Monday, November 3, 2014

Cuenca November 3rd 2014

Aerial shot of Cuenca. 194 years ago today, the city declared 

its independence from the Spanish Crown. Cuenca would 

achieve full independence in 1822. The city's full name is

 Santa Ana de los Cuatro RĂ­os de Cuenca. It was a Spanish

 tradition to dedicate a new city in the name of a saint, in this 

case, to Santa Ana. 



Last night parade and fireworks




Saturday, November 1, 2014

Artesian show in Cuenca

During the 3 day holiday in Cuenca (as I talked about in the previous blog), artisans come from all over Ecuador, Peru and Columbia to show their wares.  Miles of tents clan be seen up and down both sides of the Rio Tomebamba.






Tents, tents and tents

 This man, dressed all in black, is from Saragura, where we visited on the way to Vilcabamba.

 Hand made musical instruments






 Translated it reads: Symbolism of the story of the dead altar.
Below is an altar  dedicated tot he dead.



Flower pedals over the ground - people stopped to pray.

Just a beautiful (80 degrees) day in Cuenca.  Another reason we love it here.

We did not attend the parade today but a friend took these pictures which I thought was so cute.



Halloween in Ecuador - Gringo style.

We were invited to a party by a friend.   My friend's husband, their daughter and son-in-law and 11 children were all going.  Then they invited a couple more friends -  which prompted them to hire a bus to take us all there.  The home where the party was is about 10 minutes from the center of town but with the holiday traffic it took us 1/2 hr. November 1st to the 3rd is a major holiday in Cuenca.  The celebration of their Independence from Spain - coincides with the Day of the Dead on Nov. 2nd.  That's the day the Ecuadorians go to the cemetery to wash and clean the headstones and have family gatherings,  They picnic and sing and celebrate the dead.  Never to be forgotten!

Now on to the party.  The home is owned by an ex-pat family with 2 teenage girls.  The grounds of the home accommodated about 150 people who attended the party.
Most everyone was in costume.  The children were charming and costumed in very creative and some very original costumes.

Here's a selections of photos showing the grounds of the home, the never-ending food and drink and the great costumes.

Everything but the food was outside.





















Bus trip to party.


Decorated court yard around house.




Lots of food - more tables in another room.


Party scenes








































My knitting buddy and her husband


Even the babies were in costume 






Marilyn and Roger (the friends that invited us to the party) 

Bob's favorite food - deviled eggs


Even ECUADOR GEORGE was there!


My favorite costume - Candy Kiss - so cute.
The guy on the right with the hat came as a GRINGO!