Goodbye 2010: The Founding Of Quito Festival, Christmas Day & New Years Eve - Ecuadorian Style!!!

Granny & Santo - Having A Dance Off

I returned back from Santa Elena to the city of Quito a happy man. It was a time of festivities here in Ecuador. I mean, the rest of the world would also be celebrating soon too - with Christmas and the New Year coming up, but there just seems to be more celebrations during this time of the calandar year, here in this part of the world than most other places I can think of.

I returned back to Quito just in time for the founding of Quito festival. It commences around the beginning of December and generally involves a vast quantity of drinking, eating and dancing. Its a great festival,where people come out onto the street to celebrate the birth of their city. Each street usually does something different. In ours, there was a local football touranament played directly in the middle of the road, to the great annoyance of anyone wanting to actually drive down it. Later in the evening, there was live Ecuadorian music and small stalls also appeared to accompany it, selling beers of many a different variety. The party didn´t stop that night.........or the next!!!

At work, the parties continued too. We stopped all our volcano work and got the beer out. We then sat down to a huge game of Cuarenta (40), an Ecuadorian card game which does have some form of rules but which would take the average person a life time of playing to understand. Its a fun game nevertheless and was naturally played in good spirits. The Secret Garden Hostal also got involved in the festival, hiring a Chiva bus for the night, to allow the newly visiting backpackers a taste of Ecuadorian fun - so naturally a night of chaos commenced. I remember going on the Chiva bus for the first time last year for this very festival. I had only been in the country a week or so. I always thought what an amazing country this was if this is what goes on every week of the year. The drinking and parties lasted some days, my hangover a lot longer.

Chistmas popped up pretty quickly for me. It was a quiet affair but that was nothing to complain about. I spent Christmas day with a variety of friends and backpackers, drinking and eating. The Secret Garden made a great xmas dinner (one of favourite meals) and we enjoyed a night of games, chatting, and natuarally a beer or two. Some of us even swapped presents to make it really feel like Christmas. At work, our xmas celebration involved 60 or so people taking up an entire Brazilian restaurant, eating a ton of meat and as usual, ending with a dance or two of salsa. I also got to spend some time with Diana, although she stayed mostly with her family, which is what you should be doing during this time of year. This was my third Christmas away from home and it doesnt really get any easier. I looked around at the faces of other backpackers on Christmas day and they all had the same expression. It was one of trying to have fun and be happy, but always poorly concealing a feeling of wanting to be somewhere else. By the next day however, genuinely happy faces had returned............and so had mine.

I decided to stay in Quito for New Years this time around. Last year, I headed down to the coast for some beachy fun, but I thought it would be nice to end the year in Quito, the city I have called home for the last year. During the day, there was a huge street parade on Amazonas - one of the main roads in town. People were dressed up as witches and wizards and other Halloween based costumes - its odd, but I am told it is what they do here - however, no-one actually knows why!!! There were huge models and stands of displays lining the street, with music playing and the smell of barbecued food filling the air. It was a hot, bright sunny day too and it really made for a great atmosphere.

In the evening, my festivities started again, up on the terrace of the Secret Garden, drinking with many friends and a load of randoms. Later I met up with Diana and some other friends, where we first partied in the street before continuing the celebrations in a club, until the small hours of the night. The street party in Ecuador for New Years is an interesting affair. Someone will head out onto the street, start a raging fire in the road, and then be joined by the rest of the local community. People will stand around chatting, drinking, setting off fireworks, and often - jumping over the fire. Supposedly, the idea is that you are jumping from your past and into the New Year - your future. Another famous tradition in Ecuador is also to build a big doll, usually dressed up like an unpopular politician or some other figure generally not liked - and then hurl them onto the flames. As long as you are not too drunk when the fire is in full force - most people survive the night. I certainly enjoyed it!!!

The following day, when most people are asleep, stepping out onto the streets of Quito is like looking upon the world after a nuclear war. Burnt paper and plastic cover the streets and fill the air. It is so eerily quiet too, that you could easily believe you had woken up in some sort of zombie film. You look around each corner, expecting one to pop out at you. I have never seen any place quite like it.

The festivals of December 2010 certainly lived up to expectations. It was a great time to be in Quito and fun was undoubtedly had by all people involved. Even the granny from our hostal got to dance a few songs!!! Luckily it would be a year until it would all happen again, as it will probably take me until next December to get over it all. However, there was no time to rest for me. In 9 days I would be leaving mainland Ecuador and heading to a place I had always wanted to see. For 12 days I would be working as a volcanologist in one of the most unique places on the planet - and I couldn´t wait. I would be heading out with a team of American scientists to service a series of seismic monitoring stations - and it just happened to be on the islands of the Galapagos......................