I came back from Vilcabamba just in time for New Years. The bus ride from Loja to Cuenca was slowed down by many obstructions in the road, in the form of small children in various costumes (the Grim Reaper, Spiderman, army men, skeletons, etc) barricading the road with ropes and bricks and themselves. I didn`t quite understand until we got closer to Cuenca, and lined up on the side of the highway were dummy after dummy, stuffed with newspaper and fireworks, ready to be blown sky high in the name of good fun. It seems that in Ecuador, children dress up in costumes and blow things up.
I got together with my roommate, her boyfriend and a few other teachers, and we walked around Cuenca to see what was going on. Nearly every house had a dummy outside their door, and a lot of neighborhoods and community associations put their resources together to construct elaborate scenes depicting various messages (mostly political). Ten foot high replicas of the president, George Bush, sharks, green men, cars, among other things were on the explosive agenda. There were firecrackers and sparklers for sale, and your mission was to find the greatest scene and place yourself there to watch it`s demise at midnight. At around ten minutes to twelve, all the neighborhood children rushed these sculptures and demolished them, dragging down the dummies, and kicking the hell outta them. Then the adults joined in, getting out all their frustrations from the past year. At midnight, the city went up in flames as each pile was ignited in a huge fireball. I nearly lost my eyebrows, and it looked like a war zone. Except everyone was cheering and kissing each other (I managed to escape, although most of my friends were not so lucky). Though I`m sure it was a terrible blow for the ozone layer, it was a very interesting way to ring in the new year!
I got together with my roommate, her boyfriend and a few other teachers, and we walked around Cuenca to see what was going on. Nearly every house had a dummy outside their door, and a lot of neighborhoods and community associations put their resources together to construct elaborate scenes depicting various messages (mostly political). Ten foot high replicas of the president, George Bush, sharks, green men, cars, among other things were on the explosive agenda. There were firecrackers and sparklers for sale, and your mission was to find the greatest scene and place yourself there to watch it`s demise at midnight. At around ten minutes to twelve, all the neighborhood children rushed these sculptures and demolished them, dragging down the dummies, and kicking the hell outta them. Then the adults joined in, getting out all their frustrations from the past year. At midnight, the city went up in flames as each pile was ignited in a huge fireball. I nearly lost my eyebrows, and it looked like a war zone. Except everyone was cheering and kissing each other (I managed to escape, although most of my friends were not so lucky). Though I`m sure it was a terrible blow for the ozone layer, it was a very interesting way to ring in the new year!
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