Ano Viejo

I can officially claim that I’ve experienced New Years Eve on three different continents. I was thinking this thought while I was drinking my 5th different type of alcohol on NYE in Banos de Ambato last week. NYE in Ecuador was very different than anything I’ve ever experienced. The day started off normal, but there was some foreshadowing of the events that were to occur when I saw huge dolls on every corner. Little kids dressed up in costumes and grown men dressed as women were stopping cars and demanding money, and that probably should have sent a little signal of the strangeness that was to incur later on as well. Either way, I was there in Banos with all females. Any man’s dream right? Regardless of whatever fantasies past through my juvenile mind, I played the perfect gentleman and protected the ladies from whatever male creepiness came their way. There is a point to my boldness. I just blatantly lied to you. As pictures will show, if ever needed for blackmail, I in fact promoted dirty dancing with completely creepy, yet amazing dancing strangers! It provided good entertainment for this blogger who had to deal with the shananagins of the women for the past three days.

The best part of the night was midnight. A couple of the girls and I walked to the center of town where we found a protest like party. It is celebratory to make life-size dolls, put them in the middle of the street or square, and then light them on fire. At this particular intersection, seemed to be multiple burning dolls, and the largest (almost uncontrollable) fire. It is considered lucky to jump through one of the burning dolls, so naturally I partook in this tradition, receiving not one burn like injury. Only a pulled hamstring due to lack of stretching.

People were dressed in costumes, were dancing around the huge fire, drinking, and (my favorite) throwing fireworks in the fire. Now at first there were just your regular m80s being thrown in; no danger involved, except to your ears. I started to get a little nervous when people nonchalantly tossed bottle rockets in the fire, and as this blogger hypothesized, (due to his previous knowledge and work with fireworks) the fireworks started shooting out in the air, at people, etc. Reluctant to join this obtuse form of celebration, I eventually started thinking like an Ecuadorian. With total disregard to myself or others, I started tossing fireworks in the fire as well! I wish there was a better end to that story, but miraculously no one was injured from these dull-witted actions. Check out this video, it shows some of the craziness...

The rest of the night was very entertaining, from what I can remember. A lot of dancing ensued, and the night was another successful NYE on my third continent. The questions is posed: When does my luck start to run out? Better start to look both ways before crossing the streets…