Gringos win third prize in masquerade parade, History of commerce in Cuenca, Tram will eliminate bus line, Gaseros ask for price hike

Martes, 7/1/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades-
No hay nada.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Noche de comparsas llena de ironía y sátira (Night of troupes full of irony and satire) – See Tuesday’s CHL article for more info. The article in El Mercurio highlighted several of the parade entries including los Gringos Locos with a photo of Sr. Sin Gas and a several of the tanques. The gringos, by the way, were voted the third best act in their category in the parade by the judges. <As usual, I will save the issue for whoever wants to claim it. Use the comments section and leave your contact information if you want the paper.>

The Gringitos Locos, posing as gas cylinders, won third prize in their category in Monday night’s masquerade parade. (El Mercurio)

Tranvía – The debate on the Tranvía was supendió (suspended/ tabled?)with a 7 to 5 vote yesterday. The majority cited the lack of socialización (I think the lack of information to interested parties and public) since the council workshops were attended by only 21 people who did not include the tranvía oversight committee, property owners and renters along av. De Las Americas or España, or representatives from the Cámara de Transporte (Cuenca Chamber of Transportation). Mayor Palacios met with directors of the Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca Tuesday morning to talk about integrating the bus system with the tranvía, compensation for eliminating line #100 which duplicates the tranvía route, using a common collection system to pay fares, and revising bus fares to meet those of the tranvía. <Hah – a back door into a bus fare increase.> The tranvía director signaled that decisions about the integration of systems include possible route changes and relocation of the #100 buses.

History – The Cámara de Comercio (Chamber of Commerce) has published a book about the history of commerce in Cuenca. Before the Spanish, the Cañaris used spóndylus shells from the coasts of Manabí as money. During the colonial era, Cuenca was an important center for ganado (cattle or livestock) sent from Peru and the production of a textile called “toduyo.” In the 19th Century, the local economy grew with the weaving of “Panama” hats and sale of the bark called cascarilla, from the Amazon, which was used to make medicine against paludismo (malaria). This income influenced the construction of homes in the French style which transformed the city.

At the beginning of the 20th century, businesses boosted the introduction of services such as railways, the telegraph, banks, and automobile transport. There are businesses in Cuenca that are 100 years old and others that are approaching that milestone. The Cámara de Comercio is 100 as is the Luis Rodríguez store on General Torres y Sucre which was founded in 1918. The Juan Eljuri stores were founded in 1925 and were contemporaries of Tosi with its textiles, and the Central and Olmedo boticas. In 1945, before there were gas stations, gasoline was sold in open tanks. A candle fell into one of these and caused a fire that destroyed 3 houses and caused deaths. The Cámara de Comercio lobbied to create a fire department and succeeded 52 days after the tragedy. <Can you imagine such a rapid response nowadays? It would be more like 52 months.>
Bringing in goods to Cuenca was an odyssey since merchandise had to come from Guayaquil at a time when there were no highways nor a bridge over the río Guayas. Goods had to be taken by sloop or barge to Durán, then by train to El Tambo, and finally in trucks to Cuenca. <So we should quit complaining about how hard it is to get from Cuenca to anywhere else in the world?)>

“Pasaporte Tributario” – The SRI will give 2 week classes from M-F from 9-11:00 in its auditorium to teach people how to fill out sales receipts, declare taxes, use on-line services, issue electronic facturas, ask for tax returns and other tax issues. Last year there were 847 training sessions atttended by 17,288 people. This month, students from the U. Católica de Cuenca will also be trained to bring free tax consults to natural persons not obligated to provide accounting. If you’re interested go to the web site for the SRI.

Domestic gas price increase – Representatives of domestic gas distributors are asking for a price hike for domestic gas even though the price at their bodegas will remain at $1.60. Resolution 431 of the SRI will require that they issue electronic facturas and apply IVA on their sales. Prices for home delivery will increase since that is where the IVA will be applied. IVA will be applied to the transport, driver and helper that deliver gas to homes.

Road work – There was a landslide el lunes mas o menos a las 3:30 on the vía El Descanso-Gualazeo in the Puente Europea sector. Two large rocks, each about 3 m. in diameter, fell from the top of the slope and wound up on the road. <The picture shows a rock the size of the front end loader behind it.> They were destroyed and cleared by mid-day ayer, reopening the road to traffic. There is a constant risk of slides in that area, and authorities are recommending people travel in the daytime when visibility is better.

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