Christmas Parade All day affair

    The Christmas Parade on December 24th is the full Monte. It is an all day affair with the parade route being prepared at seven in the morning and the end of the parade passing Calderone Park at seven in the evening. It is music, floats, dancers, walkers, Christmas religious scenes, traditional Ecuadorian dress, people watching, cars, horses, vendors selling food and drink, photographers, drones, flags, security, television cameras, children climbing over fences, sleeping babies. Each neighborhood in and around Cuenca has an entry in the parade. There are smaller neighborhood parades leading up to this massive event, but this is the Mother of all Parades. It is part religious, part ceremony, part showmanship, part outrageous. When you get this many people together there is no end to diversions and entertainment.. Closing streets and letting people dress up and parade without penalty is Cuenca’s Christmas present to itself.