Disaster in Mexico, Theater festival, 10k night run, Music exchange fair, Killa Raymi moon festival

Miércoles, 20/9/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s (Wednesday) agenda events – <Seems like there’s fewer last minute announcments lately.>

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Charla – There will be a talk on “La transcendencia del pensamiento de Julio María Matovelle” mañana a las 19:00 in the Museo de las Conceptas. <I’m betting anyone interested in that talk is going to be able to translate it for herself, and those of you who can’t translate the title wouldn’t enjoy the talk anyway since it would be in Spanish.>

Artes escénicas – As part of the ongoing Festival Escenarios del Mundo, the organizers are planning a workshop on “Dinamografía” (Dynamagrophy (the measurement and recording of forces and pressure)) <Do you really think I knew what dynamagrophy was before I googled it?>. It will be taught by César Castaño. The workshop will be 6 hours with maximum of 20 students. Hours, costs, and dates to be determined, but the call is open for registrations. <How about trying the festival’s website?>

Feria de discos – There will be a music exchange fair on 30/9 from 10:00 at the “Rizoma Plataforma Disidente” (Pres. Córdova y Luis Cordero). Collectors can exchange and buy CDs, long plays, tapes, and vinyl with all genres of music.

Articles about –

Escenarios del Mundo – The Stages of the World Theater Festival opened Wednesday in the teatro Pumapungo with “Las Voladoras.” (Legendary flying women in northern Ecuador). The play is set in the 50s and the “Bocapelo” band will set the musical scene with various genres such as bolero, cumbia, and rock and roll from that era.

Libro – “Rostros Solares” (Solar Faces) was published posthumously by the widow of the author, Nelson Serrano. It will be launched mañana a las 19:00 in the Museo de la Ciudad.

Talleres – A workshop on microcuentos (micro-stories) started at 16:00, hoy, en La Komuna. There will be another mini-workshop mañana on bookbinding.

Cine – The Eurocine festival is coming to Cuenca and is a project of the diplomatic headquarters of the EU in Latin America, Europe and Asia to show contemporary films. 7 films will be shown with the first one mañana. All are a las 19:00 in the Auditorio de la Alianza Francesa. Here’s the schedule: mañana – Haus ohne dach (House without a roof <I’m skipping the intermediate Spanish translation>) from Germany; lunes, 25/9 – “El Sur” from Spain; martes, 26/9 – French Cancan; miércoles, 27/9 – “La ísla mínima” from Spain; jueves, 28/9 – Underdog – Svenskjavel from Sweden; and 29/9 – Truman from Spain.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Dolor en México (Pain in Mexico) – A 7.1 quake struck Mexico City. See any US news source for more details. <I can’t imagine it would be ignored. Even if the story is on the other side of the “wall.”>

Clarification – A city official clarified that the French consorcium ACTN has been selected by the mayor. The contract has not yet been awarded. The award and signing of the contract will follow a 5 day period for the administration to qualify the bid.

Reduce use of plastic bags – EMAC has an outline for an Ordinance that would eliminate the use of plastic bags <Now that’s going to make picking up dog poop real problematic.> similar to the one on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos. The manager of the Coral chain said EMAC’s proposal was a good thing for the environment and feasible. He gave Chile as an example where there is a small charge for the plastic bags which has encouraged people to bring reusable cloth bags. Coral produces 10,000 bags each month at each of the 10 locations in Cuenca.

Pres. Moreno – The president spoke at a High Level Dialogue on Climate Change. As a president who was born and grew up in la Amazonía, he proposed the Iniciativa Amazónica to protect the largest watershed in the world. He called on the developed world to contribute financially and technologically.

Shipments from overseas – There will be a new tariff on packages coming into Ecuador via internet purchases. A package weighing up to 2,000 gram will be charged a tariff of $3.51 including IVA starting 1/10/17. The recipient can track the package on-line and once the system alerts you that the package is in Ecuador, you should go to the post office and pay the $3.51 with a debit or credit card only. <Alert for you statistics junkies.> The Correos del Ecuador processed 276% more packages in the first half of 2017 than the same period in 2016. 69% of the packages come from China. Each month, the post office receives 273,600 pieces of mail.

Killa Raymi – The Fiesta de la Luna (Moon Festival) will be este jueves desde 8:00 hasta 13:00 at the plaza cívica 9 de Octubre. There will be 200 “agroproductores” (agricultural producers) from 16 organizations in the country. Objectives of the fair include promoting the planting of traditional seeds through the seed exchanges between farmers, and preserving the wide range of products with species unique to the country. <Ecuador’s a living Svalbard Global Seed Vault.> The farmers also get information on how to use natural methods with out pesticides or chemicals. The novelty at this fair will be the ecological maca producers from Nabón. Maca is one of the most complete foods. <Like ataco and quinoa – all from the Andes.>

Road restriction – Transit through Tahual will be restricted until viernes. The road will be closed from 9-12:00 and from 14-17:00. <Plan your shoe shopping accordingly.>

Smuggling – A “colombo-alemán” (Colombian?-German) citizen was sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of $22,000 for transporting wild animals. He had 73 live animals of 14 species including 3 in critical danger of extinction. A National Policeman noticed a vehicle carrying different animals and stopped him. The smuggler couldn’t provide any authorization documents. Included were a spider monkey, two each of tortoises, snakes, and dwarf caimans <Can he plead insanity – my name is Noah and the flood is coming?> There were also 14 giant earthworms, 20 centipedes, 15 cockroaches, a cricket and a tarantula. The animals were taken to a zoo for a veterinary evaluation and if healthy, will be released in the Yasuní National Park.

Deportes –

Ruta Nocturna 10K – The race will be el próximo 28 de octubre a las 19:00 leaving and returning to the parque El Paraíso using its traditional route. Register until 22/9 or until the slots for 5,000 runners are filled. Register in Mi Boletería at the Mall del Río and Fybeca on Bolívar. Cost: $10 for people over 15, $5 for younger than 15, disabled, and “adultos mayores” (seniors – your word for the day.) The route will be 10 de Agosto, Solano, 12 de Abril, Imbabura, puente Unidad Nacional, 3 de Noviembre, La Condomine, Calle Larga, Bajada de todos Santos, subida al Banco Central, Huayna Cápac and 12 de Abril. Runners will have 2 hours to complete the course.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne