Corpus Christi kicks off with ‘Festival of Lights’; Bus fares heading higher despite protests; Maintenance blackouts are planned; New pet travel rules

Miércoles, 29/5/2024

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Semana del piano en Cuenca (Piano week in Cuenca) – The Conservatorio “José María Rodgríguez” will bring Cuenca Piano Week to different venues in the city until viernes, 31/5. There will be a concert with the students of María Eugenia Arias in the Casa de la Cultura (Pres. Córdova 7-89, 3d floor) el viernes, 31/5 a las 14:30.

Sábado cultural en Museo (Cultural Saturday at the Museum) – There will be a new cycle of conferences about history and cultures in Cuenca in the Museo de las Culturas Aborígnes el sábado, 1/6 a las 10:30. This conference will be about Corpus Cristi and reflect on how a Catholic celebration got converted into a unique procession of a grand variety of sweets and decorative crafts. Cost: $10.00. <If you’re curious about how this happened, you better speak Spanish. I don’t think 3 days is enough to learn enough to follow this conference.>

Thousands of Cuencanos will converge on the historic district Thursday night for the lighting of the Corpus Christi lanterns in Santo Domingo Plaza. The event kicks off the week-long celebration highlighted by nightly fireworks in Parque Calderon.

Amplia agenda para el Septenario (Extensive agenda for the Septenary) – The religious festival of Corpus Cristi or Septenario has a full agenda. The celebrations start el jueves a las 18:00 in the parque San Sebastián with the festival of lanterns. Later, a las 19:00 there will be procession through the downtown streets and then a mass a las 20:00 in the Catedral. From tomorrow (jueves) to next viernes, 7/6 from 18:30, there wil be a series of artistic events with burning the castillos in the Parque Calderón. Streets around the park will be pedestrianized for the safety of celebrants. El sábado, 1/6 a las 20:00, there will be a light show. Tomorrow, el sábado, and next miércoles, 5/6, from 10:00 there will be cooking classes on how to make the traditional sweets in spaces such as the Seminario San Luis, the Glorieta in parque Calderón, and the Plaza de las Flores.

Titular –

Rige rebaja en planillas de luz (Rebate on electricity bills in effect) – From today (miércoles) the Executive Decree 260 to reduce electricity rates for the month of abril by 50% will apply. This is to compensate citizens for the power outages they suffered during that month. Roberto Luque, ministro de Energía said that between today and tomorrow customers will see the discount reflected in their bills. This discount does not include taxes or additional fees such as contributions for the fire department or for garbage collection. The benefit is only for residential customers and not for the commercial or industrial sector. The discount only applies to electrical consumption even though the bills include public lighting and sales.

If your bill includes a subsidy such as for seniors, the discount will apply to the amount you actually pay and not to the amount billed before the subsidy. The discount will be a credit which you can apply to outstanding bills or to the current bill. <If your electrical service is in your landlord’s name, you’ll have to work it out with them as to who gets the discount. If you don’t have a common language, I’m guessing getting your facilitator involved might cost you as much as any subsidy you’d get. Unless you’re growing marijuana in your apartment and using a lot of grow lights.>

Cuenca –

El dilema por tarifas de bus (The bus fare dilemma) – The Frente Unitario de Trabajadores (FUT) said it was not in agreement with an eventual increase in bus fares given the economic situation. Edison Déleg, president of FUT in Auzay, pointed out that the cost of living is increasing with water rates, the canasta basica (basic basket of goods), and IVA all going up, all of which is hitting the pockets of workers and the people. The U. of Cuenca should be delivering a study this month on revising bus fares which takes into account operating costs, passenger demand, comparative analysis, and other data.

In septiembre, 2017, the Cantonal Council approved a fare increase from 25 to 31 cents. In exchange, the Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca which includes the 475 urban buses, had to comply wtih 30 conditions. Among these was a comprehensive renovation of the fleet, to put security and accessibility measures in place, and have 2 conductors in each bus. Other conditions included preferential seats, guaranteeing the transport of domestic animals <So you should be able to board with your chicken, goat, dog, cat or screaming 2 year old.>, have at least 4 trainings per year and make sure the drivers carry credentials, among others. <I hope other conditions include no drunk drivers.> In noviembre de 2021, the council approved resolution to raise the fare to 35 cents.

The current study tentatively provides for a fare increase to 45 cents. Diego Idrovo, president of the CTC said he hoped the study would recommend a fare that would guarantee economic balance as called for in the 2017 agreement. The CTC made great efforts to renew the fleet and provide safe, quality service. He said that year over year, the Salario Básico Unificado (SBU) has gone up as have prices for fuel and parts. Also in the 2017 study, the passenger demand estimated for 2018 was and average of 905 passengers per bus. But currently the demand is between 450 and 550 passengers, which reduces the income.

Nacional –

De El Mercurio del martes, 28/5 (3 articles):

Aeroméxico suspende vuelos a Eucador por baja demanda (Aeromexico suspends flights to Eucador due to low demand) – From el 1 de julio to el 31 de agosto, 2024, Aeroméxico will suspend its flights to and from Ecuador. The affected route is Quito-Cuidad de México-Quito. The airlines explained they took the decision due to lack of demand, part of which is due to the difficulties passengers have in getting a visa to Mexico after the closures of consulate offices in Ecuador. Affected passengers can ask for refunds or change their tickets for other dates or destinations.

Cortes programados entre jueves y viernes (Outages scheduled for Thursday and Friday) – The electrical outages originally scheduled for lunes will be between el 30 & 31/5. Your electric company <Centrosur for Cuenca> is in charge of telling their customers when the outages will be. <Google Centrosur cortes to look up when the power will be off in your sector. The spreadsheet is in Spanish, but if you know the street you live on and surrounding streets and landmarks, you’ll be fine. If you don’t know the street you live on, better book your ticket back to wherever you came from. When I looked, it hadn’t been updated since martes, 30 de abril.> The Ministerio de Energía, Robero Luque, said that it could be as little as 30 minutes, although the Empresa Eléctrica Quito is anticipating a shutoff of up to 5 hours. He said this outage is not due to lack of energy but for programmed maintenance work. He also criticized the Corporación Nacional de Electricidad (CNEL) for not doing the work during the blackouts in abril.

Cambian los requisitos para llevar mascotas a los EE.UU. (Requirements for bringing pets into the U.S. are changing.) – People travelling to the US starting el 1/8 need to comply with new requirements to bring their pets, primarily dogs. The CDC made the decision to prevent the introduction of rabies which was eradicated in 2007 in the US. All dogs entering North America need to appear healthy, be at least 6 months old to receive a rabies shot, and have a microchip.

They also need to have a “recibo de presentación” (presentation or submission receipt) online of the Formulario de Importación de Perros (Dog Importation Form) from the CDC. The implanted microchip will let inspectors know if the dog has been vaccinated against rabies. In 2015, the CDC detected 4 dogs with rabies that entered the US from outside the country. Authorities are complying with exhaustive controls <Which means that you will be exhausted by the time you and Fluffmeister get out of the airport.> at airports to avoid “inconveniences” <So an outbreak of rabies is an inconvenience?> in the future.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper (please don’t ask her for them). If information is incorrect, it is the responsibility of El Mercurio. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.