Pase del Nino Viajero

This tradicion Cuencana has its origins in 1823, when Dona Josefa Heredia commissioned the statue of the baby Jesus. In 1961 Monsignor Miguel Cordero Crespo decided to visit the most important Christian holy sites around the world and to take the statue with him. He had it blessed by Pope John XXIII before returning to Cuenca, at which point the statue was named el Nino Viajero (the Traveling Child). And so this amazing parade, which honors all children, was born.

It was the most engaging event I've witnessed so far in Cuenca--truly rich, culturally and aesthetically. It brought out the most playful aspects of Cuencano culture and I was so happy to finally have the opportunity to see it this year. I joined some friends early on at the staging area of the parade, before it actually started moving. This allowed us to see details that we might otherwise have missed because once the parade got going the crowds became much denser and it became more difficult to take pictures.

I took so many pictures I should probably post them in two sections but I can't wait! So I've organized them into themes to reduce visual clutter. First, the floats, with their elaborate yet extremely low-tech decorations.

Offerings ranged from all kinds of produce

to children toys

to adult toys

to the ever popular Barbie for girls or perhaps, as one friend pointed out, what some men might also want for Christmas, just the human version!

Then the cooked food portion of the offerings. Not surprisingly, the standard celebratory roast pig, adorned with red peppers and tomatoes for a touch of seasonal color,

followed by a roast chicken with its cheerful red comb and flanked by cuy, all resting on a bed of potatoes (with rose petals strewn around it!),

and heart-shaped loaves of bread.

Lots of animals, including the horses the senoritas rode on


and the mounted police, bearing flags and looking quite dignified.

Then the farm animals with their very own offerings. This sheep carries a roast chicken and lots of peppers (notice the $5 bill wrapped around the chicken's neck)

and the goat and llama offer plenty of toys.

(This llama was very friendly and seemed to really want me to take its picture!)

Lots of home made animals on the floats, some were hilariously "naive" but you had to be there, I couldn't capture the charm in pictures

but I think these were quite well done.

Some women were carrying alternate children, like this doll

or this dog, who actually seemed quite comfortable and happy in its sling.

And finally, the children themselves.

All of whom looked quite spiffy

and downright beautiful.

Best parade ever!

Random Acts of...Parading

It still tickles me how parades are ordinary occurrences here. I don't think permits are necessary and sometimes the parades are tiny, just a bunch of people, children wearing what, to me, appear to be random costumes. It's often hard to tell exactly what is being celebrated. However, it is now the Christmas season so I know all these parades are to commemorate this event--what a cognitive relief!

When I first moved here the drill was: hear parade music; run to grab the camera; race up the stairs to the rooftop to get pictures before the parade passed me by. Then the novelty wore off as parades became not so special events. But the itch to run to see the parade is hard to ignore and I'm back at it. The picture above is of one of those tiny parades, which happened by yesterday, the kind that seems to spring out of nowhere and then disappear the same way. One of the things I love about them is how traffic will come to a stand still, with buses and taxis silently crawling behind the parade until it turns a corner.

This one, which just went by, was a long parade however, long enough that traffic became restless and there was some honking.

Nothing too aggressive but given that there is no traffic police to manage the flow, some parade participants had to act the part, calming the drivers and hurrying the small ones along.

This ragtag band was marching around the other day, perhaps hoping to create a parade but sadly, there were no takers on that day.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

So we're taking a walk, going nowhere in particular, and there's this piece of conceptual art at the intersection of the river and De Las Herrerias street. We walk around it and realize that it represents a volcano, erupting and laying waste to what remains below. There are jagged pieces of bottles, broken toys--the detritus of ruined lives. Okeydokey.

Then we notice, high up, tied to the tip of the volcano, the figure of a woman, hair blowing in the wind, looking remarkably life like. Alrighty then. T'is the season?

