This post is a bit of a personal brag for both of us.  You have already read about the Mayor’s Gallery Art Reception this past Friday, and the Cuenca Art Walk 2016 that followed during the weekend.  El Mercurio is a major Spanish Language Cuenca newspaper that we follow (usually from Jeanne’s daily English translations in CuencaHighLife).  This past Sunday, October 2, 2016, El Mercurio printed a 1/2 page article about the art walk, titled “Caminata del Arte crea intercambios culturales” (or “The Art Walk creates an exchange of cultures“).

They commented on some specific artists in the art show, including Evelyn.  In referring to one of Evelyn’s favorite paintings, “Recordando Su Vida” (Recalling Her Life), El Mercurio wrote:

Muestra de artistas naciones y extranjeros se fusiona y en una muestra son operadas por el público.
La norteamericana Evelyn Johnson muestra un perfecto retrato físico y sicológico de una mujer campesina, camino a la senectud, en su traje típico de chola….

Which means:

The show fused together the work of national and foreign artists. Evelyn Johnson  perfectly captures the physical and psychological expression of an indigenous women, who is on her way to senescence [old age], wearing the traditional Chola Cuencanan clothing from the Andes.

Wow! They love her work! ☺

On another front, Ana Louise from Coffee Club Spanish (Burt’s Spanish teacher) hosted an end-of-term photography competition for all her classes.  The requirement was to show a photograph, and then write a Spanish language story describing the image, with more advanced classes requiring longer stories (Burt was in Intermediate 1 this past session, which is “level 4” in Ana’s program).

Burt opted to display a storyboard, shown above, from our recent trip to Puerto Lopez.  The story  that I wrote was:

Visitamos Puerto López en agosto, para observar a los pescadores y disfrutar de tiempo en la playa. El clima era cálido y agradable, con días claros y noches frescas. Había no hay mosquitos, que fue una agradable sorpresa.

En nuestra segunda mañana, llevamos nuestras cámaras para ver el pescado siendo traído. Como nos acercamos a la playa, podíamos ver los barcos llegar, rodeados por enjambres de aves (superior izquierda).

Cuando nos acercamos, vimos hombres que llevaban cubos de pescado desde el barco a las escamas y camiones. El pescado podría volar sobre los hombres, tratando de agarrar los peces en los cubos. A veces, los hombres se ejecute en parejas (media izquierda), con una persona que lleva la cubeta mientras que un amigo sería tratando de asustar a los pájaros. Otros hombres no tienen un amigo, y agitaría sus manos sobre la cabeza para tratar de salvar su pescado (inferior izquierda).

Había tantas aves que era imposible detenerlos a todos. Algunas aves, como la fragata (inferior derecha), se ciernen el cursor sobre el cubo, luego vienen con cuidado, levante la cubierta de protección, y robar un pez del cubo, antes de volar lejos.

In English, that translates to:

We visited Puerto Lopez in August, to watch the fishermen and enjoy some time at the beach. The weather was warm and pleasant, with clear days and cool nights. There were no mosquitoes at all, which was a pleasant surprise.

On our second morning, we took our cameras to watch the fish being brought in. As we approached the beach, we could see the boats arriving, surrounded by swarms of birds (upper left).

As we got closer, we saw men carrying buckets of fish from the boat to the waiting scales and trucks. The fish would fly over the men, trying to grab fish from the buckets. Sometimes, the men would run in pairs (middle left), with one person carrying the bucket while a friend would chase away the birds. Other men did not have a friend, and would wave their hands over their heads to try to save their fish (lower left).

There were so many birds that it was impossible to stop them all. Some birds, like the frigatebird (lower right), would hover over the bucket, then come in carefully, lift the protecting cover, and steal a fish from the bucket, before flying away.

The photo and story won 1st place in the competition, with the prize being a scholarship towards additional Spanish classes. ☺

So, this is how we spend our life in retirement.