Happy, happy new year!!! May 2010 be a prosperous year for all - filled with peace and love, adventures and dreams come true. May we all find beauty and love in each day. Heck there is such an abundance, we could all find love and peace in every moment.
It was really interesting spending time down here in Ecuador during the Holidays. I expected there to be big celebrations for Christmas. But it was just another day - business as usual. The locals said Christmas was a holiday for the children. I liked how there was not much emphasis on gifts at all. There were some christmas lights hung throughout different towns and we could hear christmas music in both english and spanish.
New Year's was a totally different story! Stores, bars, restaurants were closed both on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The buses even did not run in the evening of the 31st and in the morning of New Year's Day, the buses started later. All over Ecuador, they made these ano viejos - which were dolls made from paper mache. They would write something they wanted to let go of for the new year and after a big meal at 12 o'clock, they burned all these dolls - there were tons of fires everywhere. Some people bought heads, others made them. I loved the intentions behind them. There was some epic partying. I have never seen partying til 1 pm on New Year's Day. People just did not want to stop partying, dancing, celebrating. Rebecca and I finally went to bed at 9 am. We tried to get some sleep above all the music, woke up around 11am and there was still music playing. One of our roommates from Spain commented, "They just never stop. I do not think they know how to stop." It was so true. So if you ever really want to celebrate New Year's, I recommend Ecuador.
On New Year's Day, we were hanging out on the beach when these 3 boys came up to us. They roughhoused and when we got tired of them wrestling around us, we sent them off to the beach and the water. They were super cute and super energetic!!!
Here are some pictures of the anos viejos:
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