Foundation holiday events schedule announced; Electric car charging stations planned; Elimination of mask rule considered; Flooding plagues autopista

Martes, 5/4/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

Abril, un mes de cultura (April, a month of culture) – Some of the activities planned for the 465th anniversary of the founding of Cuenca include movies in the barrios, music in the parks, and a return to parades of students in the streets. The Dirección de Cultura has their “Abril artes mil” (Thousand arts April) project for activities throughout the month. Agenda items include the following:
5/4, 11:00 – Catedral Vieja – Show of the historic archives of the Archiocese of Cuenca.
8/4, 19:00 – parque San Sebastián to Parque Calderón – Desfile de las artes. <This would be cool one to watch – artists strutting their creations.>
9/4, 11:00 – Ex-escuela Central – Festival de las Artes with music, theater, magic
and dance.
9/4, 15:00 – Centro Agrícola Cantonal – Segundo Rosero in concert
10/4, 14:00 – Parque Curiquingue – Tour Party Reggaetón.
11/4, 9:00 – av. 27 de Febrero y Solano to av. 12 de Abril – student parade.
12/4, 10:30 – Sesión Solemne por la fundación Escuela Central.
16/4, 15:00 – Parque Iberia – Arte en los barrios.
Cine en los barrios:
14/4, 19:30 – El Vado – Cuencano short films.
21/4, 20:00 – plaza central de Baños – The Kid with Charlie Chaplin and live music.
28/4, 19:30 – plaza Monroy – Nosferatu with music.

CIDAP will host ceramic craft fairs and workshops during the Cuenca Foundation celebration.

Una semana de alfareros y cerámicos (A week of potters and ceramics) – Ayer, CIDAP opened ARDIS, a program for design and craft innovation, for the fiestas de Cuenca. The project this year will include workshops, master talks, and a fair where artisans can show and sell their work. The talks and workshops will be held until the 7 & 8/4 on the topics: revitalization of ceramics and pottery, innovation and design, the colors of ceramics, and promotion and commercialization. If you are interested in the workshops, go to http://tiny.cc/Talleres_ARDIS2022. If you are interested in the talks, go to http://tiny.cc/Charlas_ARDIS2022. All events are free. The feria will open el 9/4 a las 10:00 in the CIDAP gardens and run until 11/4. The winner of the Medalla CIDAP will be announced an hour before the opening of the feria.

Titular –

Trasladan a cabecillas de bandas (Gang leaders transferred) – See Tuesday’s article in CHL for story. The 5 gang leaders were flown to Guayaquil. <It would have been a tragic event if the plane door had accidentally popped open at about 20,000 feet and they all fell out.>

Cuenca –

MSP analiza dejar de usar las mascarillas en sitios abiertos (MSP analyzes stopping the use of face masks in open areas) – Ximena Garzón, the health minister, announced that the viral positivity rate is currently at 5%. If this keeps going down, there is the possibility of eliminating the requirement for mask usage in open spaces in the next month. She said that levels are going down, there aren’t hospitalizations in either the private or public systems, and ICU units are not crowded. She stressed the importance of vaccinations to relax restrictive measures, and reported that 89% of the population has received 1st doses, 85.4% have gotten 2nd doses, and 5,350,000 have gotten boosters. Also people over 50 who had their booster over 5 months ago, can get a 4th shot. <Roll up those sleeves. Or go to a party with a lot of young people, take off your mask, drink, dance, laugh and hope you catch a mild version.>

Empresarial –

Más electrolineras para Cuenca (More electric stations for Cuenca) – The first electric charging station from Centro Sur will be opened in the middle of the month in the patios of the electric company in Cuenca. The intention is to create a series of stations to Guayaquil. There will be one on the ascent to the Parque Nacional Cajas and another in the La Troncal substation on the vía Durán-Tambo. There are already 2 charging stations in Cuenca – in the De La Madre park, and in the parking lot at Empresa Municipal de Desarrollo (EDEC EP). The 4 stations are the latest generation with connectors for the 3 types of vehicles available in Ecuador. <Oh, great – will there be a Beta-VHS type of battle over charging connections? So you have to guess which type of vehicle will have the most stations to connect to?>

The Empresas Automotrices del Ecuador (AEADE – Automotive Companies of Ecuador) provided statistics on electric vehicle sales in the last 3 years. In 2019, 100% were sold in Guayaquil – 103 vehicles. In 2022, the annual sales were 106 autos with Guayas leading with 61.1% of purchases, Pichincha 2nd with 27.8% and Azuay with 11.1%. In 2021, 348 electric vehicles were sold with 96.3% in Pichincha, 2.5 in Guayas, and the rest in other cities.

Region –

Autopista, un peligro en lluvias (Autopista, a danger in the rain) – The autopista is dangerous when it rains due to damming of rainwater and the lack of maintenance of medians, curbs, and gutters. Large puddles form, especially in the area of the pedestrian overpass to the Mall del Río, the bypass to the Hospital del Río, the access to the Amaru Zoo, behind the Dávalos barracks, and in Chaullabamba. There is the risk of losing control of your car if you don’t notice in time, and small cars can break down when water gets into the mechanical and electrical systems. <And I’d hate to be on a moto riding next to a big truck when it hits that puddle. You’d get a shower, have your clothes washed and motorcycle washed all at the same time. Just your luck you’d be on your way to a job interview.> MTOP is planning to solve current problems by contracting with micro-businesses to clean vegetation out of drains, medians, curb, and gutters.

Estado de carreteras (Road conditions) – Transit on the roads in Azuay is subject to weather conditions. An alternate passage at km 10 in the Marianza sector of the vía Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme has been cleared for the residents of Sayausí parish. At km. 49 of the same road <assuming you can get through or around Sayausí> the road is open from 5-7:00 and 17-19:00 until the slope stabilization work is completed. Cuenca-Girón-Pasaje and Biblán-Zhud and their branches to Cochancay (Coast) and Angas (Sierra) are open in spite of constant slides. The vía Cuenca-La Jarata-Loja in the San Lucas sector has been reopened since the installation of 55 meters of sewer. The vías Paute-Guarumales-Méndez and Gualaceo-Plan de Milagro-Limón and Sígsig-Gualaquiza do not have any major problems. <Meaning most of the pavement and roadway are still where they’re supposed to be, and not 30 feet down the mountain.>

Productores de 7 cantones legalizan sus propiedades (Producers from 7 cantons legalize their properties) – The Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG) delivered titles to property in 7 cantons in Azuay including Cuenca, Girón, Gualceo, Nabón, Paute, Santa Isabel y Sígsig. With the documents of ownership, the farmers have legal stability, can get credit from financial institutions, and access MAG programs and projects. <This is a huge deal for the beneficiaries. I wonder if these same people and families have been working the same land since the Conquista — first for the Spanish landowners, then for the church, and then in some kind of legal limbo until now.> The director of MAG said that the project for access to land and massive legalization of territory will be restructured this year. In the next few days, there will be more titles delivered in other sectors of the province. <Think of all the wealth that gets created just with a deed to the property you’ve been working all your life?>

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). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.