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For several days last week, Ecuador turned its concern from drought to flooding, as heavy rains in the Andes caused damage in areas north of Quito and near Cuenca. The rains are good news for the country’s power grid, as hydro-electric producing reservoirs filled to levels approaching normal. On New Year’s Day, the reservoir at...
Ecuador's initiative to protect the climate and the rainforest of Yasuni National Park by leaving its largest oil reserve in the ground will be supported by a new multi-donor trust fund to offset lost oil revenue, Ecuadorian and United Nations officials announced last week in Copenhagen. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi and Minister of Natural...
What’s the real story behind Ecuador’s electric power shortage? Will the rolling blackouts get worse before they get better? When will they end? Probably most important: Is this something we will have to live with for years to come? The answers paint a “bad news, good news” picture. First, it is important to understand the...
Combining Christian and pagan ritual, the sacred and the profane, and the bizarre and traditional, today’s Pase del Nino parade –the Passing of the Child– is one Cuenca’s most colorful annual traditions. Although the parade is held in many Latin American cities, organizers claim that Cuenca’s is the largest. As many as 35,000 will participate in...
The director of Cuenacaire, Rolando Arpi, says that Cuenca’s air quality has held steady in 2009 and has shown slight improvements in some areas despite an increase in the number of vehicles on the roads. Cuencaire, created in 2007 to measure air pollution, maintains two dozen monitoring stations throughout the city and in surrounding areas,...
By Penny Ripple Looking for a little elegance with a fabulous meal? Cuatro Rios, which opened in the fall in a beautifully restored colonial at 10-44 Padre Aguirre, half a block from Gran Colombia, is defintely worth checking out. You’ll enter through the main door and go up the stairs to the left. The ground floor,...
The World March for Peace and Nonviolence passes through Cuenca on Friday, Dec. 18, on its way to a conclusion in northern Argentina, Jan. 2, and local organizers are asking the community to join in. The march began in New Zealand Oct. 2, and has passed through more than 90 countries. It arrived in North America...
The government says it may not be able to deliver on its promise to end the rolling electric blackouts after today. In a short statement on Monday, Ecuador’s Electricity Minister Esteban Albornoz said that continuing drought conditions near the country’s largest hydro electric plant at Paute could extend the blackouts. “A month ago the rains...
A shaman blows a bull's horn on festival day and pivots to clouds of burning incense in a purification ceremony, all shot on video. The snapshot of native American life in Latacunga, opens "Nukanchik Yuyay," a twice-daily newscast in Quechua, the language spoken by millions of people across the Andes and enjoying a revival as...
Cuenca recorded its highest temperature in 30 years Thursday, when the thermometer hit 27.5 Celsius or 81 Fahrenheit. The city’s all-time high temperature, 29.5 celsius or 85 Fahrenheit, was recorded in November 1979. Marcelo Narvaez of the meteorology station at Cuenca’s Mariscal La Mar airport said that although yesterday’s temperature was extreme, this is the most...
Torrential rain has washed away the blood where the family fell under a hail of wooden spears. But memories of what happened this summer are still fresh in the minds of those who live and work here. At first the security guard inside the perimeter fence of the oil drilling station is nervous and...
Cuenca is revising rules to protect historic buildings and will have a new comprehensive plan in place by summer 2010, according to officials. Mayor Paul Granda says that because of weak and poorly enforced ordinances, a number of buildings that should have been protected have been demolished in recent years. “The ordinances that maintain the...
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