Humpback whale is freed, San Francisco Plaza vendors want help, Hotel owners push housing ordinace

Miércoles, 26/7/2016

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Ciclo de Cine – The film series sponsored by the Cine Club Catarsis will close with “Irreversible,” Thurs. a las 19:00 in the Mjuseo Pumapungo. Free.

Danza – The Universidad Nacional de Educación (UNAE) will present “El Otro Violín” (The Other Violin) Thurs. a las 12:00 in the Museo Pumapungo. The work explores “el efecto del violín en el cuerpo a través del espacio, el público y el presente, y la interrelación de los cuerpos en escena.” (The effect of the violin on the body through space, the public and the present, and the interrelation of bodies on stage). <Now you know what this is about. Or do you? I don’t. If the body is deaf, will the violin still have an effect?.>

Teatro – “Teatro de la Vuelta” will perform “Plush” starting today and running through viernes in the sala “Alfonso Carrasco.” Cost: pre-sale – $5.00, day of event – $7.00.

Articles about –

Rizoma – The galleries of the Rizoma Plataforma Disidente are located in the “antiguas” (old – very old) offices of the Banco de Machala in the CCE next to the “Pedro Páramo” bookstore on Luis Cordero. The activists in Rizoma are working on 3 axes – the artistic-cultural with plastic, scenic, musical, and experimental arts; the social-economic; and the environmental.

La Orquídea – This film festival is getting ready with academic activities including the launching of “Rally Cinematográfico Universitario” and a seminar on “El futuro del cine y la television: nuevas ventanas y narrativas”. (The future of cinema and television: new windows and narratives <cerebral implants at birth, brought to you by Big Brother/OmniCorp.>).

Danza – “Sin Ruido,” (Without Noise), a performance of sound and dance by two Argentineans on a South American tour will be hoy a las 20:00 in the Centro Cultural Repuública Sur. The sound will be a violin, with effects and loops that will distance it from it’s classical image, making it more of a rock instrument.

Performance – “Cuerpo y Disidencias” was Wed. in the Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno). <It sounds like it’s 10 individual performances by attendees of a workshop, but with no underlying theme.> The performance was 2 or 3 hours long. <And no underlying schedule, either.>

Otras cosas –

Titular – Nebot y Moreno juntos celebran a Guayaquil; Glas lo hace aparte (Nebot and Moreno celebrate Guayaquil together; Glas separately) <This is a big political deal.> For the first time in 10 years, the President and Guayaquil’s mayor sat together to celebrate the founding of Santiago de Guayaquil. VP Glas went to a celebration organized by the AP.

Odebrecht –

Prosecutor Diana Salazar inspected Odebrecht’s offices in Quito and a nearby hotel room where meetings took place. <Clandestine meetings where money exchanged hands?> VP Glas has been summoned to testify 9/8 at las 10:00. VP Glas’ uncle allegedly received $5.7 million from Telconet and Chinese investors on an undersea cable project. This is separate from the money received from Odebrecht.

Whale – A young humpback whale was freed after 11 hours. The 8 meter, 15 ton whale was fouled in fishing nets and found by neighbors on a beach in Punta Carnero, Santa Elena Province. Local volunteers weren’t able to push the whale back into the ocean due to its weight and ocean conditions. <Like low tide?> The rescue was successful after the Navy, Risk Management, and Salinas Firefighters showed up. <What does the Secretary of Risk Management do in a situation like this? Remind everyone of the Northern California disaster in which authorities blew up a beached, dead whale. It rained whale on everyone who came to watch.>

Council travel – Out of 15 council members, only 3 have not left the country on municipal funds. Between 2014 -2017, the City of Cuenca paid $80,529 for 35 international trips, 19 of them were in Latin America.

Dental health study – Students in the Dentistry Department at the U. Católica de Cuenca are conducting a project about dental health in seniors. The research will be done with the residents of the Cristo Rey home, almost 3/4 of whom have no teeth.

San Francisco Plaza – The merchants who have relocated are asking for publicity to get people to shop along Padre Aguirre between Juan Jaramillo y Pres. Córdova where they have been relocated.

Tourism – A proposal for an ordinance regulating tourism is in Mayor Cabrera’s hands. The ordinance will address a cantonal system for tourism to link public policy for the sector, a consulting system with citizens and the tourist industry to be part of the decision making process, special zones in the city for tourism, and regulation of informal tourism services. The last item is of the most concern since informal lodging houses 20% of the tourists who visit Cuenca, taking business away from legal hoteliers.

Vía a Ingapirca – The road to Incapirca from El Tambo is at the point of collapse and dangerous. <The accompanying photo shows the remaining roadway is only a little wider than the bus that’s traveling on it, and it looks like it could fall down the hill if you looked at it too hard.>

Business page –

Coopera – The 7th phase of refunds is ongoing. Former members of the coop can get their refund until viernes, 28/7 at Banco del Pacífico branches. After 31/7, get them at the Coopera office at 3 de Noviembre y Juan Pablo I. <You have to have been here for a while to remember or be a depositor at the Coopera.>

Internal migration – Cuenca is one of the destinations for people looking for work. There are 7 shoe shiners at the Terminal Terrestre from Ambato. One works from 8-19:00, 7 days a week and makes $10-12/dy. His wife sells mote from a cart and their 5 children still live in Ambato which they visit every 3 weeks. They live in a room that they rent for $70/mo.

Amenidades –

Paulina Tamayo – She will be in Cuenca on 5/8 a las 20:00 in the convention center at the Mall del Río as part of a 3 city tour.

Descuentos y compras –

Almacenes Chordeleg – anniversary sale, everything at cost – 4 days, 26-29/7 appliances (Mabe, GE) – Unidad Nacional y 12 de Abril, Bolívar y Luis Cordero. <This is for all of you looking for refrigerators, washers and dryers.>

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne