Here are some more pics from the staging area of the Cuenca Navidad parade The parade lasted over eight hours. When we left the staging area, it was 10:45 and the parade had not yet begun (scheduled start was10:00 ya gotta love Ecuador).
We spoke with some gringos who live by the staging area (the Tomebamba river). They said that families began arriving around midnight the night before to setup and decorate their cars and trucks to transform into floats.
parade participants came from all around Ecuador, as well as Columbia, Peru, and other countries. Some traveled on horseback and entered the parade that way. In South America, different regions and towns have unique Panama (that actually originated in Ecuador) hats. Many of these are represented in our pics.
Three of us had cameras and took around 200 pics. These were edited and boiled down to around 70. I will post a few at a time over the next several posts.
Enjoy

Feliz navidad from Cuenca, Ecuador. It is in the 70s today and beautiful.
We went to watch the big Christmas parade this morning. They were expecting around 600 floats. We went to the staging area prior to the parade kicking off. Here are a couple of pics from the 150 or so that we took.
Wish all of you were here to see it for yourselves. Words and pics do not do it justice.

Today (hoy) Cuenca is imitating Western Washington. It is raining a lot. Unlike good ol' WW though, we know that soon the sun will return. Here are some pics:

Cuenca is full of surprises. Todays surprise came this evening when we heard sort of crashing/crushing sound. We both left what we were doing and began investigating our digs for the cause of the alarm. Eventually Jackie wandered into the kitchen and discovered mucho agua on the floor. Looking further, she found that one of our kitchen sinks had sunk. That is, it freed itself from the countertop and fell through the cabinet.
As it turns out our landlord was in the building for an owners meeting. He came up, helped clean up, apologized, drank a beer, told us it was his birthday, talked about his family and showed pictures, and arranged for repairs tomorrow. Nice guy. Not a great birthday gift.
Roseanne Rosannadanna always said 'it just goes to show it's always something'.
So true. Life in third world.
By the by, I went to the building meeting that was scheduled for 19:30. I arrived at 19:28 and ended up speaking with an Ecuadorian man who had plenty to say about a lot of things. We talked until the crowd was hushed at 20:06 to announce the beginning of the meeting. The first announcement was that the meeting was for owners only. I rose to leave and the man I had been speaking with said 'don't worry about it, you just can't vote.'
So I sat about three or four more minutes while nothing happened, and finally said 'I'm going'. My new friend agreed and we both left.
Hopefully he didn't go home to sinking sink. I did. Here's pics.

Ready for the turkey feed.

Left to tight; George, me, Jackie, John, and Barbie standing. Rene took the photo.

Dinner was great turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rum glazed carrots, green beans with garlic and bacon, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, squash soup, topped of with pecan pie.

I'm still recovering.

Turkeys are a bit pricey in Ecuador. Can't say ehy. But we got one anyway. Gonna host Thanksgiving for some Gringo pals. Jackie opened up the bird today, and of course all of the usual stuff was in a bag inside (like cracker jacks). The big surprise was that the feet were included. No joke, toenails and all. We'll put them in the freezer for when you visit.
The weather has been high 70s during the day, clouding up and raining in the evening. I've never spent Thanksgiving in the sun. I highly recommend it.
There are 52 churches in Cuenca. We toured one this week. Todos Santos (All Saints) is the name. This church celebrated it's first mass (of course it is a Catholic church, thanks to the Spanish and the Jesuits) in 1540. I wasn't more than 12 years old at the time.
Anyhow, the church was fascinating. They have cut out around five 6X4 chunks of the floor to reveal various historical relics including the original foundation and skeletons of two individuals thought to be centuries old indigenous folk.
The clerk who took our tour fee ($1.50 each, it is still a Catholic church so of course there is a fee) left her post to point out interesting things and try to enlighten us about the history of the church. She spoke only Spanish but she took great care to speak slowly and repeat things when we started looking really stupid. We were with our friends George and Rene, and between Rene and I we got a lot of information from her dissertation.
It was quite an experience being in such an old structure. Looking forward to more of these adventures.
In case you are interested, our electric bill La cuinta de luz) is running $32-$36 per month.

I haven't posted for awhile. I got some kinda bug. Probably this year's version of the South American flu. It slowed me down a bit, but no big deal. Don't like being sick though. Particularly when the sun is out and the weather warm. Guess I always associate sick with dank and dreary days.
Back at it now though.