Diane: Today there were too many items of cultural interest to choose from. We deliberated between a concert by guitarist, Cesar Del Carmen, and the small band sound of the many bands that would be parading through the streets to celebrate the "Quinto Anniversario de la Declaración de Cuenca, Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad". World AIDS Day was not in the running. We opted to check out Cesar Del Carmen. We arrived at the church early enough to make sure that the guitarist would be elevated. No problem there. However, a priest was in the middle of a mass and showed no signs of quitting.
Now we had been informed that one of the more powerful Catholic Church officials in Cuenca was very conservative and was dead-set against using churches for any secular use. By the way, there are two words for secular in Spanish (that are used here anyway). The first is secular and the second is profano. Profano also means profane, but it is perfectly acceptable to use it to mean secular. My interpretation of this is that some time back, the Catholic Church must have considered anything secular to be profane. Any historians or linquists care to give a proper accounting? In any event, I had to consider the distinct possibility that this priest had been instructed to stretch out his mass so that it would interfere with the guitar concert.
As I pondered this possibility, the slightly disharmonious sounds of trumpets, trombones, other brass instruments, and drums wafted into the church. The parade of bands was passing right by the front doors. We ran outside for front-row spots and watched each band pass by. I experienced the same sensation that I had the day of the dance competitions in Ricaurte. All of the pieces sounded the same, each just starting from a slightly different spot. But the bands would stop and start as if they were playing something different each time. I guess my ear still needs a little fine-tuning to distinguish the differences. We followed the bands to the Parque Calderón. As each band went up on the bandstand, the MC would exclaim their virtues, the virtues of their organizers, and their virtuous place of origin as well as the virtues of Cuenca, "Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad". We heard this phrase over and over again, until even I could repeat it without too much trouble. These announcements were then followed by lots of applause.
We did sneak back to the church for a few guitar pieces, but before long headed back to the park to see what else was brewing for the Fifth Anniversary celebration. We had seen some people constructing what appeared to be a tower made of scaffolding decorated with red and yellow paint and flags. We had also seen some workers stringing what appeared to be rows of firecrackers across the street where a crowd was gathered.
We were not disappointed upon our return! The MC continued his banter. But, the bands had joined together as one huge band. They sounded livelier and more harmonious, when they all played together. As they played, other folks were busy setting off firecrackers and fireworks right next to and over us. The large towers of scaffolding were called castillos. They were really launching platforms for the many types of fireworks. I cannot adequately describe the resulting explosions and light show produced by these castillos. Part of the thrill was the feeling of danger as sparks flitted in and around the spectators. We were all a bit scared, but as I looked around, every last person in our vicinity was sporting an ear-to-ear grin.
We got some interesting video footage and one lousy still picture.
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