Turi overlook reopens in June; Reasons why Cuenca attracts foreigners; New drug ordinance is planned; Concert for the disabled; Cañaris’ head deformation

May 3, 2022 | 4 comments

Lunes, 2/5/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

The “Cuenca Activa e Inclusiva” Festival will be held el sábado, 7/5 in the Alejandro Serrano Aguilar stadium with a free concert by the Tercer Mundo band. The event is being organized by the Empresa de Movilidad, Tránsito y Transporte (EMOV-EP). It will promote the rights of disabled people and will collect non-perishable food for the most vulnerable. The festival will start with an inclusive fashion show in which members of 9 organizations such as Fundación HOPE, the Special Olympics, and Fundación Mundo Sin Barreras will participate. From 25/4, people who want to attend need to make a donation and receive a bracelet with a Q code which is also your raffle ticket. You can donate adult or babies’ diapers <Maybe some of you even have some packages on hand in your closet for those just in case you can’t get to a bathroom in time days> and wet wipes at Acción Social in the parque la Libertad. You can make donations of clothing in good condition and non-perishable food at the Funcación Nuestra Niñez (Carlos Rigoberto Vintimilla 1-30 y Luis Moreno Mora). You can also donate dog and cat food for rescued animals and leave it at ETOVET (Carlos V y Primero de Mayo).

Titular –

Lindsay Burton moved to Cuenca from Hawaii 13 years ago and opened Cafe San Sebas with her brother Adam in San Sebastián Plaza in 2011. She married Claudio Hollenstein, from Switzerland, three years ago. (El Mercurio)

Reclamos al gobierno (Complaints to the government) – See Monday’s article in CHL for details.

Titular del domingo, 1/5/2022 –

Extranjeros emprendedores (Entrepreneurial foreigners) – The architecture, rivers and quality of its people are what make Cuenca special for foreigners. Lindsay Burton, from Hawaii, has lived here for 13 years, and with her brother Adam opened “Café San Sebas” in the parque San Sebastián. The specialty of the restaurant is brunch with the names of the dishes on the menu in English and the descriptions in Spanish. Originally their clientele was foreign, but over the years, Cuencanos as well as tourists from other parts of Ecuador started to enjoy the offerings, and now the clientele is 40% foreign. The family lives in Tutupali where they raise animals such as cows and birds. Besides the café, the family makes cheeses including cottage cheese, cream cheese, and feta. 3 years ago Lindsay married Claudio Hollenstein from Switzerland. He came to Ecuador with his brother to open a hostal on Luis Cordero. He said that Cuenca is like Berne, with its houses that stand out for their architecture, but what he likes best are the rivers.

Expat Roxy Bondhus, a native Minnesotan, with her husband Eduardo Carrasco and their two children, Nala and Lucas. (El Mercurio)

Another extranjera is Roxy Bondhus from Minnesota who is married to Eduardo Carrasco, an Ecuadorian biologist and photographer. They have 2 children, 2 and 1. Roxy has lived in Cuenca for 6 years and came to the city because friends and family and acquaintances resided in Cuenca and to escape the hectic life she had in the US. She speaks English which is the dominant language in their home, but the children speak Spanish, which is instilled by their father. <Lucky kids to grow up bilingual and not have to study for years to try get to bilingualness (or whatever the state of being bilingual is called).>

Cuenca –

Turi tendrá nueva imagen en junio (Turi will have a new image in June) – The renovation of the Mirador de Turi is 50% complete. The construction of the area for the cafeteria, transformer cabinet, water and sanitary works, piping, electrical network, and reinforced earth wall are complete. The process for finishes is advancing. The work started el 11/10/2021 with an investment of $1,260,103.76 from the city, and should finish in julio. This tourist balcón (balcony – your word for the day) will have walks, bike and vehicle parking, a cafeteria, an exhibit hall for crafts, toilet facilities, and spaces for mobility. <Not sure what those are – maybe the turnaround space you need to get in and out of a parking space – not something to be taken for granted here.>

Paúl Pañi, president of the GAD for Turi, said that around the lookout point, there are about 16 businesses including restaurants, bars and crafts stores. All of these are operating normally, and he invited Cuencanos and tourists to visit the other attractions in Turi parish such as the cerro de Monjas, Boquerón, El Calvario, Bellavista <which does have a beautiful view – of the prison>, San Marcos, and the Parque Ictocruz.

Other local projects in progress are the traffic interchange on av. De las Américas in the Sindicato de Choferes bomba (gas station – a bonus word for the day. If you get directions and part of it includes “bomba” it doesn’t have anything to do with a bomb or the fire department) sector. The project started el 19/3/2022 and is on time to finish in 8 months. 75,000 vehicles and 3,000 buses transit this area daily.

The contract for a new bridge, La Compañía, will be signed el 7/5. Work on the vía a Mayancela will make it an alternate route while the bridge is being built. The bridge construction will take 180 days and benefit residents of Patamarca, Ochoa León, Chiquinta and Mayancela. 21,000 vehicles circulate through this area.

Ordenanza para combatir el consumo de drogas (Ordinance to combat drug use) – A proposal to prohibit the consumption and sale of drugs in public spaces in the canton is being publicized. The council is looking for a regulatory tool that will complement current laws to keep children and youth from falling into drug use. Many kids are exposed to drugs by dealers around the schools and by classmates.

Temas –

Cañaris: prácticas de deformación craneal (Cañaris: cranial deformation practices) – A skull was found in a small indigenous community in the General Morales parish in Cañar. The skull showed that the Cañaris in the intermediate period (300 A.C.) were familiar with reshaping crania. It was of a man between 40 & 50 and eventually donated to the anthropological collection of the Casa de la Cultura Núcleo del Cañar. It was not surprising to find that the Cañaris, like the Maya, Paracas, Nazca, and Incas, reshaped baby’s heads for cultural reasons. The reasons were to identify a privileged or noble group; as a symbol of social, economic or religious status; or for aesthetic reasons. <Kind of like foot binding in China. If you want more details you’ll have to slog through a half page article with 13 long paragraphs and only 16 or 17 sentences.>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

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 (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.

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