EASTER GREETINGS TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Happy Easter to Family and Friends All!

Felices Pascuas!

It's incredible that three months out of the year have already passed.  I was surprised when I checked my blog posts and discovered I had not posted anything since August.  I thought I had a December post for Christmas, but I think that was a personal group message to family.

Quite frankly there is little to write about that hasn't been covered in my previous blogs over the past thirteen years. The festivals, holidays, etc are pretty much the same. I have not done any international travel since 2020.  Other than possibly sharing a few other excellent restaurants in Cuenca, there has been little to photograph and video.  There has been an expansion of our largest Mall Del Rio, and the addition of a new four story mall on the other end of town from where I live, and new high rises continue to be built throughout the city.

Here in Cuenca the weather overall has been ideal, with a couple of heavy thunderstorms that wiped out the afternoons, which is unusual for us.  We are accustomed to lighter showers of minimal duration off and on throughout the day.  The El Nino has been such a blessing to me, with a good deal of sunshine.  I strive on sunshine.  Unfortunately, the  meteorologists say the El Nino is already beginning to subside and the ocean temperatures are lowering as well.  Therefore, they expect the El Nino to subside by the end of April, which will disappoint me.   To make matters worse, the meteorologists believe that the El Nino will be immediately followed by another La Nina.  We had eighteen months of La Nina over last year and the year before, which left Cuenca, cold, damp, and gloomy on many days.  Usually, when one cycle ends the next cycle takes a year to eighteen months to arrive, but it does not appear to be the case this year.  Hopefully, these meteorologists are as wrong just like the brain defecating climatologists, Oh well, with the whole world going to hell, I really have nothing personally at this point to whine about. I just pray that things go much better than the gloom and doomers are predicting.

We had a very good Christmas this year.  I enjoyed Christmas immensely for some inexplicable reason.  Usually by Christmas day, I am sick of Christmas music, especially songs like "Jingle Bell Rock", which is played about 10,000 times by Christmas. However this Christmas season I could not get enough of it and was still singing, humming, and playing Christmas tunes until New Years.  The hotels during the Christmas season, which doesn't end here until January 8th with the Death of the Innocents in Bethlehem, ended with 95 percent capacity.  

This is Holy Week, and Holy Thursday is the custom in Ecuador that is unique to Cuecanos to visit seven churches in El Centro during the evening.  El Centro was mobbed with people as they made their way to at least seven churches for prayer and photos of the Catholic Church interiors.  There are about ten to twelve Catholic Churches in El Centro, which is about one square mile, so it doesn't require a great deal of walking.  The weather that evening was exceptionally warm and ideal for Cuenca, and I imagine the violence of recent years and other world concerns has a few more people on their knees before God.

Of course, the negative side of this year was the level of violence by Colombian drug cartels that have been racking the coastal areas of Ecuador from as far south as Machala pass Guayaquil and extended northward to Manta and into the province of Esmeraldas, which borders the Pacific and the Southwestern border of Colombia.  There have been political assassinations.  One was a presidential candidate from last year's election.  Just this week, the youngest mayor of a city, a woman who was about 27 years old was gunned down.  A number of people were kidnapped from the coastal city of Puerto Lopez, which had their young mayor assassinated last year.  I have not heard any news as to what has happened to the captives.

We have a new president, who at the moment is the youngest president Ecuador has ever elected.  I think he is 38 years old.  He immediately clamped down on the cartels, cleaned up the prisons--almost, brought both the national police and the military in to end the massacres, which especially were taking place in the prisons as rival gang members slaughtered one another in the most heinous bodily dismemberments imaginable. With the coming end of the three month emergency.  What the president does now to prevent a resurgence is not totally known to the public.  Thousands of alleged gang bangers are being held in prisons in various parts of Ecuador.  Even as the ninety day emergency comes to an end, El Presidente will continue to keep the military in the prisons and on the streets.

The president is planning to construct a new prison out in the ocean as a floating type of prison, which I doubt will work.  It would, in my opinion, be too easy for cartel boats to attack the prison.  One or two other prisons with maximum security will be built in the outposts of Ecuador, were gang leaders and their members and family members will have a difficult time to physically visit.  All of this construction and reconstruction of some of the current prisons will take at least a year to complete.The government will have its hands full just creating a prison guard security force that can't be intimidated and bought off. 

Below is a photo of me.  I have been bulking up, which is just one of the reasons why the drug cartels stay away from Cuenca.

 

There has been so much coverage in the American media of what was taking place in Ecuador, that it made little sense for me to rehash it. Some of the Western media made it sound as if the entire country was under attack and at the point of being a failed state, which was far from the truth.  

Here, we in the Andes. have little if any problems.  Cuenca crime rate, one of the lowest in South America per capita is still very tranquil.  Besides the petty crime of pickpockets, it is still a wonderful place to live.  The high altitude and no coastal area or port for drug shipping makes it unattractive to the Colombian cartels.  Drug use, especially beyond marijuana is quite low on a per capita basis compared to the United States. 

Below are a few photos of beautiful days and nights in Cuenca.

Beautiful day and night-sky views from outside my seventh floor apartment.  They are magnificent to see live.  The photos do not capture their breath-taking glory that captures the beauty of their Creator.

 

This was on the dashboard of a taxi and is a religious figurine of the Christ Child as King.  It has a name, but I have long forgotten it.  I used to see many of these on dashboards when I first arrived in Cuenca thirteen years ago, but this is a rare sight today.  I still see some taxi drivers with rosaries hanging from their rearview mirrors, but not like I did when I first arrived.  The younger generation appears to be less religious.

My Ecuadorian son, Mathias Rios turned 21 years old this year and visits, but usually he is at his mother's or wherever these days. The schools here are setup so that high school is three years and the university is five years to graduate.  Mathias is majoring in International Diplomacy, and is doing excellent.

Esteban was seventeen in December, and he will graduate from high school or what Ecuadorians call collegio this July.  He still hasn't made up his mind about a major, but appears to be leaning toward business.  Both brothers are straight A students.  Despite the very strong background in four years of math, biology, chemistry and physics.  Neither appears to be heading in those directions.

The four of us some months back.  Andres, Estban, me, and Mathias.

Here is Esteban, Andres, their mother Maria Luisa, and Mathias.

Is was tough losing Uncle Bob.  I think of him everyday.  I saw from Sally's Facebook page, a photo of Aunt Bonnie from a few months ago.  It was either Christmas or Bonnie's  92 nd birthday, and Belinda, I received your email and beautiful card.  Belinda also said her mother is still doing fine.  I hope the same is true of Aunt Dorothy as well.  Happy Easter to both of you.

Barb and Ed, it has been a while since we have touched bases.  I hope you both are doing well.  I assume Holly will be with you for Easter, which is always special time for the three of you.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Easter at my apartment with a group of ten for dinner, so I don't have time to send much in the way of photos, but I do wish all of you the best as we continue through this year and its many promising surprises. 

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