El Centro parade kicks off Cuenca holidays; Air Expo includes exhibits, demonstrations, family activities

Thousands of area high school students marched and danced down Calle Simon Bolivar in Cuenca’s historic district on Wednesday morning. (El Mercurio)

The sound of drumbeats echoed through Cuenca’s historic district for three hours Wednesday morning as more than 3,000 high school students marched and danced down Calle Simon Bolivar.

The parade is the traditional beginning of the four-day Cuenca independence holiday, an event expected to draw 150,000 tourists to the city.

In addition to dozens of marching bands, the parade featured cholo and chola dancers, street performers and troops of school organizations as well as support staff from. In all, 37 area high schools were represented.

Holiday festivities continue through Sunday and include hundreds of concerts, food and craft fairs. Several El Centro streets, including Calle Larga, will be closed to vehicular traffic until Monday.

For the full agenda of holiday events, click here.

Among the holiday highlights is the Cuenca Air Expo, which includes exhibitions of hobby aircraft, photo and flying paraphernalia exhibitions, hot air balloon rides, flight simulator activities and lectures.

Among the events are:

From 1 to 5 November
An exhibition of the history of aviation in Cuenca and Ecuador, including photographs and other historic items, Remigio Crespo Museum, from 10:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. daily

Thursday, November 2
Exhibition and talk: Aviation: Why is flying safe?
Remigio Crespo Museum, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Includes flight simulation activity and landing contest.

Friday, November 3
Talk: Aviation, 103 years of the first trans-Andean flights from 1920t to 2023, Time: 2:30, Remigio Crespo Museum. The talk will be presented by pilot Juan Rodríguez, who in 2020 made a flight between Guayaquil and Cuenca in an airplane he assembled personally, similar to the 1920 flight by Elia Liut in the El Telégrafo biplane.

Flight simulation activity and landing contest, noon to 5 p.m., Remigio Crespo Museum

Saturday, November 4
Family Day, Cuenca Air Expo: This includes a variety of family activities at the Huairapamba airport, at kilometer 17 of the Cuenca – Girón highway, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

There will be two parking lots available: the first at the roundabout at 400 meters in the direction of Cumbe and the second at the roundabout about 600 meters in the direction of Girón.

Events include:
• Exhibition of sports aircraft, ultralight aircraft, with clubs from Quito and Guayaquil.
• There will be flight simulators
• Paragliding exhibition with demonstration flights
• Scale aviation modelling
• Hang gliding, free flight sport
• Food sales
• Arrow shooting activities