December 2, 2018: My last day in Cuenca

By margrad803 weeks ago

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The rains stopped after a very wet afternoon. I was hoping that the Christmas tree might be finished, so I headed out, down the street past the Iglesia San Sebastian. It was the first time I walked around on a Sunday night. Most of the city was empty, until I came to the Calderón Park.

This was the first time I had seen the doors of the church opened. Services were going on inside. A vendor was selling candles outside.

The park alongside the Iglesia San Sebastian was pretty empty, but prettily decorated for Christmas

The domes of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception were stunning in the night.

I really liked this minimalist wreath I saw in an upper window, which I had never noticed before.

Seeing the first window, caused me to look up more than normal. This window was in a building with a large graffiti mural. (to see the whole mural go to https://aninconvenient.life/2018/12/20/cuenca-graffiti/

Someone had a creative bent of mind.

When I got to the plaza, I was disappointed to find that the Christmas tree was in the same state I had last seen it in. I crossed over the road to the river, to take a few more photos of the christmas decorations. The tree was finished after I left Ecuador, click here to see a video of the finished tree.

There wasn’t much traffic when I crossed over to the river walk.

While I was on the bridge I spoke to a man who was also photographing the lights. Hearing his voice, I asked if he were from Alabama. He was. He was new to town, and I told him I was leaving the next day. He was surprised that I was out walking alone at night. I assured him that compared to the other cities I have lived in, Cuenca was very safe.

We spoke for a long time, until he said he was on his way to dinner. I told him that I had already had a great dinner at my condo, but I would walk with him to the restaurant. We talked about food and where to buy what. I cautioned him, that with it being Sunday night not so many restaurants were open. Eventually we found a chicken restaurant he liked the looks of and we said our goodbyes.

This walk had taken me away from the river, so I decided to go to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and see what was going on in the Calderón Park. I was really glad I had run into him, causing me to change directions. As I was heading down the street to the park, I ran into one of the young men I knew from the language exchange. I had missed that week’s meeting, because I was binge watching the last season of Downton Abbey and had lost track of time. It was good to be able to say goodbye, and send my best wishes to the group.

When I got to the park it was filled with people and the Police band was playing.

In the above video, I turn a 360 in the Calderón Park, while the police band played.

I scampered around to make sure I could take photos in areas were there were few people. Most everyone was grouped around the bandstand.

When I took these videos I limited my recording to less than 30 seconds, because WordPress was having a hard time loading larger ones. I am not sure if it was a function of WordPress or my internet connection in Cuenca. I will be experimenting with longer vedios now that WordPress has a new editor and I am on a different internet.

After enjoying the music, I decided to head over to Mercado 9 De Octubre to see what the Christmas decorations I had seen were supposed to be.

Once I was away from the park the streets were pretty empty again. The above art installation was spooky, I wondered if it were new, or if in the normal busy foot traffic, I had never noticed it.

When I got to the plaza, I found that the decorations which had been installed completely was a nativity scene. Children were playing all over the fake plane, their movements being echoed by the flexing metal. I should have taken a video to capture the sound.