More motorcycles on the road, Local flower plantations struggle to compete, Tax information

Lunes, 13/1/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Museo de las Conceptas – The museum will have family activities one sábado each month to share the history of Cuenca by featuring some of the most important pieces in the Museum’s collection. On el sábado, 26/1 a las 10:00 the work of art will be the persecution of Herod and the flight of the holy family to Egypt. Cost: $3.50 for adults, children free. Another activity will be cleansing Fridays. Yachak (healer) Isabel Lituma will do 14 minute cleanings which will relieve you of bad energy, bad air, stress and nerves.

Museo Municipal de arte Moderno – The City Museum of Modern Art will have a workshop for painting, drawing and reading the stories in “Memorias Parroquiales” (Parish Memories) este sábado. 50 kits with the book will be given out. Participants will draw characters from the stories. If you want to listen, you can find “Memorias Parroquiales” on Spotify.

Competition and transportation challenges are forcing local flower growers out of business.

Conference – There will be a master conference on “Pensar, crear, publicar: ensanblaje y circulación del conocimiento científico” (Thinking, creating, publishing: widening and circulation of scientific knowledge) el próximo lunes, 20/1 in the Mario Vintimilla classroom at the U. of Cuenca from 11-13:00 with Dra. Heve Vessuri.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Alistan envío de flores (Ready to send flowers) – Currently only 4 flower plantations exist in Azuay and Cañar provinces. The other plantations closed after the financial crises of 2010 in the U.S. and 2016 in Russia, and because of competition from Colombia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Costs of production are higher in Ecuador than in neighboring Colombia. In Cañar, Flores del Lago in Déleg and Trébol Roses in Biblián produce roses. In Azuay, Flores del Sur produces roses and other flowers, and Malima produces summer flowers such as gypsophilia, dianthus, delphiniu, trachelium, verónicas, y lysimachia <Sorry, I can’t get Google to translate this for me. Heck, maybe the names are the same in English. What do I know.>

Juan Fernando Torres, owner of Flores del Lago said the gradual disappearance of the fincas (farms – your word for the day. Handy when reading real estate listings.) due to an inability to compete is sad. He cited the distance to the airport as adding to costs because Ecuadorian roses are exported from the Quito airport. Flowers are shipped to Quito in refrigerated trucks, and costs keep rising as quantities shipped keep falling. Before, the fincas consolidated shipments to keep costs lower. Now, Flores del Sur, Trébol Roses y Flores del Lago share a truck and at times the truck is only 80% full, nor are they always able to send one truck per day. One truckload costs between $450 & $500. The producers have been timing their flowers to be ready to ship between 20/1 and 8/2. Just Flores del Lago will produce about 500,000 buds, shipped in boxes containing 350 stems.

Responsible motorcycling compaign – The Scooteras Cuenca Club has started a campaign for responsible driving called Manejo Seguro (Safe driving) with the support of Yamaha. 12,964 motorcycles were registered in Cuenca in 2019. The number has increased from 5,289 in 2014 to 6,032 in 2015, 6,452 in 2016, 7,572 in 2017, and 10,147 in 2018. <So you’re not imagining that motos have been multiplying like rabbits.> There were 237 moto accidents in 2019, causing 13 deaths and 280 injuries, down from 260 accidents in 2018. A driving instructor felt that motorcyclists in Cuenca are not prepared to drive in conformance with the rules of the road nor road safety protocols. <This guy is master of the understatement.> The Scooteras Cuenca Club offers free driving classes. The class for este sábado is for moto delivery drivers and for moto clubs the following sábado. Last week the class was for women. Class hours are from 8:30-16:00. Register at jcandrade@eljuric.com or call 098 424 1221.

English for seniors – Age is not an obstacle to learning. <Old dogs can learn new tricks> The Department of Continuing Education at the U. of Cuenca is starting English classes for adultos mayores on 27/1. The class is for people who stopped their studies and want to resume this activity by learning languages. This activity encourages the work of the mind, having better social relations and physical activity <Like pounding your head against a wall when confronted with verb conjugations?>, and helps in aging better <Makes us sound like cheese.> <So if a bunch of old Cuencanos can learn English, what’s keeping you from learning Spanish?>

Taxes – The SRI (Servicio de Rentas Internas – IRS) has published the form to project personal expenses for 2020. Employers should be giving these to their employees this month, or you can go on line to download the form at https://www.sri.gov.ec/web/guest/formularios-e-instructivos. Your tax will be based on your ingresos gravados menos los gastos deductibles (taxable income less deductible expenses). If this is below $11,315.00, you don’t pay income tax. <Remember all of this should be verified with your accountant. Using this info translated by a person who is still learning the language and always used a tax accountant in the US would be really stupid.>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne