Mayor Zamora announces priorities; Cuenca’s top foreign-owned restaurants recognized; Ecuadorians win int’l car rally; Artist creates extinct creatures

Lunes, 15/5/2023

Hola, Todos –

Cultura –
<The pandemic is really officially over – the Culture Page is back!>

De El Mercurcio del sábado, 13/5 (2 articles):
Agenda cultural –
15/5, 15:00 – Training – Drawing workshop – CIDAP.
16/5, 19:00 – Presentation – Concert by the Conservatorio José María Rodríguez – Teatro Casa de la Cultura.
17/5, 18:00 – Education – Transform Action – U. de Cuenca.
18/5, 8:00 – Recorrido (tour) – Circuito de museos (museum circuit) – Calle Larga y Huayna Cápac.

The Ecuadorian Team Serrano was victorious in the Rally de Portugal auto race. (El Mercurio)

Carolina Palacios, la artista que crea criaturas extintas (Carolina Palacios, the artist who creates extinct creatures) – <She is an artist trained by John Hammond and so far has only created little herbacious dinosaurs. Be careful in the Cajas next year because T-Rex is next.> Carolina Palacios creates paleoarte which seeks to represent extinct creatures. Paleontology is a new science in Ecuador and she is especially interested in marine life. Her show, “Inmersión paleonáutica. Un viaje a las profundidades marinas del pasado.” (“Paleonautical Immersion. A journey into the marine depths of the past.”) Her show will open at the Casa de las Posadas (Gran Colombia y Octavio Cordero) el 18/5 a las 19:00. The artist will explain the process she follows and the basis for the creation of the creatures.

Titular –

Zamora tomó el mando del Municipio de Cuenca (Zamora took charge of the Municipality of Cuenca) – Cristian Zamora took possession of the office of Mayor of Cuenca in the Salón de la Ciudad. Marisol Peñaloza was elected as vice mayor. She is part of the Hagámoslo con Shungo alliance, made up of Democracia Sí and the Movimiento de Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutic. She received 10 votes, 2 more than necessary. The first two names proposed did not receive the needed number of votes. Peñaloza said she would focus on the rural sector, the mercados, and promoting a reform to an ordinance about participatory budgeting for better distribution of resources to rural parishes. Zamora asked for unity in the council, all sectors, and in the social fabric to move forward on the retos (challenges – your word for the day) that Cuenca faces. He prioritized safety, health, mobility, planning and order.

Cuenca –

De El Mercurcio del sábado, 13/5 (1 article):
Gastronomía del mundo en tres opciones (World cuisine in three options) – 3 gastronomic locations in Cuenca keep the secrets to authentic cooking from the countries of Spain, Italy and the US.

Spaniard José Ibáñez owns Calvo y Co. and talked about paella which is a sartén (skillet or frying pan) in Valenciano, one of the 6 official languages of Spain. He said many of the ingredients are imported, and that the original paella had chicken and rabbit rather than seafood. He prepares 4 different kinds. On Los Cipreses y Ordóñez Lasso with hours from lunes a viernes from 11:30-21:30 and weekends and holidays until 20:00.

La Salumeria, administered by Alfonso Méndez with Massimo Palazzi heading the kitchen, prepares their food with original ingredients. They also import ingredients such as cheese, pasta, tomato, and pistacio mortadela. This is how they are able to make a tiramisú unique in Cuenca. On Luis Moreno Mora y Cornelio Merchán with hours from lunes a jueves from 20-22.00, viernes until 23:00, and weekends and holidays from 9-21:00.

The Café San Sebas, owned by Adam y Lindsay Burton from the USA, is the best place for a good breakfast. They guarantee fresh agricultural products grown on their hacienca in Tutupali, and offer burritos, quesadillas, hamburgers, huevos rancheros, bagels, pancakes and more. The menu reflects their Texas roots. On the parque Miguel León, next to the San Sebastián church with hours from lunes a domingo from 8:30 to 15:00.

Sucesos –

De El Mercurio del domingo, 14/5 (1 article):
La Policía investiga intento de asesinato a una mujer (Police investigate attempted murder of woman) – A woman was saved from physical aggression and death on el noche de viernes at av. González y Pintag. Police are looking for her ex who stabbed her twice in the shoulder and once in her left leg. <The photo shows her in an ambulance, being attended to by a Red Cross responder. She’s as calm as if she were sitting at home in her Lazyboy and she’s looking at her phone. Either she has a high pain and stress tolerance, or 25 year olds are a different species of human altogether with the telephone as a sensory organ.>

Nacional –

La conservación de Galápagos contará con 450 millones de dólares (US $450 million for Galapagos conservation) – Ecuador has signed an agreement to exchange a debt for conservation in the Galápagos Islands. The agreement, with the support of the Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo Internacional de los Estados Unidos (DFC) and the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), is a debt swap which exchanges sovereign bonds of $1,630 million with a new debt of about $630 million with the environment as the main beneficiary. The savings will allow about $450 million to go to conservation and protection of the Galápagos over the next 18.5 years.

The main objective will be to save 198,000 sq. km. of ocean, including making the area for fishing smaller. <Will the rest of the money need to go towards keeping the Chinese fishing fleets out of the protected areas?> Other projects include creating a fideicomiso (like a trust?) called the Galápagos Life Fund (GLF) which will finance conservation activities in the Reserva Marina de Galápagos and the Reserva Marina Hermandad which was created in 2022. The Reserva Marina Hermandad contains 60,000 km. of ocean and is between the Galapagos {Reserve and Costa Rica’s maritime border. One of the plans is to create an international marine life corridor in a habitat important for threatened shark species.

Deportes –

Ecuador obtiene título en el Mundial de Rally (Ecuador wins World Rally Championship title) – Cuencano Javier Serrano and Ambateño Daniel Galarza won in the RC4 category during the 5th round of the World Rally Championship in Matosinhos, Portugal. They covered 329.06 km. in 4 hr, 48 min, 8 sec. over 4 days, broken up into 19 stretches, all on dirt in a Renault Clio. The second place went to an Italian and a Swiss in a Peugeot 208 who took 5 hr, 01 min, & 57 sec. Third place was taken by Team Serrano, with brothers Diego y Juan Serrano from Cuenca. They also piloted a Peugeot 208 with a time of 5 hrs, 16 min, and 4 sec. <So Ecuadorians have proven themselves in speed walking, bicycling, and now car rallies. Long distance yacht races next?>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne