many photo ops with Papa Noel. 

A grand time was had by all.

Feliz Navidad!
Audrey