Día de los Difuntos events and tours; Airport repairs and expansion plans considered again; Warmi Rural hosts more than 150 vendors; Bus routes modified

Bored? –
(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) Concurso de Pesebres Navideños (Christmas nativity scene contest) – The Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Núcleo del Azuay will accept entries for the 2nd Concurso de Pesebres Navideños until el 15/11/26. Entries can come from artists, families, educational institutions, collectives and adults; and they must be made by the contestant. The scenes should be between 1×1 to 2×2 meters in size, and can be registered in one of 2 categories: traditional, or recycled with reused materials. Send your application to www.cceazuay.gob.ec with a photo, a video and a description up to 150 words long. A 3-member jury will select 3 winners in each category. The first prize will be $125, a basket of crafts from the AYNI cooperative and a package of books from the CCE Azuay. 2nd prize will be the basket and books, and 3d prize will be the books. The winning scenes will be part of the “Herencia de la Natividad<: pesebres y memoria” show which will open in the Galaría Vitrina el 1/12 and close el 24/12. <So start collecting used toothpicks or chicken bones and see what you and your imagination can do.>

The Purple Tram Route October 30 will include theatrical activities telling the story of colada morada, Cuenca’s famous Día de los Difuntos drink. (El Mercurio)

(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) Muestra en Salón del Pueblo (Exhibition at the Salón del Pueblo) – Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Núcleo del Azuay will open the show, “Altares, Ofrendas y Tradiciones” el jueves, 29/10 a las 19:00 in the Salón del Pueblo. The show which marks 12 years of research and cultural creation, and rescues ancestral rituals associated with the Día de los Difuntos. It includes altars from diverse spiritualities and traditions in Ecuador and other countries to preserve memory, faith, and the connection to one’s ancestors. <If Mexican sugar skulls are on the table, just remember that they’re not there for you to eat.>

(De El Mercurio del miércoles, 21/10) Warmi Rural reunirá más de 150 feriantes (Warmi Rural will bring together more than 150 vendors) – The 3d Festival Warmi Rural 2026 will unite more than 150 vendors from rural parishes from el 23-15/10 in the plaza San Francisco. It will be a fair of entrepreneurs, gastronomy, crafters, ancestral medicine and artistic performances. El viernes 23/10 will be decicated to ancestral knowledge with ceremonies and music. On el sábado 24/10 there will be screen printing and live cooking demonstrations <maybe you can learn how to cook a cuy (guinea pig)>, and a Festival de las Floreras as well as a performance by Jaime Enrique Aymara. On el domingo 25, there will be a Festival de la Niñez Rural (Rural Children’s Festival) with children’s activities and music from Las Chicas Dulces (The Sweet Girls <As opposed to The Mean Girls?>)

Hungry? –
(De El Mercurio del miércoles, 21/10) Ruta Morada en Tranvía por Día de los Difuntos (Morada Tram Route for All Souls’ Day) – The first edition of the Ruta Morada del Tranvía will be el 30/10 to spread the tradition of colada morada and promote sales in the 5 markets of the city before the Día de los Difuntos. The program will start a las 10:00 at the El Arenal stop with the formal ceremony a las 12:00 in the Mercado 3 de Noviembre. During the ride, there will be dramatizations and performances about the origen of the drink, its relation with the celebration of All Souls’ Day, its ingredients and preparation. <If you decide to make it, it’s going to take at least 2 days, a lot of it spent chopping fruit, and fermenting blue corn flour.> This event includes points of sales for colada morada and guaguas de pan (bread babies) at the Centro Comercial 9 de Octubre, the Mercados 9 de Octubre, 3 de Noviembre, 10 de Agosto, and the Feria Libre.

(De El Mercurio del miércoles, 21/10) Carnes asadas (Grilled meats) – The San Joaquín Parish Junta announced the details of the 3d edition of the Festival de Carnes Asadas which will be el domingo, 25/10. The festival will have various cooks offering a variety of preparations based on grilled meat, one of the gastronomic characteristics of San Joaquín.

