Happy New Year - Quito & Cuenca

New Year’s Eve in Quito was interesting and ok, but not as much fun as it was in Budapest last year! I love their tradition here though. They burn “old man year” in effigy to get rid of all the bad from last year and welcome in the New Year. Often, the figures will take on the form of someone who they don’t like, such as a political figure. The crew on the boat worked on making two of these: one was Sponge Bob and I don’t know who the other was supposed to be. When I got to Quito, I saw fires on the sidewalks with people standing around. I asked the cab driver why they were doing this in the afternoon and he explained that people did these with their co-workers and at midnight do it again with their families.

In the Mariscal district of Quito, on Avenue de Amazonias, there were stages set up with dioramas with figures and sayings. People were packed on the street, walking along looking at all the dioramas. We found out that the dioramas are a contest and the best receives $1000.00. My Spanish was not good enough, and I don’t know enough about their culture to figure out what they said. Anyway, many of the people walking along were dressed up in costumes, or were wearing masks or headbands with devil horns, etc. I went out with Jordy, one of the new volunteers who just arrived that day, and a young guy from the states who was staying at the same place. We walked along and looked at the dioramas and people and then joined the others from the Galapagos Cruise on the veranda of their hotel which overlooked the avenue. To our surprise, the dioramas started coming down around 10pm and the crowd starting thinning out. Everyone was heading home to celebrate and burn their own effigies with their families! I went ahead and went back to the hostel as I really didn’t want to drink much or get overly tired as I had my flight to Cuenca today. Kind of boring, I know, but it just seemed like the right thing to do!

The old town of Cuenca is “muy bonito” and quite charming. Definitely reminds me of Europe. I walked around and found about 6 of the 100’s of churches here and then saw a city tour bus. I got a city tour for about 1 ½ hours and got a good feel of the city and its layout. They told me the guide would be bi-lingual, but when he arrived, he apologized as his English was not good enough to do the tour in English. But, I understood about 50% of the things he said! Whee.

My guidebook said there are movie theatres here, so after the tour, I found one of them, but unfortunately, none of the movies interested me: a Disney, one I had already seen, a sci-fi and another animated thing. I’m excited for the next day and a half here, as I have kind of mapped out what I want to see.

Jan 2, 2010

I had a great day today in Cuenca. It was sunny, the town is clean, the buildings charming, and the people friendly and helpful. I made it to two of the museums I wanted to see and to the “panama” hat workshop. Many places were still closed today for the New Year weekend, but the town was busier than yesterday. As I walked to the first museum, I saw people outside of a church dressed in bright traditional costumes with what looked like a maypole. When I was just about to leave the museum, they were on the street with a band and stopped and danced their ribbons around the pole.

After visiting both museums and having a snack on a park bench, I made arrangements for a taxi for tomorrow to take me to Ingapirka, Inca ruins not far from here, and then found an English language bookstore. At the bookstore I got another book about Ecuador – this one is ghost stories! – and met a lady who has retired here from Seattle. We had lunch together – a 3 course set meal for $3.80! – and then went to the Hat factory. The hats are known by Americans and others as Panama hats although they are made here, because they were first seen being worn in panama. Quite intricate weaving is done and the hats are beautiful.

I returned to the hotel and had a nap before venturing out to dinner. I’m catching up on the internet while I have it and don’t have to pay or sit in a restaurant to use the wi-fi. So tomorrow I go to Ingapirca and another little village, and then catch the flight from here to Quito at 3. I’ll be picked up by the dad of one of the GVI host families and driven back to Otavalo. Off to school on Monday!