Restoration begins on Hermano Miguel escalinata; ‘Music for every taste’; Bauhaus design exhibition; Classic car rally Saturday; Cuenca photo contest

Wednesday, 19/6/2024

Hello, Everyone –

I will be taking a vacation next week from Monday, 24/6 and be back either Monday, 1/7 or Wednesday 3/7 depending on how long it takes me to recover from the vacation.

Activities-

From El Mercurio on Tuesday, 18/6 (4 articles):

Music for every taste in a week of concerts – The opening of the Fiesta de la Música will be on Thursday, 20/6 at 18:00 in the Plaza del Otorongo with Mugre Sur – Hip Hop (Quito), Agni – DJ Electrónica (Gualaceo), and Jorge Piedra – DJ Electrónica (Cuenca). On Friday, the festival moves to private venues in Cuenca, Turi, and Gualaceo; and on Saturday, it will be in spaces such as the Plaza Otorongo, Mirador de Turi, and Puente Roto. The cumbia of “Los Ángeles Azules” and the house merengue of “Proyecto Uno” will come to Cuenca for a concert el 22/6 in the estadio “Alejandro Serrano Aguilar.” Tickets on sale at La Victoria, El Surtido, and San Isidro Bakery Coffee, or on line at Miticket.ec.

The Fiesta de la Música de Cuenca offers music for all tastes. (El Mercurio)

32 years of singer-songwriter Diego Zamora’s career – In addition to a commemoration of Inti Raymi, one of the most important of the year, the Teatro Pumapungo will welcome Diego Zamora on Friday, 21/6 at 20:00. The celebration is for baritone singer Zamora’s 32 year career. He has performed internationally and is the founder of the Primer Concurso Nacional de Canto Lírico “Ecuador Opera Competition.”

Photography contest “Lights, Camera, Cuenca” photo contest – The Fundación Turismo para Cuenca and Sony América Latina are launching the “Lights, Camera, Cuenca” photo contest. They are calling for professionals and amateurs to capture the essence of the city with their lenses. The theme is “Urbanism, Landscape and Architecture of Cuenca” with the goal of showing the city’s beauty and diversity, including the Parque Nacional Cajas. The participants should be Ecuadorians, adultos de edad (adults? and not necessarily seniors?), and residents of Cuenca. The photos should be submitted until 23/6 with a photographic camera (no celulars and no drones). Submit at https://acortar.link/FTMD23.

Classic Cars will have their Raid as a tribute to Cuenca – Next Saturday, 22/6, Cuenca will be the seat for a new certamen tuerca (nut event) <Is that like a gearhead event?>. It is a new edition of Raid (invitational) of Autos Clásicos Ciudad de Cuenca organized by Tedasa and supervised by the Asociación de Autos Clásicos del Austro (AACA). <I still miss my Healey 100-6 even though it spent more time with my mechanic than me.> Some of the cars will include Mecedes Benz <And I miss the 450SLC>, Porsche <I miss my little 924, too.>, Fiat <Don’t miss the 124 sport coupe at all except for the wind shield wiper speed control.>, Chevrolet, and VW.

The meeting place will be this Saturday at 9:00 outside of the Alejandro Serrano Aguilar stadium. Around 11:30 they will head to Paute taking the Vía Rápida Cuenca-Azogues. At 13:00 they will return to Cuenca and the Parque Abdón Calderón where they will be exhibited until 16:00. <If it’s anything like the Austin-Healey rides, we all prayed that our car wouldn’t be the one to break down. I lost the brakes after going to a Vintage Car race – barely made it home. The gears got a good workout and the final stop was with the hand brake. Please share your used/collector car stories – like a friend’s car with the iffy window crank that dropped the window in the middle of the soap cycle at the drive-thru car wash or another friend’s car where the floor by the passenger seat was rusted out so the passenger got drenched with a geyser everytime the car hit a puddle.>

Exhibit on impacts of German design, art and architecture – The exhibit, “Bauhaus Reverberated: Trans-Andean Modernities” will open on Friday, 21/6 at the Casa de los Arcos (Calle Condamine 12-21). The exhibit seeks to highlight the impact of the German Bauhaus school in the region in the areas of design, art, and architecture. The program is a collaboration between several educational and professional institutions. Regina Bittner, director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in Germany will come to Ecuador to explore the legacy of this school and the cultural exchange it provoked.

Holder-

Gasoline prices to rise 26 cents – See today’s (Wednesday) article in CHL for details.

Basin-

Vacation camps get ready for leisure time – There will be summer vacation activities for students whose school year will end on 6/24. Registrations for classes in folk and modern dance, plastic arts, singing, and circus for kids from 6 to 17 will open on 1/7 at the Casa de la Cultura. The workshops will take place from 8/7 to 8/8. The Museo de Arte Moderno is organizing free plastic arts and guitar workshops. Register from 1-6/7 from 9-16:00. The workshops will be held from Monday 8/7 to Friday 2/8 with different hours for different age groups. The Museo de las Conceptas has vacation camps from el 1-12/7 for children aged 14-17 with workshops in chocolaterie and making musical instruments. <Maybe if there’s enough demand, they’ll add a chocolate making workshop for seniors. Or just invite us old geezers to eat what the kids make.> For more info or to register, call 098 486 4352 or go to the museum on Calle Hermano Miguel y Juan Jaramillo. Cost: $60.00. <I bet there are plenty of you who could eat $60 worth of chocolate in 12 days without breaking a sweat.>

Por concluir rehabilitación en la Medio Ejido-Sayausí (Rehabilitation of the Medio Ejido-Sayausí road nearing completion) – Av. Enrique Arízaga, also known as the vía Medio Ejido-Sayausi, is 85% complete and should be finished by 11/7 which is when the 4 month construction term expires. Asphalt was placed on the last 300 meters of the 6.8 km. long right lane. Remaining work includes signage, a subdrain, recovery of affected curbs, and cleaning. Signage work will start next week. Neighbors are asking authorities to reorganize traffic at the intersection with av. De Las Américas to relieve the “cuello de botella” (bottleneck – your word for the day) which forms at rush hour

De El Mercurio del martes, 18/6 (1 article):

120 días para ‘transformar’ escalinata “Francisco Sojos” (120 days to ‘transform’ “Francisco Sojos” stairway) – The “Francisco Sojos” stairway will have a new image while conserving its patrimonial identity. The stairs were built between 1910 and 1920 to connect the Centro Histórico with the lower zone of the city. <So projects taking years and years to get built is nothing new for Cuenca.> It was widened from 1947 to 1950 to accomodate a larger number of people.

Over time, it deteriorated and the city has budgeted $426,000 for its restauration which has a 120-day construction period and should be finished at the end of octubre. Jaime Espinoza, coordinator of Municipal Infrastructure, said the restauration will include elements for inclusive mobility. There will be a stair lift capable of raising a wheelchair, railings for visually disabled people <which will also be welcomed by those of us unsteady on our feet>, and rails for those with bikes. The potable water collectors will be revised <potable water? or storm water?>, and a new LED lighting sytem ansurveillance camera will be installed.

The craftspeople who are located on the stairs have made some observations about the designs and have asked to be relocated to adequate spaces. The city will temporarily relocate the artisans and other vendors to the “Juana de Arco” stairway. The work is starting with marking the area to avoid pedestrian traffic. <Those steps are hard enough to negotiate without creeping over construction debris and equipment – especially power cords and water hoses.>

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne