We inevitably look back on events, large and small, that have shaped our lives during this year.
One of the joys of living in this beautiful place is welcoming friends and family and introducing them to this magical place we call home. Friends from Minnesota and Colorado came to visit… and we enjoyed extended time with our brother and sister-in-law, Ham and Jane, who visited for a month in November and December. An added bonus was that our nephew, Ben, came for about 10 days over Thanksgiving.
A highlight of that visit was a large Thanksgiving gathering that included many of our expat and indigenous friends. The variety of foods, languages, and cultures reminded us again how blessed we are and what amazing experiences this life brings when we open ourselves to them.
The year has brought us many new experiences, both in our adopted country of Ecuador and around the world. We spent much of February and March in Morocco with friends from the US. We spent almost a month deepening friendships and experiencing the exotic world that is Morocco. From royal palaces to humble tents in the Sahara we were exposed to ideas, customs and people that broadened our view of the world and enriched our lives.
In September and October we took off for the Amalfi Coast in Italy, traveling with good friends we met here in Ecuador. From a house overlooking the ocean near Ravello, we explored the beauty of the small coastal towns and feasted on fresh seafood and homemade pasta. . .and gelato!
But we don’t have to go far from home to have adventures. During this past year we spent our anniversary at La Mirage, a luxury resort within walking distance of our house. We visited local weavers to see them at work, we enjoyed a medicinal plant workshop given by Mama Juana, a local indigenous yachak (shaman), we joined a wine club, went high into the mountains to visit an alpaca farm, and enjoyed a visit to a local farm where delicious cheeses are made by hand
We added a member to our family when we adopted Chipper, a 9-pound long-haired Chihuahua mix from a local rescue. Yapa is adjusting well to her new little brother, and Chipper is thrilled to be in a home where he is safe and loved.
We are grateful for all this year has brought our way. . .family, friendships, community, the expanding of our hearts and minds, and the awareness that we have all that we need in life. . .and more. As we sit listening to music in the light of our Christmas tree, we are aware that the greatest gifts in life do not fit under a tree.
Merry Everything! Happy Always!
From our family to yours. . .Pam, Penny, Yapa and Chipper
A short taxi ride brought us to the front doors of La Mirage, where we were welcomed with a cool drink and shown to a room scattered with rose petals and dominated by a huge brass canopy bed. Moments after our arrival, a lovely Indigenous woman came to our door with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, and Operation Pampering had officially begun.
In the main mercado we buy fruits, vegetables, corn and beans, rice and most of our groceries for the week. On Thursday mornings the town has two organic markets, where we buy the prized yellow sweet potatoes, good artisan cheeses, homemade breads, and local organic shade-grown coffee. Not to mention the extra goodies we discover there: blueberry muffins, pecan pie, brownies, and pineapple empanadas.
Our back sunroom and terrace open onto a view of Mt. Cotacachi which catches the morning sun and delights us as we breakfast each day. Our large yard offers Yapa room to run and play freely. We have an avocado tree, two lemon trees, a mandarina tree–as well as trees which don’t produce fruit–and an amazing array of flowers. We have also created beds for herbs and vegetables. We are blessed with a crew of energetic, knowledgeable, and friendly gardeners who are teaching us a lot (and doing the heavy lifting!).
Every Saturday morning a lovely young woman named Lourdes arrives at our front door with fresh flowers. For five dollars we adorn our house with 25 long-stemmed roses, grown locally. We walk through our neighborhood several times a day and, after only three weeks, already know many of our neighbors by name. Without exception, the people we have met here have been friendly, helpful, and welcoming. Our new indigenous friends are introducing us to their customs and even teaching us a bit of Kichwa.
In addition to making us feel welcome and taking care of our physical needs, the camp staff opened their lives to us and shared many fascinating details about their culture and life experience. Many times our beliefs, customs, and traditions were vastly different, and yet their transparency gave us the opportunity to expand our view of Life, and to challenge our preconceived notions of right and wrong, primitive and civilized.
We learned about the complexities of polygamous marriage; about courting and wedding customs vastly different from our own; about dowries and negotiations between families to seal a marriage. We learned about the responsibilities of extended family, both living and ancestral; about respect for elders and the importance of holding modern and traditional ideas in balance. We discussed controversial issues like poverty and poaching and care for the earth. We learned, we struggled, we grew.
All of us grew up with different traditions around the end-of-year holidays. Since we moved to South America, we have adopted some of the traditions of our new home in Ecuador. This year we have had the pleasure of sharing the holidays and those traditions with a new friend, Christine, who is visiting from the U.S.
Christmas Eve begins with the fantastic parade called Pase del Niño. It lasts seven or eight hours, with music, dancing, colorful costumes, and every segment of Ecuadorian society represented. One major aspect of the parade is the carrying of the Christ Child through the streets. Replicas of the Baby have often been handed down for generations, and families dress in costumes representing the Holy Family and other characters from the Nativity story. Additionally, one can also see Papa Noel (Santa Claus) walking with the Holy Family, and who’s to say that’s not how it really happened?
As New Year’s Eve approached, we–along with the rest of the world–prepared to greet a new year. In Ecuador, we let go of the old and welcome the new by burning effigies called monigotes, masked figures whose pockets and bodies are stuffed with slips of paper representing the things we wish to release. The monigotes are set on fire, and tradition says that each person jumps over the burning monigote three times. Although it sounds simple, we discovered that our monigote was wearing non-flammable clothing and was stuffed with both cardboard and plastic. Getting it to flame was something of a challenge. We laughed about the fact that letting go is sometimes a difficult process, and that change sometimes comes slowly. However, we persevered until our monigote was a pile of ash in the street.
As midnight approached, we were standing on our terrace watching the fireworks. Below us, about twenty members of our landlord’s family gathered to celebrate. They saw us standing on the terrace and invited us down to join their monigote celebration. Each family member had a monigote, and the bodies were piled in the street. They knew the trick of getting the fire started, and before long their effigies were blazing in the middle of the street. They shared a glass of wine with us and even invited us to a midnight supper, and although we declined the meal, since we had already eaten, we enjoyed celebrating with them.Their generosity was a testimony to the graciousness of the Ecuadorian people.
Byways 