Here are some more Cuenca Christmas parade pics.

Our once tranquil Cuenca life has gotten bust lately.
I have been playing tunes with a talented keyboard playing neighbor across the hall. So I am learning some new material and refining some old material. Lots of fun. I love learning new stuff.
Last week we spent a long weekend with friends Rene and George in Alausi and Riobamba.
Alausi is home to 'the devil's nose train ride'. It is a beautiful, small, quiet little town that is nestled nicely in a little are surrounded by the Andes mountains on three sides. The town folk are exceptionally friendly and respectful. We heard only one car alarm in 24 hours (this must be a record for Ecuador). It was a lovely and peaceful place. I highly recommend it. The train ride is cool and merit a separate post. Manama.
Riobamba was the polar opposite of Alas. It was loud, busy, congested, and a large shock after Alausi. It was interesting though. There are very many indigenous people from several different villages there. We did enjoy some good food and drink. My last breakfast was eggs, a fruit filled crepe, freshly made fruit juice, and an amazing cup of espresso. Total cost....$3.00. We also saw an all day parade on Saturday. We first came across it at 9:30 in the morning and then again at around 6:00 in the evening. It was a very large parade with at least fifty groups of dancers in costume and accompanying bands. We were told that the parade is part of the Christmas celebration that begins in December and goes through February. The portion of the parade that we saw in the morning was all different groups of costumed dancers with each group being led by a truck with a sound system blaring in the back. While the portion of the evening parade that we saw was varying groups of costumed dancers led by a parade Marshall who directed the group. Each group was followed by a marching band. Uniquely, each band played the same tune, in virtually the same tempo, and the same key. Never seen before. Might be a nice twist for the Rose Bowl parade or the Macy's parade.
Pics are going to follow.
This week I began Spanish class. It is lunes, miercoles y viernes por dos hours. Busy, busy.

The last few weeks have been quite hectic around here. We have been entertaining gests, exploring and attending the many festivals and parties associated with the holidays.

Highlights include a trip to Cajas National park. It is about a one hour bus ride outside of Cuenca. The visitor center is at 13,600 feet (5,000+ feet above Cuenca...rare air up there). The place is spectacular.

Another trip was to El Pumapungo Museum and Aqueological Park. This musem is here in Cuenca and like most museums here, it is free. Again, an amazing trip.

We also have haad some amazing meals.

More on all of this later.

Here are some more pics from the Christmas eve childrens parade.

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.