Anticipating New Years ...

Christmas over - now the New Year's fun begins.... See the following link for a description of the very special way New Year's Eve is celebrated here in Ecuador.

http://www.cuencahighlife.com/post/2010/12/28/Ecuadorian-tradition-the-New-Years-Eve-burning-of-the-dummy-clears-the-slate-for-2009.aspx

The day after Christmas, the street vendors put away their
Xmas baubles and brought out these "manigotes" in preparation
for New Year's.

You can find any cartoon character in papier mache.



...you name it and you can buy it on some street corner.



...even in the traffic circle medians.



...and then how do you get it home. We missed the best shots with
the huge ones tied to the roof of the car.

 

How do we plan to bring in the New Year? Well, we will watch the fireworks from our bedroom window - we have a 180 degree view of the city from our perch here on the eastern side of the valley, with Pichincha volcano as the backdrop. We will not participate in the street parties because we are planning for an early departure tomorrow for our 6-day round-trip with Torsten, Kelly, Amelia and Sarah to Banos (where Tungurahua volcano is currently exploding - no danger where we are going, but there should be some beautiful pyrotechnic volcano show in the night) then onto to Tena in the jungle and a stop at the hot springs of Papallacta next Sat.  night.

 

A VERY Happy New Year to all of you!!!!



Exploring Quito and surrounding area

Traditional Danish  Christmas dinner - Dec. 24. Roast Pork, red
cabbage and brown potatoes.
Note the furniture - here's the very bizarre story about our furniture.
On Nov. 24 we went to Otavalo to celebrate my birthday in an famous, old Hacienda there.
As we were exploring the area, we went to San Antonio de Ibarra.
This community is known for its wood working. We browsed in lots of shops and by chance came across some furniture we could live with in our new apartment, which we were moving into on Dec, 1. We had already browsed
several furniture stores in Quito and weren't really excited about anything we had
found there. In San Antonio de Ibarra, however, we found a white vinyl sofa that had a nice design and was comfortable. the only problem was that it was WHITE and vinyl. No problem, the lady said, we can make it any colour and material you want. The bottom line was that we ordered the couch you see in the picture, with coffee and end table, dining table
 and six chairs - all for much less than it would have cost in Quito. Delivery was promised for Dec. 10 (or by the 12th, at the latest). It was our first real use of Spanish, but we figured that between us, we had ordered the right things. Anyway, on Dec. 8, I called to find out what time we could expect delivery on Dec. 10. As it turned out they could not
deliver on the 10th, but for sure would be there on Dec. 11 between 1 and 3 pm. Ole waited at home
and at 3:30 they called and apologized, but they weren't quite finished - they couldn't be at our apartment
until 9-9:30 that evening (or they could also come the next day, but Ole refused this offer, figuring he did
 not want to wait ALL day Wed for them to come). At 10 pm, I called them and was told they would arrive
really soon. At 11pm we went to bed. At 3:15 am the guard rang up to tell us that our furniture had arrived!!!
Although, our first reaction was to refuse this delivery at that ungodly hour, we reluctantly accepted.
It took the 3 men 1 hour to unload the truck and bring the furniture up to the apartment. We are quite content
with the furniture, but can not forget this very strange delivery time. 

The best Christmas present this year...

Amelia has a solid appetite and is willing to
try anything. This mango was a big hit!

The spectacular view from the eastern flank of Pichincha Volcano
looking toward the northeast where we live.

At 3 degrees celsius and 4600 metres we did not spend too long
 at this spot on Cotopaxi Volcano.

Although these guys have worse cold in Entwistle, we were not
dressed properly for the cold, but the view was breathtaking.

After we descended Cotopaxi, we found a warmer place for our
picnic lunch. 

a couple of more

Picnic overlooking Lago San Pablo (near Otavalo)

When North and South meet across the equator
Peace on Earth!

More pics of the events of this week.

 

Day 1 - of T, K and A's visit - decorate the tree. Ole and I had spent a long time perusing the local markets for a Christmas tree. They do sell cedar trees for Christmas trees, but what on earth would we do with it after Christmas? We have never had a fake tree. Even in the most tropical places we have found something that could be used as the symbolic Christmas tree. In Mozambique we had a wispy, pine-like tree that we had trudged through the white sand on the beach to fell. In Bangladesh, we had a Norfolk pine. In Malaysia, Maersk shipped in spruce trees for the embassy staff. So the challenge here in Ecuador was to find a suitable tree for Amelia's first Christmas. We are really excited to have a lemon tree for our Christmas tree this year. It comes with small green lemons and we decorated it with a our Chinese elves (from our time in Beijing) and a few angels that we have picked up over the years, plus new angels I bought in Calderon, a suburb famous for it's cottage industry in Christmas decorations made from dough, painted and glazed. (It's really called marzipan here, but for us marzipan is a delicious almond sweet.) Oh yeah, the branches of our lemon tree can even hold our Danish candles, which we will light on Christmas eve. Perfect!

 

 

 

 

Everybody helps decorate.

Now - this was special! Last night as we were finishing dinner at Casa Sol, in Otavalo, we suddenly heard children singing. We were invited downstairs to see some of the children in Peguche participating in the Novena de Navidad. It is a tradition here that people get together for the 9 nights preceding Christmas to sing and say prayers to prepare for the arrival of baby Jesus. It was beautiful!



Not sure what is going on here - but it's a great shot of father and daughter.



Can you spot the tourists in the Otavalo animal market?

Feliz navidad!!!

Sorry - we've been busy settling into our new apartment and have not taken the time to post new pics. We moved on Dec. 1 to a new-ish apartment in El Batan, a 20-minute walk from school (uphill, both ways, by the way...?! - so it is good for exercise for me :) ). The apartment was completely unfurnished, except for the built-in stove and oven. We had to buy fridge, washer/dryer, bed, sofa, dining suite and guest room furniture, kitchenware, etc., within 3 weeks, so we have been a tad busy!!! Anyway, now we are all set up and ready for visitors. Our first guests (Torsten, Kelly and Amelia) arrived last Sunday night - fleeing the bone-chilling minus degrees and deep snows of Alberta. It is wonderful to have life in our apartment.

There's new life in our apartment!

Amelia passes up Ole's special Ecuadorian Fish in Peanut sauce,
with yuca and corn ...for something she knows - milk.

...but she does like to pick the avocado out of the salad.

Christmas in the main square in Otavalo - on our weekend visit.

Casa Sol - an indigenous-run guest house in Peguche, just outside
Otavalo.



By the way, this is the view from our bedroom window.
(Do you understand why we moved?)



We look out over the whole of north Quito, including the airport.