Int’l air travel shows strong recovery; City hosts handicrafts biennial; New tram card sales location; Cuenca-NY flights begin; Car theft ring busted

Viernes, 2/6/2023

Hola, Todos –

Cultura –

De El Mercurio del jueves, 1/6(2 articles):
Agenda cultural –
3/6 – Teatro – La Gallinta Sembradora – Auditorio Catalina Sojos de la Casa de la Cultura – 11:00 and 15:30.
4/6 – Muestra – Exposiciones sobre la Cuenca de hace 100 años – Museo Remigio Crespo Toral – 9:00 a 14:00.

Cuenca acogerá una bienal sobre artesanía (Cuenca to host a biennial on handicrafts) – ARDIS, which started as a local and national event which addressed crafts will be turned into a bienal. The ARDIS program was created by CIDAP as a way for Ecuadorian craftspeople to exchange knowledge and to show their work. Gabriela Vázquez, director of CIDAP, said this bienal will be the first one about crafts, design and innovation with an academic program including workshops, master classes and webinars. In addition, it will also have the first salón of contemporary crafts where the best work will receive the Medalla CIDAP prize.

Flights from Cuenca to New York, with short stop-overs in Quito and Bogota, began late this week. The flights, operated by Avianca, are offered three days a week. (El Mercurio)

The first edition of the Bienal ARDIS will be in abril, 2024 during the Founding of Cuenca fiestas. There will be a call for craftspeople to submit one of their works which should combine artistic craftsmanship with design and innovation by 20/11/2023. The submissions will be analyzed by a jury which will decide who will be in the commercial salón. Also those who are interested in being masters and making a presentation need to comply with a series of requirements. Those interested should go to https://www.cidap.gob.ec. There is no cost to make a proposal or participate in the Bienal. <With all the creative talent in the gringo community, there should be some submittals to this Bienal.>

Titular –

Vuelos a Nueva York despegan en Cuenca (Flights to New York take off from Cuenca) – Avianca started a new route from Cuenca to New York yesterday morning. The flights are on miéroles, jueves, y viernes and take off at 7:45. They arrive in Quito at 8:40 and leave for NY at 17:20 with a stop in Bogotá. One of the advantages of this route is that luggage can be checked in Cuenca and picked up in NY. <A big plus for me – I hate schlepping luggage around airports.> The reporter went to Avianca’s web site and saw prices ranging from $500-1000 for a departure in the beginning of junio, and return after 21/6.

Cuenca –

Personalización y venta de tarjetas para tranvía (Personalization and sale of Tranvía cards) – The Tranvía has set up a new location to get Movilízate cards in the their offices on av. México y Unidad Nacional at the train yard. It plans to have at least 20,000 normal and discounted fare cards on sale in the first 15 days of junio. To buy a card, you should show your cédula. For the 50% fares, the cards are personalized with your name and photo.

Sucesos –

Siete detenidos por robos de accesorios de varios vehículos (Seven arrested for theft of accessories from various vehicles) – 7 presumed members of a gang that stole vehicle accessories were arrested during the ‘Firmeza 108’ operation in Cuenca. They were accused of dismantling medium and high end vehicles in different areas of the city including outside hospitals and universities. The investigation started el 9/2/2023 and took 4 months of tracking, review of videos and other proceedings. This information allowed the police to raid 3 electrical workshops and 10 houses in Sayausí, San Miguel de Putusi, Carmen de Guzho, El Calvario, barrio Cayambe, Santa Ana, San Joaquín, San José de Balzay y El Batán. <Apparently there are accessories thieves all over town with the exception of El Centro.> Some of those arrested had previous records.

De El Mercurio del jueves, 1/6(1 article):
Desalojan comerciantes informales en Feria Libre (Informal traders evicted from Feria Libre) – Several agencies conducted a control en la madrugada (early morning – 3 am in this case) to remove about 120 informal vendors from the streets and sidewalks around the Feria Libre to make it easier for users to get into the mercado El Arenal. There were no sanctions and the operation was peaceful. The controls will improve order and also help combat crime. Another objective was to reduce vehicular congestion for unloading products.

There was a previous control el 16/5/21023 in which the Policía Nacional and Fuerza Armadas (Armed Forces) searched passersby, vendors, and occupants of vehicles. They seized armas blancas (bladed weapons), drugs, munitions, and packages of contraband cigarettes. They also detained 3 men who were accused of being chuqueros (pimps – our word for the day). Another long term problem in the Feria Libre is alcoholism which is linked to groups that sell liquor without the sanitary seaL. There are also alcoholics who regularly pass out in the public spaces. <And not just at the Feria Libre.>

Nacional –

De El Mercurio del jueves, 1/6(1 article):
Más de 6.2 millones de pasajeros en aeropuertos (Over 6.2 million passengers at airports) – In addition to the over 6.2 million passengers who moved through Ecuadorian airports in 2022, they also handled over 325,000 metric tons of cargo. An announcement by the Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC), said that movement through the 4 international and 18 national airports showed a recovery of 89% compared to 2019. During 2022, Ecuador had 3,483 pilots and issued 6,002 authorizations for special charters, private flights, overflights and technical stopovers, and humanitarian flights.

And that’s all for today so hasta? –

Jeanne