Nearby forest fires, Underground cooking, City markets await repairs, Chorus of older adults

Lunes, 20/11/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Ongoing agenda event –

II Festival de Artes Musicales EA6 – This festival started Monday in the Teatro Pumapungo with Ensamble Concerts. The event for el martes, 21/11 will be a las 9:30 in the Facultad de Artes – Teatro Fabián Carrasco.

Articles about –

Seminario Mayor San León Magno – There is a seminary in the Monay sector which trains priests for the Archdiocese of Cuenca. The current rector said that there are currently 31 seminarians, up from a low of 14, but not in the numbers of 20 years ago with 50-70. <Go to www.elmercurio.com.ec if you’re interested in a description of the seminary.>

Coro – The Chorus of the Universidad de Adulto Mayor (University for Older Adults) has been performing. It was formed 3 years ago and has 43 participants. They have been asked to sing Christmas Carols at various churches and a shopping center. The Universidad de Adulto Mayores is on Estévez de Toral entre Gran Colombia y Bolívar, and it offers 5 levels in Buen vivir (Good living or living well), Social networks, Computers, Accounting and Entrepreneurship. <Why would someone of tercera edad be taking classes on accounting and being an entrepreneur? An Ecuadorian retirement doesn’t pay enough to live in Cuenca without a 2nd source of income? Sounds familiar.>

Call for parish artists – The city Dep’t of Culture is launching a project to make the culture and art of the 21 parishes more visible. It is asking for the parishes to tell the Dep’t about dance, theater and music groups in the parish. The deadline is 23/11 to fill out a form at the local library with basic data for the groups interested in being part of the project. The city wants to hold an event in each of the 21 parishes during the end of nov. and all of dic. and plans to invite selected groups to perform.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Quedan tres fechas con sabor a finales (There are three dates left with a taste of the finals) – It’s fútbol so you’re on your own.

Fires – A fire in the community of Puca in Nabón started on jueves and burned more than 100 hectares. Firefighters from Nabón, Cuenca and the Prefectura del Azuay responded. Another fire burned 300 hectares of native forest in Molleturo. The Prefectura del Azuay is forming a special team for emergency support.

Día del Panificador Ecuatoriano (Ecuadorian Baker Day) – The day is celebrated on 15/11 and a guild in Cuenca has 110 members making bread and pastry. <Just a bit of useless knowledge for your trivia collection.>

ETAPA – ETAPA won two awards from the Red Pacto Global. The organization recognized ETAPA for a high level of development in best business practices for their projects. The first project was to Promote Digital Inclusion for Cuencanos and the second, an Early Flood Warning System. <You do know that parks and public spaces in Cuenca are free Wifi zones. I’ve seen hours of 8-20:00 posted but don’t know if that’s all parks.>

Mercados – Although some mercados have been improved, others are waiting for changes that could bring new customers and improve safety. The mercados Tres de Noviembre, Nueve de Octubre, and Veintisiete de Febrero are asking for attention. The city has announced that remodeling at the mercado 27 de Febrero will start in enero. Merchants at the 3 de Noviembre have suffered the Tranvía and there is a lack of parking so they are asking for paid parking, promotion, and maintenance (the cover leaks) <Is anyone surprised?>. At 9 de Octubre, the requests are to stop the informal vendors around the market and restart the Tranvía work.

Disaster conference – The “I Congreso Internacional Gestión de Riesgos y Desastres” (1st International Congress on Risk and Disaster Management) will be held on the 7, 8, & 9/12 by the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) Ecuatoriana of Azuay. Register at the Red Cross offices on Borrero entre Pres. Córdova y Juan Jaramillo. One of the instructors will be Juan Jiménez who was part of the team that rescued 33 Chilean miners in 2010.

Pachamanka – Underground cooking <I’m not talking about pop-up restaurants.> is a traditional cooking method in Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia and parts of Chile. Food prepared this way is considered “el alimento de los dioses” (food of the gods). <It’s sounds like an Andean luau.>
You heat up “piedras hembras” (female rocks – your words for the day) <and if you have a dog, you can now tell people “es hembra” (remember the h is silent) if your pup is female.> Evidently male rocks can only be used in 2 pachamankas before they explode. <Have you ever poured cold water into a hot ceramic or glass container?> The female rocks hold heat, cook better and are volcanic so can be heated to high temperatures.

First, dig and bless a hole with chicha, liquor, and beer. A 1 m. deep and 1 m. in diameter hole holding 40 medium rocks will cook food for 250-300 people. You can scale down to a hole about the size of a household pot with 10-12 rocks. Line the bottom with rocks you’ve heated inside of a wood fire, and put on a layer of corn, cabbage, banana, or achira leaves and start layering the food in the order it will be cooked. For example you can put your seasoned meats wrapped in achira leaves in first, followed by tubers such as potato, yuca, and choclo and another layer of leaves. Meanwhile build the sides of the hole up with hot rocks. The top layer of food is grains and vegetables like brocolli, favas and peas in pods, and fruit such as pineapple and ripe zambos. When the food reaches the top of the hole, add another layer of leaves, cover it all with a wool or cotton blanket, and build a hill of dirt on top of everything to keep in the steam.

Wait between 2-1/2 hours or until everything is done <Sounds like you need experience to cook like this.>, carefully remove the dirt and rocks <Now does the blanket make sense?>, and breath in the aromas. The first bite goes to the hill or lake or other sacred site where you’ve cooked this meal. Finally, take out and serve the food which is incomparable and unique and different from how normal cooking smells and tastes. <That sounds like a very ambitious culinary project.>

Internacional –

Chile – Sebastian Piñera (right) received 36.62% of yesterday’s votes and will meet Alejandro Guillier (center left) in the run-offs on 17/12.

Venezuela – Informal venders are selling food by the spoonfuls. Daily staples such as coffee, flour, milk and sugar are being sold in bags of 50-150 grams with prices rising every day. 4 spoonfuls of sugar costs 4,000 bolívares – a little more than $1 at the highest rate of exchange. Those products along with another dozen are rationed and people wait in hours long lines. The Parliament, mostly opposition, announced that annual inflation up to octubre was 825%. <That’s unimaginable.> <Those of us on Social Security have certainly benefited from Ecuador’s low inflation rate, and for that, I’m grateful.>

Descuentos y compras – There are a lot of Black Friday ads so I’ll keep the descriptions short – Store, what it sells, teaser, dates, and address.

Cnt – The National Telecommunications Corporation took out a special insert to serve notice that if the outstanding balances weren’t paid, the accounts would go into collection. <So feeling snoopy, I scanned the 7 pages of names waiting for a gringo name to jump out. And sure enough, 2 did – so I will use first and middle initials. D. M. and G. H. should go pay their Cnt bills within 8 days from 16/11 to avoid collections.>

Repycom – electronics – up to 70% off – 24/11 – Remigio Crespo 3-52.
Optica Vizoe – glasses – up to 50% off – all noviembre – Monay Shopping and Sucre 11-24 y G. Torres.

VW – Amarok from $36,990 – from Recordmotor on Solano.
Audifonos Rexton y Bernafon – hearing aids – free batteries for a year for purchasing hearing aids between 20-24/11. <Is that a good deal or not? I have no idea how much hearing aid batteries cost.>

Chery – Tiggo2 for $18,990 incl. IVA – av. España 831 y Barcelona.

ETAFASHION – up to 50% off, no payments until febrero.

Aldanny Boutique – clothing – everything 50% off – 19-27/11 – Bolívar 11-63 y Tarqui.

Ferreteria Continental – building supplies – big discounts – 20-25/11 – Loja y Remigio Crespo.

Kia – picano from 14,590 and Rio from 17,990, incl. IVA – www.kia.com.ec.
Ochoa’s Sport – shoes – 20-60% off – 23-27/11 – Av. de las Americas next to Coral Centro.

Palo Alto Importers – piso flotante, bamboo, PVC and more – up to 60% off – 24-26/11 – Av. 10 de Agosto 6-85.

Coral – discounts on a lot of different stuff – 24-26/11.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne