I had a great idea! For New Years I
figured we should go to Montanita, a town on the coast where half of
Guayaquil goes to party. But whenever we tried to book a place to
stay in Montanita early on (in the Galapagos), the wifi was so crappy
that we just gave up. By the time we got to Cuenca and had more
reliable wifi, pretty much everything reasonably priced in Montanita
was already book and what was available was really expensive. Our
landlord in Cuenca told us that a lot of people go to the
neighbouring towns and cities along the coast for New Year's and that
was what he was planning to do. So we decided we would just take a
bus there and hopefully find a basic room to rent in someone's home
for a few days.
Rafting in Banos was our first date
with Andrew, Dennis, and Katherine. In a small town like Banos, you
run into the same people quite often and we ended up hanging out,
sharing a few meals, going to the thermal pools, and having a lot of
fun together. When I told Katherine about our plans for New Year's
and that we didn't have a place to stay yet, she said she would talk
to her mom because her mom had booked a few rooms at a hotel in
Libertad (also a small coastal city), near Salinas and that was where
they would be going for New Year's. The hotel in Libertad didn't have
any more rooms but we had made some awesome friends who offered to
share one of their rooms with us. Katherine's mom has said that the
hotel would put a mattress on the the floor and Andrew kindly offered
to share his room with us. So things were looking up for us!
Banos made us a little photo-lazy
because we couldn't take our camera with us on most of the tours we
went on. This carried over into Salinas and we never even took our
camera out of the bag the entire time. So all credit goes to
Katherine for taking these photos in the smokey mess that was New
Year's Eve!
We spent four days with this wonderful
Ecuadorian family and their family friends (Katherine's mom-Mamita
and her husband, the Chiriboga and Flores family) lounging on the
beach, eating a ton of sea food and watching Dennis and Andrew light
firecrackers just about anywhere they could. Katherine was visiting
her mom from the States, and her boyfriend Dennis and friend Andrew
had come along for some fun and sun in Ecuador. Although our hotel
was in Libertad, we spent most of our time in Salinas, a beach city
with a lot of luxury hotels where the wealthy come to vacation in
Ecuador.
For breakfast we tried some Ecuadorian
favourites like yucca tortillas, which is like a shepherd's pie
pancake made with yucca. Then we headed to the beach in Ayangue,
about an hour from Libertad, filled mostly with South American
vacationers. The water was beautiful-warm and calm. For Dennis'
birthday, Mamita treated us all to snorkeling at Islote El Pelado, a
small rocky island about 40 minutes from Ayangue. For dinner we
headed to Montanita to see what all the hype was about. Well the hype
is not exaggerated! The drinks are cheap, there is enough eye candy
for whatever your tastes are and I don't think the party ever stops
there. I wonder how anyone in that town gets any sleep! The next day
we headed to Salinas, to Chipipe for some more beach and sun. When
the afternoon hunger pangs kicked in, we munched on something like a
plantain fritter, called Maduro and fresh cerviche. After dinner we
went back to Salinas for the New Year's celebrations.
Ecuadorians have some special
festivities for New Year's Eve. The streets of Libertad were lined
with vendors selling anos viejos or, the old years. These are
scare-crow like dolls and paper mache figures that come in all
shapes, and sizes. A viejo of Bart Simpson, Minnie Mouse, Mario,
Sonic the Hedgehog, Batman, and just about every character from a
famous video game can be found lining the streets. What do people do
once they put so much effort into making them? They burn them! They
are sometimes filled with firecrackers and are burnt on New Year's
Eve, to represent forgetting the worst of the past year and looking
forward to the promise of the new year. Some of these viejos are so
beautifully made that it seems a shame to burn them! Another
Ecuadorian tradition are the viudas, or widows of figures that are
burned on the eve. What you actually see is a bunch of guys dressed
as women, blocking traffic on the roads and going into stores begging
for beer money. I guess it is worth it for the beer money if you are
willing to cross-dress.
We drove and walked around looking for
our ano viejo and finally settled on a Ninja Turtle-Donatello. While
we were viejo shopping, Andrew was like a kid in a candy store who
couldn't resist the last-minute deals on firecrackers and between
Dennis and Andrew, we had more than enough. When we arrived in
Salinas, the beach was filled with well dressed people who had
already created a giant pile of viejos. Dennis and Andrew stuffed our
viejo, while the rest of us watched the show. So what happens next...
the viejos are torched and everyone watches the flames of the giant
fires while listening to the deafening sound of the fireworks going
off all along the beach. It makes for a crazy, a little dangerous
but freaking unforgettable night where the entire shoreline of
Salinas is lit up. The air is filled with smoke, and burning ash from
the anos veijos. The atmosphere is amazing as people are watching the
fireworks, the giant mound of viejos burn, taking photos, sipping
champagne and running away from danger! It was an unforgettable
experience!
The next day we packed up and headed
back to Guayaquil. We would be taking the night bus to Quito but not
before being invited to Mamita's home and having a delicious barbeque
dinner prepared by Elena, Celeste, and Marco. We spent a lovely
evening together, had a delicious meal and then said our good-byes to
this wonderful and generous family. It really felt more like we were
saying good-bye to old friends than people we had met a few days
before. I don't think saying thank you will cut it in this case so
what I will say is that I expect some visitors in Toronto, well when
we get back:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment