Tram fare and subsidy explained, Transportation study, Czech musicians play the Old Cathedral, Feds owe Cuenca millions, Let’s go fishing!

Miércoles, 4/3/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Concierto – Composer Luis Chiriboga Tamayo will present a concert with 14 short pieces for piano, violin and cello este jueves a las 20:00 in the Museo de Arte Moderno.

Concierto – Two Czech musicians will bring “In the sing of tango” to the Catedral Vieja mañana (jueves) a las 20:00. <The headline of the article says today. The risk is yours.>

The parish of San Joaquin is called the “Garden of Cuenca.”

Exposición -A foto exhibit, “habitantes del caos,” will open el jueves, 5/3 a las 10:00 inthe Sala Temporal de Etnografía in the Museo Pumapungo.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

San Joaquín – San Joaquín, known as the garden of Cuenca, is celebrating its 75th anniversary as a parish. You can get fresh produce, crafts such as baskets, and taste exquisite comida típica.
Sábado: 8:00 -auto show and expo
16:00 – solemn session
19:00 – eslection of the Queen of San Joaquín.
Domingo: 9:00 – parade
12:00 – festival de danzas
14:00 – election of the Cholita San Joaquín & comedy show with Santiago Illescas
16:30 – show and dance.

Otras cosas –

Titular – USD 5 o 6 millones, subsidio al tranvía ($5 or 6 million, tram subsidy) – (see today’s Wednesday’s post in CHL for more info). The Municipio de Cuenca will need to subsidize the Tranvía with $5 to 6 million annually because the fare approved el lunes won’t cover the costs. The city also owes $48,365,000 of the $51 million loan it received from France for the construction of the system which, in total, cost $280 million. The first payment was made in enero and automatically deducted. <Some sharp French lawyer must have put that clause in.>

City councilman Xavier Barrera said the city has an average of 460,000 bus rides daily, and the tranvía will have 40,000 or 8.6% with an objective of reaching 60,000 (13%) with the bus feeder lines. An ordinance approved on 11/2/2020 gave the city 3 months to present its proposal on how the tranvía and buses will integrate. A legal advisor to the Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca (CTC <memorize this, because I’m going to stop typing the full name and just use the abbreviation from now on.>) said that the fares that were approved weren’t based in studies or reality. He said the city’s estimate of a ridership of 44,000 on the tram is wrong because the bus #100 which duplicates that route carries a maximum of 30,000 riders. He is waiting for the bus fares to be adjusted to 34 cents since the renovation of the 475 bus fleet has already been done. <Hmm – I must be hallucinating those belching blue vehicles on the roads.>

Tranvía fares have been set as follows:
$1.00 – normal single ride fare with a ticket
$ .50 – preferential fare with a ticket <How is the ticket machine going to tell if I’m a student, disabled, or a senior? If you can tell the machine you’re in a preferencial group, Cuenca will be almost 100% old, students, or disabled.>
$ .35 – normal fare with a card
$ .30 – normal multi-trip fare (recharging a minimum of 5 rides in a maximum of 5 days)
$ .15 – normal preferencial multi-trip fare
$ .17 – normal preferencial fare with card
The value of a card will be $1.17 with 50,600 cards distributed free for the first time. <And 5,000 of them will go to old gringos who can’t resist anything free. It’s small compensation for having arrived at age 65 with failing eyes, ears, joints, and memory.>

Study on mobility – Tomorrow will be the last day of a study on mobility conducted by the City and the U. of Cuenca to create a matrix for how, from where, and to where the local population moves. This study will go beyond the Plan de Movilidad which focuses on how public transportation is used. It will provide a unified vision about vehicular traffic, give the city tools to use to decongest traffic bottlenecks at rush hours, provide bus service to unserved areas, establish pedestrian zones, and alternative transportation areas. <The interviews are in Spanish unless you’re lucky enough to find an English speaking interviewer.>

Debt to city – The Gobierno (Government <When you see Government with a capital G it means it’s the Feds.>) owes $14 million to the city for un-reimbursed IVA collections. This debt dates back to 2017 and is affecting the execution of municipal projects. The city is working with the Banco de Desarrollo del Ecuador to get non-refundable credit to continue with community housing projects and improving a bridge in La Compañía.

Fishing – A proposal by a group from the U. de Azuay (UDA) was selected as one of the 50 best projects in 2019 out of 672 submitted in a contest held by the Ministerio de Turismo. “IKIAM ANGLERS” has the goal of conserving ecosystems through fishing. Ecuador has a lot of aviturismo (bird watching), but in terms of fish, few students realize the importance of water sources in the ecosystems. The group hopes it will be picked as one of the top 10 projects which will allow it to develop the project.

The 3 part project would focus on research, conservation, and local and tourism development involving 3 locations – Cuenca, Nabón and Gualaquiza. People will gather in Cuenca and learn about its ecosystem, go to Nabón and their first contact with fish in the Curiquingue lake, and then to Gualaquiza to learn more with the participation of local communities. It will be geared to children so they can see fishing as more than an activity, but a strategy to build ties with nature. <Get them young enough to create a culture of conservation rather than of consumption?>

Avioandes with Cuenca-Guayaquil-Cuenca service – This charter airline might offer service between Cuenca and Guayaquil, but only through charter flights. Rather than buying individual seats, passengers have to rent the whole plane with the charge based on hours of flight time. The airline currently transports both cargo and passengers with 2 – 37 seat planes and helicopters and has been in operation for 12 years. It’s current clients are mining and oil companies, fútbol teams, and the Government <There’s that capital G.> companies. It also offers tourist flights by helicopter on the “Ruta de los Volcanes, experiencia desde el aire” (Route of the Volcanoes, experience from the air).

Credit scores – The best credit scores among women are in Azuay. The average score of women in Azuay is 860 followed by Pichincha with 837; Manabí with 807; Guayas with 790; and Los Ríos with 782. According to the Banco Central de Ecuador, 61 out of every 100 Ecuadorians or 6.8 million adults, has access to financial services. Of these, 3.7 million are men and 3.1 are women. <Who knows what the men’s credit scores are – too low to print?>

Descuentos y compras –

HomeVega – $25 gift card, up to 20% discount in whole store – 5-8/3 – special events on sábado 7/3 with cupcake class a las 11:00 and cocktail class a las 16:00.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne