Noboa family settles its tax debt; Restaurants serve Guayaquileña food for the holiays; Avianca adds flights; Girón, Gualaceo celebrate; Cuenca’s hornado

Bored?
Inician fiestas del Señor de Girón – The image of the Señor del Girón descended from the main altar to the central nave in the Iglesia Matriz el viernes, starting the fiestas in his honor and 6 weeks of manifestations of faith and devotion by the community. El viernes, 10/10, there will be a new artistic show and el sábado, 11/10 an albazo, a bullfight, and a Solemnes Vísperas. El domingo, 12/10, there will be a mass procession to a central point of the celebration. On lunes 13/10, there will be an escaramuza, fireworks, and the exchange of priostes. Martes, 14/10 will feature a cuy race, and on miércoles el 15 the altar will be opened and the Señor de Girón will return to the main church.

Gualaceo celebra 2 declaratorias – The festival agenda to celebrate 10 years since the Ikat technique was declared a National Cultural Heritage was presented yesterday. The schedule includes:

Avianca is adding international and Quito-Cuenca flights.

Lunes, 6/10 a las 10:00 – a commemorative session in honor of the ancestral knowledge of the cloth of Gualaceo.

Viernes, 10 to domingo, 12 a las 9:00 – the 5th edition of the Festival “Raíces que inspiran, manos que transforman” – Plaza Gualaceo.

Sábado, 11/10 a las 15:00 – the 2nd edition of “Tejiendo Moda” – Plaza Gualaceo.

Domingo – 12/10 a las 12:00 – Festival de Danzas Folklóricas – Plaza Gualaceo.
Viernes, 17/10 a las 19:00 – inauguration of the Copa Bicentenario – Coliseo Raúl Vaca Carbo.

Sábado, 18/10 a las 19:00 – discussion on “Asociatividad y Cooperación” – Brasil School.

Hungry?
Sabores de La Perla del Pacífico – Various restaurants are serving Guayaquileña food in honor of Guayaquil’s independence celebration.

Moro Guayaco is on av. 12 de Octubre y Primero de Mayo. It started as a little coastal hole in the wall with a homemade taste in marzo, 2023. Owner Santiago Chalén worked many years in the US and always had a dream of opening a restaurant with a menu based on his childhood memories. <I had a childhood memory of s’mores. But when I made one as an adult I threw it out after the first bite. Way too sweet, I thought my teeth were going to fall out.> What is unique about the location is you can pick from 6 different moros with grains such as black, red and bola beans (the last might be black eyed peas), lentils and more; proteins such as beef, pork chops, longaniza, chicken, smoked chorizo or ribs; and combine it with sides such as potatoes, salad, fried egg, ripe plantain and patacones. Customer favorites include the ‘Moro Chicloso con longaniza’ with melted manaba cheese, longaniza, and black lentils; the Çalentadito Guayaco’ which combines the moro with frejol au gratin, 2 grilled proteins and a fried egg; ‘Arroz con menestra y chuzo’ which was inspired by Chalén’s visits to his abuela in Guayaquil.

La Costeña opened in septiembre de 2022 at Juan Iniguez and Julio Matovelle by owners Karla Pazán and Felip Vargas whose goal was to offer authentic coastal cuisine with family recipes. They serve from classic breakfasts such as typical corciches, beefsteak, bolones with chicharrones, colonches and tigrillos to other options such as ceviches, tongas, bollos, seco de pollo, canoa de maduros, caldo de bolas, banderas and guatita.

La Cevichería Guayaca opened in mayo, 2023 on Francisco Moscoso 1-16 and Miguel Cordero. It recently opened a Cevichería Express in Puertas del Sol. The restaurant gets its seafood from the main fishing ports so authentic Guayauileño food can be enjoyed in Cuenca. Popular dishes include classic encebollados, bollos de pescado, cazuelas, arroz marinero and ceviches accompanied by chifles, patacones and cocolón. One of the most popular dishes is the ‘Ceviche Rompecolchón’ (mattress breaker ceviche – supposedly an aphrodisiac) which is combination of salt fish, shrimp, calamari, octopus, crab and clams <wait – no oysters?> in a slightly peppery sauce. The house specialty is a seafood risotto. It has promotions every day on cocktails and house beers accompanied with cocolón, rice and crispy patacones. You get a 10% discount on orders with WhatsApp 0995578511.