Curious? –
(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) Aeropuerto: reparación y plan para ampliación (Airport: repairs and expansion plans) – The collapse of a wall south of the Mariscal La Mar airport after el despegue (take off – your word for the day) of an aircraft on el 8/10 has put the airport infrastructure and its relation with urban growth in Cuenca under scrutiny. The Corporación Aeroportuaria de Cuenca (Corpac) attributed the collapse of the wall that was being built, to the force of the air generated by the jet aircraft. <The plane huffed and it puffed and it flew the wall down.> The bricks were strewn over the road, but no people or vehicles were affected. The wall construction had started the month before to replace another enclosure. CORPAC ordered 5-minute temporary closures of av. Nuñez de Bonilla during take offs through el martes.

Robert Murillo, ex-president of the Colegio de Arquitectos and advisor to the Cámara de Construcción de Cuenca, felt that the location of the airport should be analyzed from an urban planning perspective, looking beyond individual incidents. He identified 2 problems with the current location. The first is security given the proximity of the runway to streets and houses. The 2nd are the restrictions that aircraft approach cones impose on the height of buildings which limits density in certain sectors. The zones covered by the height limitations include El Ejido, av. Ordóñez Lasso, and sectors near av. España and Huayna Cápac. Murillo said the next step is to define a land reserve for a new airport. The 2022 land plan contemplated a major relocation to Tarqui, but technical conditions need to be specified, as well as financing and accessibility to develop the project and coordinating municipal responsibilities with those of the Government. The solution should be definite and not piecemeal.

(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) Las rutas y frecuencias de buses tienen modificación (Bus routes and schedules have been modified) – Changes in bus services were announced after the enabling of new routes and changes to existing routes. Service to the Patrón Santiago sector was started el 12/10 with a route starting at 5:50 to El Centro, and returning to the Patrón Santiago from calle Tomás Ordónez a las 19:15. Due to the sinkhole in the Camino a Turi and the closure of that road for 30 days, bus lines 11 & 11B will change by accessing Turi from av. 12 de octubre, proceeding to the intersection with the vía Turi-Tarqui and then continuing on the normal route. A special schedule has been enabled in the morning and night to facilitate the transport of students. This route goes thru the parish center of Turi and returns via the Virgen de la Nube sector.

Another change that started el lunes is the stop at the IESS Hospital for line 16 (Hospital del Río-Racar). The new stop is on av. 24 de Mayo at the intersection with calle Rayoloma. The Chiquintad Parish Junta announced that the Ochoa León-Tixán route will become permanent after completing a pilot program that determined its profitability. <I hope if you are affected by these changes, this all makes sense.>

(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) Bloque ecuatoriano de crudo, a manos chilenas (Ecuadorian oil block in Chilean hands) – The Chilean company, Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP) announced that its subsidiary, Enap Sipetrol S.A. acquired 100% of Pluspetrol Ecuador B.V., a company with an interest in block 10 in Pastaza Province for $207 million. ENAP is planning to increase its productive base and consolidate Ecuador as the main regional platform of the company. ENAP said that block 10 has an area of 1,986 sq. km., is in exploitation, and in the short term, production can be increased by 26% from a current 27,000 barrels per day to 34,000.

(De El Mercurio del martes, 20/10) El SNAI clasifica a 1,670 presos en cárcel de Turi (SNAI has classified 1,670 inmates at the Turi prison) – The Servicio Nacional de Atención Integral a Personas Adultas Privadas de la Libertad (SNAI – National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty) in coordination with the Policía Nacional, classified 1,670 prisoners by security level at the CPL Azuay N.° 1 in Cuenca. This is part of the first phase of a national plan started on el 16/10/26 which will classify 9,214 prisoners in 6 prisons in Cotopaxi, Azuay, Tungurahua and Chimborazo Provinces. The goal is to strengthen order and government control of the prisons, reduce the influence of organized gangs, and break up their power structures. The classification also seeks to improve administration of the prison population and generate more adequate conditions for the processes of rehabilitation and reinsertion into society. The prisoners will be put into 4 security levels: minimum, medium, maximum and special maximum <Think of Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. How would you like to have had him as a cell mate? You could have woken up one day without your liver.>
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