Christmas without marketing

Ready to eat Christmas BBQ 

Christmas Sunset

Chef Home-boy-yar-dee

I'm falling behind on blogs but here goes more on life in Ecuador.  Christmas was something that almost came and went unnoticed.  Its not that they don't celebrate Christmas but being that everyday was a sweltering heat and a 'normal' day down here with no TV and no sales pitches and no kids asking for xbox or iPads it just seemed like another day at the beach in Ecuador.  The ONLY difference was when I went to the tienda (little store) in town they had one string of Christmas lights and it repeated the same tune over and over again all day and night.  I asked the family if the tune was driving them crazy and they said "huh?" as if they didn't even notice it.  The tienda is also their house.  Come Christmas eve and down the road in our town a crew of guys starting building a stage and some tarps covering from one side of the dirt road to the other.   I noticed when I was on my bike looking for some fruits to buy and asked them what was going on and they said it was the town fiesta and I should come by.  So later on Christmas eve night I grabbed some friends and we walked down to see what was going on.  There was a Dj there who was playing music and trying to talk everyone into dancing.  We got there around 10pm and it was like a typical dance where everyone was sitting around looking at each other and nobody dancing.  Guys drinking beers and girls all dressed up.  The families in their entirety where there and everyone looked their best.  Us gringos stood out like sore thumbs and we immediately got called out by the Dj or  deeyay as they pronounce it.  Sure enough as it got closer to Midnight people started dancing.  We joined in and got greeted with stares and smiles and danced for as long as we could until we tired.  Apparently the locals stayed all night because when I woke up early Christmas morning I could here the music still playing.  Christmas day for us wasn't much of a gift exchange other than me riding around the area and collecting flowers for Verity and her giving me some chocolates.  Pretty basic and I wondered if I was back home if I would still have a girlfriend after not buying anything.  Luckily she nor I really thought much about gifts because there isn't much to buy where we are.  We threw a bbq on Christmas day and I made an Ecuadorian version of moms Magic Cookie bar and we had a big group of travelers and friends come by to eat some food.  It wasn't a classic meal but burgers and fish on the grill and some potluck items all seemed to taste real good to us. I think Christmas was so unlike christmas that it made it easier to be away from home than say if I was just in California.  It sure was nice not to be blasted by marketing every day all day leading up to Christmas.

A week later and we had New Years come up quickly and there seemed to be more going on in prep for NYE.  Here in Ecuador they have these paper-mache' dolls or characters all over the place that people are making and buying.  Everyone got these funny things which were all parts of characters of movies from the year or anything really and they told me that at midnight they would burn them as a symbol of a year ending and the starting of a new year.  We decided to go to a nearby popular tourist town called Montañita for the day and saw lots of guys dressed as women and boys dressed as old ladies.  I asked what was up with this and they said that guys dress like widows and go asking for money to all the other locals.  I couldn't quite understand why, but its a tradition here

In Ayampe, our small little town, there was a party on the beach with music, dancing, bon fire and fireworks.  The fireworks they had were professional fireworks that we only see being lit off by city fireworks and here it was kids and drunk dudes lighting them dangerously close to the crowds.  I wished I had bought my own when I saw how giant these fireworks were.  We danced in the rain on the beach with all the locals and watched people nearly get injured with the fireworks until we faded and slipped away after midnight to sleep.  The party went on all night and through the next day.  In town there were local men stumbling around still drinking beer or caña (moonshine).

I think I'm fighting the avengers with my ice cream

Battle of the valley fridge

Well I figured I'd write a blog again because with the lack of internet connection I've had so far its impossible for me to write everyone and tell them whats going on.  With an effort not to drop off the radar too far, I'm back on the blog action.  I blogged before and didn't really enjoy it.  But around here when the tide is high the waves are soft and its a good time to catch up on everything else.
Coming back to Ecuador has been a transition.  After spending a few months in the states and time in Australia, I'm back to being used to having all of the amenities of home.  Yesterday I was walking to the main road to get the bus and it passed just before I got there.  So I sat on a curb and sweated for the next 30 minutes before another bus came and then I jumped on it and continued to sweat.  I rode up the mountain roads a little and then jumped off and started walking down a long dirt road towards my land.  I got there and began to machete down the high overgrowth that was about chest high after it was cleared down over a year ago.  I continued to sweat until the Ecuadorian sun was too intense and I felt tired and walked back down the dirt road.  The surroundings were green and lush with sounds of birds calling, rustling of lizards getting away from me and I saw a dead tarantula that was bigger than my hand.  I got back to the main road and started walking towards town until about 20 minutes later the bus came. By this time I had drank my entire bottle of water and was still pouring in sweat.  The bus came, I flagged it down and sat there looking out the window while holding my drenched hat out in the breeze.  The bus flew around the corners of the mountain road and then back down to town.  I took the bus to another town past mine to visit some people that I had met who are looking for house sitters when they go back to the states.  I was amazed to see how much construction they were getting done considering they spoke very little spanish and I spent my time there translating for them.  Once the crew of workers realized I spoke spanish they all lined up to tell me things that they wanted to say to the owners.  I met a nice local guy working there and we went to the bus stop together and waited another 30 minutes before the bus came.  Another 50 cents and we chatted on the bus until I saw another guy I knew.  He saw my machete and asked me if he could borrow for a night hike.  I left it with him & 10 minutes later I jumped off the bus and walked down the dusty road to my current house.  I daydreamed about an air conditioned car and clean everything.  I wondered what I was going to eat.  I've been using the same few vegetables and trying to figure out different ways to prepare them on the stove top.  I would love a trader joes right about now.  I got to my house right on the beach and looked out over the empty blue sea with the islands out front and the pelicans hovering inches over the sea and in V patterns up above.  It reminded me why I'm putting up with those hot sweaty days.
I went to grab some food out of my fridge and just brushed a part of the fridge that is metal and I was electrocuted.  My arm was numb from my elbow down and I still hadn't gotten the food out because I dropped it and jumped when I felt the shock.  The house is nice but electricity is scary and not grounded.  Getting things in out of our fridge is like playing the game operation except you actually get electrocuted when you touch anything metal and if you're wet you're doomed.  Sometimes I want to grab things and I just can't get myself to do it. I've bribed others to grab things for me like "hey if you grab those tortillas out of the back I'll give you a burrito."  I suck at operation.

Loving the fruit smoothies

Next blog might be about Christmas and New Years!  Feliz Año!