Walking along Herrerias street, and as always, peering into any open door, we see the longest interior hall I've ever seen. It curves and appears to have no end. It's not an alley between two buildings--the door is located in the middle of a single structure. From the outside it looks like a a building of average width and size but looking in, it seems like there's a whole other world of doorways inside it. Just how large is this building? Where does this hallway go? Maybe next time I'll work up the nerve to walk in.

And what's going on here? Why are they featuring the buttocks of a manikin on this second-story display window? Is this intentional? Did they not think this through? Why is he wearing a thong and a suit jacket in the first place?

And this intense encounter between a child trapped in a car and a horse. The light changed and the car finally drove away, with the boy still reaching out to the horse. The horse remained, curious and maybe just a touch alarmed.

Hmmm, happy holidays, I guess!

Mixed Bag

We had planned on going zip lining yesterday and then found out a Christmas concert was going to be held at the Old Cathedral in the evening, so we decided we'd do both, with dinner in between. It made for quite a mixed bag of activities, all enjoyable but appealing to very different parts of the brain!

Other bloggers have already written about Cuenca Canopy and I don't have much to add other than while it was fun, I felt I wanted more height! more speed! more zip! The most exciting part of the zip turned out to be the braking at the end. Since I felt it was a bit slow going I wasn't using the brake at all and as I neared the end of every line I would end up way too close to the tires hanging to prevent what I imagine would have been quite spectacular crashes into the trees. It made for quite a nice shot of adrenalin at the end of every line!

We then moved on to dinner at Raymipampa, where I have found the best fried chicken wings in Cuenca. They are the biggest wings I have ever seen and are always freshly cooked. Crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside--really, really good.

Then it was on to the concert.

Apparently there were over 100 performers with the combined local and national choruses and orchestras. First, the Children's Choir lined up along the center aisle and walked up to the stage where they sang some traditional Christmas songs, including a Hispanic one which I actually remembered from when I was a very, very young child. It reminded me of my mother and, as tomorrow is the first year anniversary of her death, it was particularly moving for me.

When that section of the event was over, the children walked back down the aisle, with huge proud grins on their faces. Here is a little girl's father waiting with open arms for his daughter.

Then as the adult choir members walked up the aisle, the women wearing black cocktail dresses, I noticed this lone indigenous woman in her beautiful pristine outfit complete with embellished hat.

The music selection was quite eclectic. There were both popular Anglo Christmas songs as well as Hispanic ones, classic sacred music in Latin, a fast and edgy number reminiscent of a James Bond (or Pink Panther!) theme and toward the end a very jazzy Mambo number that had the choir swaying and our heads bopping. It was an excellent performance all around.

Quite the mixed bag--my favorite kind of day.

Out There

Life has been eventful lately, maybe too much so, but I had the opportunity to go to Canar on Sunday. This is a town whose population appears to be mostly indigenous and who seemed to be unused to tourists visiting.

The market was clearly patronized by the locals and had no crafts targeted to tourists. There were a few stalls supplying the traditional skirts, which were worn by the majority of the women.

We noticed that women of all ages wore heavier socks--sometimes tights, sometimes knee socks, sometimes ankle socks, sometimes having some color or style correlation to the outfit, but quite often, as in the case above, seemingly as a utilitarian after thought (notice the USA logo on some of the socks!). The footwear was sturdy and practical and reminded me of shoes a schoolgirl might wear. There was something of a visual disconnect between the above-the knee and below-the-knee areas!

We also noticed both men and women wearing these round white hats with small balls dangling either on the front or on the back of them. I asked someone if these balls had any significance and I was told balls hanging on the front meant the person was single, while balls hanging on the back meant they were married. I love these kind of coded messages!

Some sellers hawked home remedies and there seemed to be a pretty good market for them. This one was an all purpose tonic

while this one was specifically for the treatment of arthritis.

These children were selling aromatic burning wood and incense. It had the heady earthy fragrance found in church interiors.

There were several items ingeniously fabricated out of rubber tires, including several types of containers.

And these fantastic rubber sandals, which looked to be of ancient times.

Things have been a bit discouraging lately, on several fronts, but life does manage to go on.