Ringing in the New Year!

New Years at the beach is one big party.

It started for me at work.  A long day of work.  I think I got out of there at 7:30 or so, and went to find Marcelo and company, who I was scheduled to do the New Years thing with.

We just hung around until almost midnight, when the fun started.

One of the traditions is to burn 'Año Viejo' effigys, burning the old year to let the new one in.  This meant that there were some kind of creepy, scarecrow-esque figures all around town for a day or two in preparation.  In town there were papier mache ones to buy in all sizes and shapes.  I saw everything from Spiderman to Sully from Monsters Inc to, of course, minions.

This was one some friends had at the beach.

Selfie!

At midnight they got doused and lit up.  Also a somewhat morbid sight, looking like pouring lighter fluid on some guy on the ground.

Then there were burning figures all over in the streets.

Up and down the streets.

It's not camera flare, there's at least 4 fires in this picture, looking down the street

Burning selfie with my amigo from before. One heck of a 'before' and 'after'

I think there were fireworks on the beach at Atacames, but we were back in the streets of Sua watching scarecrows burn, so I can't be sure.  I did get to see some that other people were lighting off around, as is the case in the States too.

Sometime later, we headed in a mototaxi to Atacames, and joined in the beach celebration.  I enjoy my sleep these days, so I think I only made it to 4:30 or so before falling asleep on my feet.  Not before dancing in the sand and the obligitory bottle of some sort of alcohol stuffed in the sand happened.

All the lights of town were on in full swing

And the press of people on the beach too.  Lots in white, I hear in other places the entire beach is all dressed in white, which sounds like a pretty cool sight.

And that concluded my holiday season, different from any every before.

I found it was interesting to see the different traditions of a different country, but I still found myself longing for the comforting ones of home.  There truly is no place like it.

The next day I discovered that New Years Day is the Black Friday of Ecuadorean restaurants.  But that's another story that's not really a story.  It was just a long, hard day serving.

More stories soon, and truths from the kitchen.