New Years Eve in Cuenca

Hi Blog.  On December 31, 2013, we decided to split up our little band of merry tourist.  The more adventurous (Dave, Katie and Megan) decided to hike high up in the Andean Mountains, while Matt, Weina, William and Kathy opted for the double decker bus tour of Cuenca.  Dave is working on the blog entry from the hike. Here are the highlights from the bus tour.

The city of Cuenca — in full, Santa Ana de Los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca ("Saint Ann of the Four Rivers of the Basin") — is the capital of the Azuay Province. It is located in the highlands of Ecuador at about 2500 meters (7500 feet) above sea level. The center of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site because of its many historical buildings.

The New Cathedral of Cuenca (Catedral Metropolitana de la Inmaculada Concepción) dominates the central square known as Park Abdon Calderon.  The towers of the cathedral are truncated due to a calculation error of the architect. If they had been raised to their planned height, the foundation of this church would not have been able to bear the weight. In spite of the architect's immense mistake, the New Cathedral of Cuenca is a monumental work of faith that began to be built in 1885. It is in Romanesque Revival and Neo-Gothic style and its blue and white domes have become a symbol for the city. Its facade is made of alabaster and local marble, while the floor is covered with pink marble, brought from Carrara, Italy. When the Cathedral was first constructed 9,000 out of Cuenca's 10,000 inhabitants could fit in the building.

The dominant features of the city's geography are also the source of its name in Spanish: the four rivers of Cuenca (meaning a basin made by a confluence of rivers). These rivers are the Tomebamba (named after the Cañari culture), Yanuncay, Tarqui and Machangara, in order of importance. The first three of these rivers originate in the Páramo of Parque Nacional Cajas to the west of the city. These four rivers are part of the Amazon river watershed. Cuenca is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with passes to the west, south and east. Cuenca is also home to 52 Catholic churches.  While we didn't see them all on our tour, we did see a number of them.

We had a beautiful day for an open air bus ride.  The only thing we had to watch out for were the low hanging branches and electrical lines.  Here are Matt, Weina and William enjoying the sites and sounds of the city.

The half-way point was a stop at the Inglesia de Turi also knows as the Mirador de Turi. Turi is located in the perfect place to enjoy a breathtaking panorama of the entire city of Cuenca. Mirador means "lookout" or "viewpoint;" "Turi" means "brother" in Quechua, the language of the pre-colonial indigenous people of the same name.

Here are Matt, Weina and William with the entire City of Cuenca behind them.

After our tour, we had lunch in our favorite coffee shop, Coffee Tree.  All the American ex-pats hang out here.  While we were waiting for lunch, a New Years Eve Parade came by.  After lunch, we enjoyed a stroll along the river walk (the "Malecon") near Calle Larga.

Here William and Nai Nai stop in the shade for a game of roll the "carro" back and forth.

We returned to the hotel in time to greet our hiking party as they returned from the mountains in Cajas.  After a brief rest, it was off to a fabulous Italian dinner.  Here Katie and Megan stand before the stairs leading down to the river walk.

As tonight was New Year's Eve, we saw a number of cars carrying papier mache effigies, or "annos viejos."  The effigy represents the old year and all the things about it that you’d like to just set on fire and be done with…lousy politicians, unfaithful lovers, annoying celebrities, all are fair game. You can even buy cheap papier mache or plastic masks in local mercados of some of the worst politicians, sports figures, terrorists, and TV stars to give a face to your dummy.  Here is William's favorite - the one eyed minion from Despicable Me 2.  As soon as William saw it, he started singing the Minions' "Banana Song" - and by this time, since Ye Ye had played it over and over again for William on Ye Ye's smartphone, Weina and Matt were VERY tired of it.

An effigy can be a simple small paper mache figure or an elaborate Cuenca Effigy Display complete with light show and music.  Here Kathy, Megan and Katie pose with the effigy that our hotel staff put together.  We are guessing that this bloke must represent someone from the corporate office.

We spent about an hour walking from one effigy display to the next.  We always seemed to get there after a Burning Effigy had been burning a while, and we never saw the initial lightings.  By 10:00 p.m., the city streets began to fill, as more and more folks drove around the downtown area with their effigies tied to their cars.  We decided to call it a night, since we were all very tired from our touring.  Some of us were awoken at midnight by the sound of fireworks.

[ Ed Note: The next morning, we walked out expecting to find total devestation.  To our surprise, the entire downtown was in broom-clean condition.  Apparently, part of the New Year's Eve Celebration is the cleaning up afterwards.]