Oh. My. Blog.

I thought New Year's Eve in Quito would be like every other New Year's celebration around the world: Watching Dick Clark's rockin' party in New York City and counting down as the giant ball dropped in Times Square.

Apparently, not everyone does that. And apparently, in other countries, they do things for New Year´s Eve that do not involve paying a ridiculous cover charge to get into a shitty bar and drinking in excess. Oh wait -- the latter part is worldwide.




[cultural lesson #1]

Ecuadorians welcome the new year by recognizing the "años viejos" ("old years"). What this entails is everyone stuffing life-size dummies with paper, sawdust and firecrackers (read: one *tiny* notch below dynamite) and then burning them at midnight. Factor in masks and cross-dressing somewhere (men dress as women and play the old year's "widow" role) and that is the Ecuadorian New Years celebration in a nutshell.

[/cultural lesson #1]

Mark and I spent the evening incognito (see above) and walking through the massive street festival on Avenida Amazonas (the main strip in the New Town). I concentrated on dodging renegade roman candles and avoiding 7-year-olds with firecrackers. Mark, however, focused more on... eating. Everytime I turned around he was chowing something from a street vendor. Usually, it was meat on a stick.

P.S. Mark gets photo credits of the pix on this entry.