Curious?
Bananera Noboa salda deuda con el Estado – In 7 months, the tax debt of the Exportadora Bananera Noboa, property of Pres. Daniel Noboa’s family, has gone from $98 million to zero. The debt to the Servicio de Rentas Internas (SRI) was gradually diminished with a first payment taking it down to $21.7 million, then to $6.1, then to $3.5 and finally to $0. Leonardo Noboa, cousin of the president, spoke on behalf of the family and said that the obligations of the businesses as well as their affiliates have been totally paid in accordance with the law. The reduction of the debt coincides with the enactment of the Ley de Integridad Pública which established a remission of interest, fines and surcharges for businesses that owed the SRI. However it is unknown if Pres. Noboa’s family took advantage of this benefit. <So now that the national treasury is $98 million richer, I suppose all you commenters want to share your expertise as to how this money should be spent.>

Avianca: más vuelos de Ecuador a EE.UU. – Ecuador will have better air connections to the US starting at the end of the year. Avianca announced it will double the frequency of its flights from 14 to 26 each week. This will add more than 6,500 seats each week on average as well as operating 20 weekly flights more compared with diciembre of 2024. There will be a new daily Guayaquil-Miami route which will start on el 26/10. The number of weekly flights to NY from Guayaquil will increase from 8 to 12, and from Quito to NY, from 6 to 7. The Quito-San Salvador route will get one more flight each week. In total, the number of flights per week will go from 44 to 64 in diciembre, 2025.

From abril, Avianca will increase flights on the Quito-Cuenca route from 12 to 15. Although Cuenca does not have international flights, Avianca has adjusted its schedules to facilitate connecting passengers to the US. It has added a midday flight between Quito and Cuenca which will make connections to Cuenca easier. Juan Francisco Ortiz, Avianca’s country officer said that many Ecuadorians visit their families in NY and foreigners living in Cuenca travel to the US. <Hopefully, lousy connections to Cuenca will be one less thing for gringos to complain about.>

Garantizan abastecimiento de gas – Austrogas guaranteed the supply of gas for Azuayan families after 13 days of the Paro Nacional. It has enough for distribution. The tankers are using alternate routes from the terminal in Pascuales, Guayas to Azuay. <In case you didn’t know, this is how the gas gets to your house.> At their facility in Challuabamba, Austrogas bottles the gas for sale. Trucks take the cylinders to warehouses that serve as distributors to the city and the other cantons. According to Gerardo Maldonado, manager of Austrogas, the company got a large quantity of gas 15 days ago compared to their average daily demand due to the uncertainty generated by the start of the Paro. <And they probably didn’t want a repeat of the last paro when it was hard to get gas.> Maldonado also was worried about the retention of full gas tankers with thousands of gallons of gas in Suscal canton, Cañar. He said it wasn’t possible to reach an agreement with the protesters to permit a humanitarian corridor in that zone. The humanitarian corridor was requested due to the risks of having parked tankers without technical control.

TasteAtlas publica hornado de Cuenca – TasteAtlas, an online guide specializing in traditional foods, local ingredients, and authentic restaurants around the world, included Cuenca hornado <what a lot of you know as chancho> in their guides. It described hornado as one of the most traditional dishes of the Ecuadorian sierra – pork roasted over a low fire for a long time with a juicy inside and crispy outside and served with mote, potatoes or salad. It also described the difference between the versions in different cities. TasteAtlas was created in 2018 and functions as an interactive map of world cooking where you can find typical foods, drinks and products of each region. It also publishes ranking lists such as the “100 best dishes.” <Is this where you go to find out where the “locals” eat?>