Discover Cuenca’s Bajada del Padrón; Wildfire season keeps firefighters busy; Water service cut in El Valle; Centrosur installs ‘smart’ electric meters in Centro

Bored? –
(De El Mercurio del viernes, 31/7) Las mil historias del Padrón (The thousand stories of El Padrón) – For many Cuencanos, the Bajada del Padrón is just the continuation of calle Padre Aguirre, a 180-meter stretch that connects Calle Larga to the Bajada del Centenario. But a walk along will take you deeper into a space where history, traditions, and life stories intertwine. Murals that evoke traditions adorn houses, old crafts and respect for nature convert this corner of the Centro Histórico into an open air gallery where past and present live together every day.

Once employing 60% of Cuenca workers, the making of paja toquilla hats, sometimes called Panama hats, is today a parttime, artisanal craft practiced mostly by women who struggle to sell their products. (El Mercurio)

One of the houses is the workshop and gallery of Brunel Vázquez who keeps his father’s legacy alive by making artisanal iron crosses. <The ones that are installed on top of houses during their hausipichanas?> A few meters away is a recycling workshop. Anita Tapia, who is over 70, collects paper and plastic to support herself. She sorts what she collects next to the doorway of an old house and talks to passersby, sharing her experiences, and advising young people about the importance of effort, work and taking advantage of opportunities. Nearby is Nube Ortiz who sells dried fruit. In the 8 months she has been there, her clientele has grown. At night the atmosphere of the Bajada del Padrón changes when the bars and cafeterias open their doors to customers, especially foreigners who enjoy the music, food, and occasionally convert the cobblestones into a makeshift dance floor. The culinary offering is part of the experience with Lumanka which has an international kitchen.

Curious? –
(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) Turnos digitales en el hospital del IESS (Digital appointments at the IESS hospital) – Since the end of abril, the “José Carrasco Arteaga” IESS Hospital has set up 4 digital kiosks at the main entrance of the hospital to speed up service and reduce waiting times for its affiliates. At these kiosks, patients can get appointments, be admitted to the hospital, validate medical certificates, and manage cash benefits. <And you thought you were going do this from your own computer in the comfort of your home? Hello? – remember this is still IESS.> In addition, through the Izybot <ironically pronounced Easybot> platform, it’s possible to make appointments for general and family medicine from the equipment installed in the interior of the hospital.

Gabriela Molina, chief of Atención al Usuario (Customer Service – your phrase for the day. Not that it means anything in English either.) said about 400 people are served daily. The hours for the kioskos are from 6:00-19:00 and have the permanent help of guides who are specially oriented towards helping seniors use the system. The guides wear blue vests with “te guío” written on them. <If you’re lucky, you might find an English-speaking guide.> The process includes entering your cédula number, date of birth, and the code that will appear on the screen. In less than 2 minutes, the patient will get an appointment and can enter the waiting room. The system will also let you consult the date of the appointment and the name of the doctor who will see you. As part of the improvements, the hospital has also installed new seats in the waiting room.

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) En un día ocho incendios forestales (8 forest fires in one day) – The Cuenca Fire Department responded to 8 forest fires in distinct sectors of the city in the middle of this dry season. Four were extinguished in Paccha, Playa de Llacao, Ordóñez Lasso, and El Valle with another 4 still burning in Challuabamba, San Vicente, María de Llacao y Huizhil. One person was injured while trying to put out a fire without help. Between el 1/7 and 21/7, there were 51 fires in Cuenca with 46.7 hectares affected. San Joaquín is the parish with the largest area burned in Cuenca. In Azuay, 493 hectares have burned.

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) Plazo para personalizar las tarjetas de bus, por finalizar (Deadline for customizing bus cards approaching) – The deadline for personalizing bus cards is in 15 days. Those who don’t do this will pay the full $.40 fare. Personalization of the card is a requirement to get the municipal subsidy of $.10. For the preferential fare, the subsidy rose from 2 to 5 cents. Pablo Carvallo, director of Gestión de Movilidad de Cuenca, said that this process will provide more precise information about the number of bus riders and how many benefit from the preferential fare. This information will be used to improve planning the system. Once a card has been validated, the subsidy will apply to the card owner who will pay $.30. If the card is used again immediately, the 2nd person will pay $.40. To get the subsidy back on the card, there is a 10-minute wait between uses.

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) Goshop activa plataforma, hoy (Goshop launches platform today) – Goshop launched its platform in Cuenca el jueves. This allows businesses and brands to create on-line stores without needing advanced technical knowledge. The tool is designed to allow small and medium businesses to create an on-line store, advertise products, and manage payments with one system. <Another venue for those of you who sell your products at the in-person ferias — unless you’re as technologically backwards as I am and can barely forward an email.>

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) Uno de cada 3 medidores es inteligente (One in every three meters is a smart meter) – About 20,000 of the 60,000 electric meters installed in the Centro Histórico have been replaced with smart meters using AMI (Infraestructura de Médición Avanzada – Advanced Measurement Infrastructure) technology. The smart meters can be read remotely. <Meter readers – another job going the way of the milkman.> This Empresa Eléctrica Regional Centrosur initiative started 3 years ago to substitute conventional meters with smart meters in 2 cantons (Cuenca in Azuay and La Troncal in Cañar) in its service area (Azuay, Cañar y Morona Santiago). In Cuenca, the meters have been installed in the area bounded by De Las Américas, Calle Larga, av. Huayna Cápac, calle Simon Bolívar as far as the redondel de los Sagrados Corazones, y calle Octavio Cordero. Another 100 smart meters have been installed in the Parque Industrial sector. Diego Morales, executive president of Centrosur, explained that the Centro Histórico was prioritized because of the difficulties in taking manual readings due to the characteristics of the historic houses.

The technology also allows detection of energy losses, allowing the identification of illegal connections, optimizing energy balances, speeding the locating of service interruptions, and improving the planning of maintenance work. For the next phase of the project, Centrosur has started the purchasing process for a new lot of meters to continue the replacement work in the Centro Histórico. Also, in the first quarter of 2027, the plan is to have a virtual platform that will allow users to consult their electric consumption in real time. <So you geeks can play with turning on every electrical appliance in the house, looking at what that does to your consumption, and turning everything back off. Assuming you don’t blow every circuit in the house during the experiment.>

(De El Mercurio del jueves, 30/7) Suspenden servicio de agua en El Valle (Water service suspended in El Valle) – About 13 communities in the El Valle Parish have been facing water rationing since el martes, 28/7 from the Proyecto Nero potable water service due to problems in supplying the Ictocruz reserve tank. The affected communities include San José de la Playa, San Antonio de Gapal, Victoria Centro, Victoria Alta, Quillopungo, Santa Martha, El Despacho, Bario Unido, Guncay, Castilla Cruz, Primero de Enero, Los Geranios y Corazón de Jesús. Service cuts apply from 19:00 and 20:00 to la madruga of the following day. <Madrugada – do you remember that word? It’s the early morning hours — when you don’t want to be driving with all the drunks weaving their way home from the bars.> At first the outages will last until el domingo, 2/8, but can be extended depending on the situation. Juan Pérez, president of Proyecto Nero, explained that the Ictocruz reserve tank, with a 2,000 cubic meter capacity, is not able to recharge due to high consumption in the last few days. He said a lot of the water is being used for irrigation. He also said that people were making clandestine connections who did not have the right to use the water. For now, Proyecto Nero is not granting new water rights until it makes interventions to optimize the utilization of raw water. Once this work is done, granting new water rights will restart next year.

(De El Mercurio del viernes, 31/7) La ‘economía invisible´’ (The invisible economy) – The weaving of toquilla straw arrived in Azuay in 1835 and was incorporated into family economies in rural areas. Men and women learned this craft which has been transmitted from generation to generation. The production reached a peak between the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. The period was known as the “Boom Toquillero” in Azuay and Cañar. In 1910, 1920, and 1947, the export of paja toquilla represented between 60 & 80% of national exports. More than a century later, the craft retains its status as a cultural heritage, but the craftspeople confront low earnings and difficulties eith the chain of commercialization. The weaving is combined with agricultural work, raising animals and other work in the countryside.

Mercedes Nieto’s day starts at 8 a.m. with weaving, interrupted by making lunch and feeding the animals and ending at 19:00 or 20:00. She makes 2 or 3 hats a week. She used to make more, but it’s not worth it now due to the low prices paid for each hat. Weavers get from $8-$12 for a hat that sells for $25-60 retail. A weaver selling hats for $10, and making 10 a week earns $70. Considering 8 hours of weaving plus all the other work, they make about $1.25 per hour. Middlemen come to the weavers’ houses, but do not buy on a regular schedule often leaving weavers with unsold hats. Zoila Romero changed her sales by selling directly to consumers at the Rotary market and clients in other parishes. She blocks and finishes the hats herself so she can sell hats for $15-$20 depending on the finish, while before she sold a raw hat for $6 or $7 to a middleman. A hat sold overseas can sell for at least $100.

The long hours also have health effects. The posture for weaving is being bent over for hours, and weavers suffer from back and leg pain over the years. Weaving also affects some weavers’ vision and their hands when it’s cold. Direct sales improved Romero’s sales, but increased her responsibilities. Besides weaving she needs to finish the hats, find buyers, and participate in marketing events.

(De El Mercurio del viernes, 31/7) ECU911 activa el Botón Violeta contra violencia (ECU911 activates the “Botón Violeta” against violence) – ECU911 has activated the “Botón Violeta ECU 911” mobile app. The tool is for women who are victims of domestic violence and allows the sending of a silent alert to an emergency center without the need to make a phone call. Hugo Pérez Sánchez, zone 6 ECU911 coordinator said that nationally, between 2025 and so far this year, ECU911 has coordinated 85,130 emergencies related to domestic violence with 41,963 alerts from enero to 16/7/2026. Users can download the app from the App Store or Google Play and register their person data, emergency contact, information about the aggressor, and attach the current assistance order or protection order. He said that in case of an emergency, the user can press the button for 3 seconds and the alert will go immediately to the ECU911 operations room where they will coordinate with the Policía Nacional. The app functions silently and activates geolocation to identify the location of the victim.
________________

Information in this column, including dates, times and locations, is courtesy of the El Mercurio newspaper. Comments between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), are the personal opinions of the author and not part of the news translation.