Qualla: Tarqui, Cuenca Canton https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tarqui, Cuenca Canton https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: Introduction https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1736, a French surveyor hauled his quadrant up a pyramid-shaped hill south of what is now Cuenca, Ecuador, and began to measure an arc of meridian. His name does not matter much - it was a team effort - but the work mattered enormously. The French Geodetic Mission had sailed to the Andes to settle an argument that had divided the Royal Academy in Paris for a generation: was the Earth a sphere, or was it flattened at the poles? They chose Tarqui as one of their stations, set up their instruments on a hill the locals would later rename Frances Urco in their honor, and proved Newton right. The Earth bulges at the equator. You can still climb the 640 steps to the summit they used.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: Knife Field https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name Tarqui goes back further than anyone now remembers with certainty. Some linguists, following Oswaldo Encalada's study, derive it from Kichwa and render it as 'step.' Others hear the older echo of a Canari wind instrument called the tarqui, said to have been played by the...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-knife-field.mp3 0:06 2 full Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: The Battle of Tarqui https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. In February 1829, the valley hosted an event more violent than a geodetic measurement. Gran Colombia and Peru were at war over the ownership of Guayaquil and the southern provinces. On February 27, Venezuelan general Antonio Jose de Sucre - Simon Bolivar's favored lieutenant and ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-the-battle-of-tarqui.mp3 0:06 3 full Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: A Parish at 2,628 Meters https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. Tarqui itself was formalized as a parish on October 18, 1915, when the Cuenca municipal council passed decree number 887 creating a new civil district of 135 square kilometers divided among 26 small communities: Atucloma, Taniloma, Parcoloma, Tutupali Grande and Tutupali Chico, o...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-a-parish-at-2-628-meters.mp3 0:06 4 full Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: What Migration Built https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walk through the parish center and the buildings look bigger than the economy should support. They are, and that's because of money sent home. For several decades, young men and women from Tarqui - mostly between fifteen and thirty-five - have migrated abroad, to the United State...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-what-migration-built.mp3 0:06 5 full Tarqui, Cuenca Canton: Taita Carnival https://qualla.com/tarqui-cuenca-canton/ Photo credit calliopejen, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the Andean worldview, Taita Carnaval is the spirit of abundance who emerges from inside the mountains the week before Lent to bless the harvests. In Tarqui, families welcome him with pampamesa - long tables of food laid out for anyone who walks up - and chicha de jora, the fer...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/r/y/tarqui-cuenca-canton-wp/6pry-tarqui-cuenca-canton-taita-carnival.mp3 0:06 6 full