La Fiesta de los Santos Inocentes

To learn more about Cuenca go to

www.cuencaecuador.com.ec

It's at around 8000 ft. in altitude and, after 6 days, even climbing a set of stairs still gives me (Tony) a hard time.

The accompanying pictures are some of the images Jo has captured with her new camera.

Cuenca is hundreds of years old with layers of past civilizations:Canari, Inca & Spanish.

It doesn't take much of an excuse to have a party here and we only had to wait 6 days before experiencing our first major festival.

Masks are a necessity if you're going to revel wildly on the streets in public and because they are for sale on every corner you don't have any excuse for not participating in the frequent celebrations.

This particular one was in memory of King Herod killing thousands of baby boys.

The Ecuadorians are a handsome and extremely friendly people, so their spin on this tragic event from the past is dancing, fireworks, music and colorful floats parading down the streets on a Wednesday evening.

Vendors line the route selling sizzling meat and potatoes on a stick,, cotton candy, noise-makers that sound like jungle birds and juices from every kind of fruit imaginable.

The float's themes are on everything from current topics like not cutting down the Amazonian trees in search of oil to historical representations of past civilazations from all over the globe.

There no adults to speak of in the parade...just kids!

There are pleanty of scary characters roaming around and if you stop paying attention to them and their show, they will charge at you screaming for a reaction.

The sacred and profane are both present.

What you (the person behind the mask) decides to make of all this tonight is often dictated by the character you have chosen from the pile of faces on the blanket with indigenous weavings thousands of years old.

One thing these people of the Andes are not is tall, so many of the innocents are marching around on stilts and some are even performing tricks on one leg at an even higher altitude than the rest of us on the street.

There are oohhs and aahhs as the one-legged centipede made up of young men costumed as court jesters snakes down the avenue and a reckless speed.

And of course, another advantage to their elevated perches is that they do not have to take deep breathes of the diesel fumes spilling out of float vehicles waiting for the parade to resume. Stop and go. Stop and go.

( Our major accomplishment these past 6 days was securing an apartment and finally unpacking.)

The street was filled with belly dancers, men dressed as animals and women dressed like men, but the grass islands between the avenues had even stranger creatures. Children with blinking lighted devil horns, poodles wearing colorful visors and raincoats leashed to hawkers selling more of the same, youngsters masked as the elderly and mutton dressed as lamb were all barking, whistling, singing, cursing and laughing so loudly they gave the brass and drum section of parade performers a run for their money late into the night.

(We went to the markets finally for food and drink, so we could stop eating all our meals in restaurants. Here, like many other places in Latin America, coffee is hot milk and instant Nescafe; but now we can grind our own. No big deal in the states, but here it is.)

Not all the innocent ones were murdered. The baby Jesus and many others survived to live on until today.

You can see in their faces the appreciation of the world's wonders, the absence of malice and the eagerness to love the family they're with instead of
looking for somebody better to call their own.

(It was very special for us to have so many express their concern for our safety as we embarked on this

journey. Obviously, one can get hit by a car at any intersction back in the states, but friend don't tell you to look both ways before crossing. Our everyday lives don't often offer evidence of the concern felt by friends and family. So, when we were leaving it was unusual and very special to have so many people express their true feelings for us. We Thank You with our hearts.)

Early on we took up to a good vantage point (in an old oak tree) and waited and waited and waited; then we gave up heading back to the apartment. But, as we were rising the steep hill back towards the City's colonial center, we heard the music begin from down below and saw the parade start off down the street towards where we had waited so long. Should we bag it? Or, should we go back with no guarantee of a good viewing spot? We went back and it was better that expected. Our lives are made by our choices.

There are many different races of people making up Ecuador and often their hats and clothing distinguish them from one another.

I don't know that we will ever be able to know them all, but it seems like a more worthwhile undertaking than some of the "Time Suck" activities we had been spending our lives on recently.

It's not really possible to convey just how different things are when their is no set end date. Why worry or think about the future or the past, when it's all you can do to absorb everything around you in a strange present.

(We are getting set to attend both a graduation ceremony combined with a Modern Art Opening.)

This is the first blog either of us have tried to put out and we know it will take some work.

There are too many near and dear peeps of ours out there to try and write to each and everyone, so this will be our way of staying in touch.

Love,

Tony & Jo

January Sixth 2010