Miércoles, 12/12/2018
Hola, Todos –
Actividades –
Pagina cultural –
Linguistic trips to France – The Alianza Francesa (calle Tadeo Torres y av. Solano) is holding an informational meeting el sábado, 22/12 a las 10:30 about a 4-week trip to France with classes and tourist activities. <Something for you well-off Francophiles to think about.>
Festival de Villancicos – The XV Edición del Festival de Villancicos (XV Edition of the Christmas Carols Festival) will be Thursday, el viernes y el sábado a las 20:00 in the Catedral Vieja. Different choruses from schools, businesses, and cities will sing. There will also be a performance el sábado a las 10:30 in Parque Calderón with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Conservatorio Superior de Música. All performances are free.
Evento de la Bienal – The Bienal is organizing “Las Noches Circulares” with night walks el jueves, 10/1; and el jueves 17/1 a las 19:00, leaving from MMAM. Get more info at produccion@ bienaldecuenca.org.
Church tour – There will be a ruta teatralizada (dramatized route) in the iglesia de Santo Domingo el viernes a las 20:00. The tour, organized by the Archdiocese of Cuenca will include the church, convent and terrace. Cost: $5.00 and $3.00 for ? <maybe students, disabled and seniors, but I’m not sure>.
Teatro – “Break, Coffe and Art” (Bolívar 10-31 y Padre Aguirre) will start its new theater season with “Saulo” Thursday a las 20:00 and “El maleficio de la mariposa” (The hex of the butterfly) el sábado also a las 20:00.
Del cuerpo del periodico –
Fiesta – The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel and the Convention Center at the Mall del Río are having a New Year’s Eve party starting at 20:00 el 31/12 and ending at 4:00 on 1/1/2019. There will be live music from the Sonora Dinamita Orchestra from 23:00 to 2:00. Also included is a dinner buffet, disjey (DJ?), barra libre (free bar) <really?> with beer, gin, vodka, rum, whiskey and cocktails starting at midnight, and champagne and grapes at midnight. <These guys must either not know how much gringos drink or they figure most of you can’t stay up late enough to do a lot of damage at the bar. There might even be a police control point when you leave the hotel and center.> Cost: $75.00 with children under 5 free. <Does anyone really bring a kid under 5 to this kind of party?>
Otras cosas –
Titular – Nuevo Vicepresidente convoca a la unidad (New Vice President calls for unity) – Otto Sonnenholzner Sper assumed the vice-presidency of Ecuador yesterday for a term ending in 2021. He was elected with 94 votes from the PSC, CREO, BIN, AP, and IND parties. Only the Revolución Ciudadana did not support him. The 35-year-old is of German and Lebanese descent with no political affiliations.
Mini solar centers – The Agencia de Regulación y Control de Electricidad (Arconel – Electricity Regulation and Control Agency) has a new program called “Microgeneración fotovoltaica para autoabastecimiento de consumidores finales de energía eléctrica” (Photovoltaic microgeneration for self-supply of electrical energy to end users). This will allow consumers to install photovoltaic panels in homes, businesses and other institutions after complying with various requirements. <You really didn’t think that you could do this without some kind of bureaucracy did you?> The Universidad Politécnica Salesiana is installing panels to supply 50% of the electrical needs of two of its buildings along with an electric car recharging station. If a building uses less electricity than the panels provide, the excess can be fed into the national electrical system. The technology needs to be imported, but the items needed for small installations can be imported duty free. The cost for a system for a house will be about $20,000. <At my current level of spending, the system would pay for itself in about 166 years. I don’t plan to live that long. Heck, Earth as we know and enjoy it might not last that long.> For the requirements, go to www.regulacionelectrica.gob.ec.
Basic salary increase – Businesses and FUT (Frente Unitario de Trabajadores – United Workers Front) are at the negotiating table to set the annual increase for the SBU (Salario Básico Unificado – Unified Basic Salary) which is currently at $385/mo. FUT wants an increase of $70 to recuperate workers’ purchasing power.
Plaza San Francisco – The Plaza will have a cultural component with cultural and artistic presentations as well as the vendors. There will be special sales on certain hours or days of the week for things like guitars and traditional medicines. The Otavalan textile vendors will leave the arcade and move into the plaza. The booths for the vendors are currently being built and electricity and telecommunications being installed.
Monigotes – The city has determined there will be 18 zones where monigotes (old year dummies) can be sold. These will include the esplanade at the estadio, the linear park on 24 de Mayo, parque El Paraíso, Loma de Cullca on av. Abelardo J. Andrade, av. Ordóñez Lasso (in the Virgen del Milagro complex), Feria Libre, the Tahuantinsuyo linear park in Los Eucaliptos, and the Allcuquiro, De Las Américas, Derechos Humanos (3 Puentes sector), Miraflores, and El Templete parks, on calle Opera Circunvalación Sur, and more.
Pet adoption – The Comisión de Gestión Ambiental (CGA – Environmental Management Commission) of the City of Cuenca is holding an adoption event el sábado at the opening of the megapark La Luz located on the “Tu Eres Pedro” hill. Catalina Albán, director of the CGA said there about 18,000 street dogs in Cuenca but that most of them have owners. This adoption event is one way it supports the foundations that rescue abandoned animals. The other way it reduces the number of street dogs is with free vaccinations in rural and peripheral areas. It also takes complaints about mistreatment of animals at 4134-900, ext. 1650. <Better write out your script in Spanish if you’re going to complain about your neighbor’s dog or have your facilitator make the call.>
Road closure – The vía Gualaceo-Plan de Milagro-Limón Indanza has been closed at Ingamullo 2 due to recurring slides which have also affected the río San Francisco which supplies water to around 30,000 people in Gualaceo.
Descuentos y compras –
Coral – up to 80% off – Mall del Río and Batán Shopping – 14, 15, & 16/12.
Plaza Europea – Bring in the ad and get a free apron for your purchase of $20.00 – Roberto Crespo 1-32 y Luis Moreno Mora – raw turkeys, $3.99/kilo – Xmas baskets from $9.99, free bottle of wine with your marinated turkey for $5.40/kilo or marinated ham for $6.72/kilo.
Nissan – Versa from $21,500 up to a Pathfinder from $67,990.
Chery – Tiggo2 Sport from $16,990.
And that’s all for today so Hasta el día cuando me siento como traducir otra vez –
Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.
