How I spent the Holidays

This year I decided to go home for Christmas. It was a very short trip because I don't have that many vacation days and I also wanted to spend New Years Eve in Ecuador. Well, ever since I decided to go home I've been fantasizing over all the good food I would eat, starting with In-n-out of course. I got in late at night on the 23rd and the first stop was in-n-out. Unfortunately I was then sick all the next day and I didn't end up having a proper appetite until my last day in California, 5 days later. That didn't stop me from eating, or at least trying to eat...but it wasn't the same! Besides the whole food issue it was nice to be home but the trip was too short. I spent half the time running around buying things for half of Cochán, and stuff that I needed/wanted as well. I forgot how nice it was to be comfortable in a house, even if I did have to sleep on a trundle bed. Everything was so clean and the customer service...amazing! That is one thing I won't miss about Peru, they really lack good customer service here.

Family pic in front of the Christmas tree that you can't see.

So after my trip home it was off to Guayaquil to spend New Years with my grandparents, cousins, and aunts. It is very hot there this time of year. Hot and muggy and I would wake up to 80+ degree weather and it topped off in the low 90s. If it was a dry heat it wouldn't have been sooo bad :) I guess the tradition used to be that they would make dolls that were old men and burn them to symbolize burning away the new year. However, it has now become very commercialized and on every corner it seems like they were selling gigantic paper-mache like dolls that resembled cartoon characters (i.e. Barney, Batman, Kung Fu Panda, Simpsons) and famous people (life size Hugo Chavez). My cousins made a robot looking doll out of cardboard (not sure exactly what is was). On New Years Eve you eat 12 grapes at midnight and everyone goes outside and burns their dolls. I was under the impression that you just burned them, little did I know that this process lasted several minutes and it involved pouring gasoline on them and then blowing them up with illegal fireworks. Up and down the street you could see other families gathered outside blowing up their dolls. I am not a huge fan of the fireworks that aren't pretty because the noise scares me. It sounded like Guayaquil was being bombed! After the fireworks ended we all went inside to eat a late dinner. It was past my bedtime so I didn't stay up much later than that.

Painting the doll.

Dolls on a corner.

The place to go buy fireworks and dolls.

Eating my grapes.

Blowing up the doll.

Fireworks continued the next day. Fireworks scare me.

Finally, a day at the beach!

The next day was a lazy day and I don't think I even left the house. Originally I was supposed to head back to Peru but much to my frustration there were no buses running so I had to leave the next day. The next day I went to the beach with my cousins and their family and proceeded to get burnt to a crisp. While I have developed a somewhat decent tan on my arms and face from hiking outside, my legs were ghostly white. Now they are a nice shade of pink. That night I took a night bus to Piura and it was one of the most uncomfortable rides ever. For some reason it took 3 hours to get through customs, and this was at 4am! I didn't end up getting into Piura until noon, 13 hours later. I then grabbed all my luggage and hauled it across a busy street in the sweltering heat because I needed to buy my bus tickets for Cajamarca. Theoretically you should be able to buy them online but it never seems to work. I arrive at the bus station and I have to wait in line for over half an hour with all my stuff. I get to the front and find out that the nice, more comfortable bus to Cajamarca is sold out and there is actually only one seat left on the cheaper bus. I was not looking forward to an uncomfortable bus ride but I really needed to get back to site so I had no choice. I then went to the PC hotel to relax for a few hours before my bus left. The bus ride to Cajamarca was not without issues as well. I was in the very back of the bus so every little bump could be felt. To make matters worse the bus kept dying and couldn't make it up the mountain. It was like the Little Engine that Could, only it couldn't. It ended up dying in the middle of the road, 2 hours from Cajamarca, at 4 in the morning in a place with no cell phone reception. The bus was blocking the road so only little cars could get through. I don't know how they got it going again but this little hold up took about 2 hours and resulted in a long line of buses on both sides that were stuck there waiting for our bus to get fixed. Once we got going again it kept dying and finally another bus came and saved us. I arrived in Cajamarca late this morning and quickly showered and now I'm (hopefully) off to Cochán. It will be nice to stop lugging around 100lbs of stuff.