PAPA NOEL AND THE PARADE OF THE CHILDREN

Christmas Eve in Cuenca is a BIG DEAL and nearly everyone who isn't in the parade of the children turns out to watch it.  Several years ago we were walking along the parade route and more than one group of kids ran up to Jim yelling, "Papa Noel!"  This year he decided to capitalize on that and has been growing his beard long for the last 6 months as well as collecting toys and crayons at garage sales and such.  We came with one whole suitcase full of dolls and matchbox cars.  Here is Papa Noel ready to head out with his three bags of loot.

Actually, I guess we have been planning this for over a year since we bought the Santa Hawaiian shirt in the Caribbean during our cruise last year.

We decided to go to the staging area for the parade instead of getting into the mobs of people along the actual parade route.  We barely got a quarter of a block before the word was out and both of us were mobbed with children crying "me, me" with outstretched hands.

 

At one point my back was against a fence and a sea of children was pressing against me.  This was a little unnerving and I wasn't totally sorry when my bag of toys was empty.

This group was from the float right in front of us and some of the older girls tried to keep the crush of children at bay (unsuccessfully) but we were grateful anyway.  They eventually all wore angel wings on their "float" which was a flatbed semi draped in blankets.

 This parade is so big that the area where we were (which was by no means the very beginning of the staging) did not move for over two and a half hours AFTER the parade had started.  Then the floats moved about 30 feet.

What I love about this parade is it's grassroots feel - participants are in costume or not, on floats made of cars or pickups decorated simply with a blanket or very elaborately with offerings, like this one with fruits, vegetables, cookies, candy and of course the pig.

Many, many people are just on foot or dancing their way through the parade.

Or, like these two cuties, on horseback.

The other thing I really love about this parade is that any costume seems to do.  There were plenty of Santas, boys, girls and dogs;

Josephs or generic shepherds

 traditional costumes;

 angels, of course;

 and Amazonians.

I also loved all the smiles we saw - not just the kids were enthusiastic about Papa Noel and the fun of the parade.

Before we had gone more than 1/2 block all of the hundreds of toys we brought were gone.  After that there were just many, many photo ops with Papa Noel. 

A grand time was had by all.

Feliz Navidad!
Audrey

DOWN THE BACKBONE OF THE ANDES

When we left Bella Vista our plan was to pick up our errant luggage in Quito and head south to take the Devil's Nose train ride.  This was not meant to be.  On the outskirts of Quito Puff-Puff, Chuck and Nancy's Korean diesel bit the dust (suspected blown turbo charger) so we had a change of plans.  We ended up staying in Quito two more nights, so Nancy and I went shopping at a nearby market which features goods from the area north of Quito known for textiles. I was on the hunt for Alpaca blankets because two years ago when we were in Cuenca for Independence Day Jim found one of these wonderful blankets and I have been coveting one ever since.  They are not easy to find in the Cuenca area.  I had good success and a fun time bargaining with the merchants.  I bought an Alpaca blanket and challa (shawl) from this vendor.

Nancy and I saw this really amusing display of "monkey workers."

Monkey Dentist

Monkey Dictator?

Monkey Doctor

 Being "stuck" in Quito also gave us a chance to eat a 2nd time at the wonderful sushi restaurant called Noe which was in a nearby mall. Here are some of the architectural wonders this restaurant created:

And it all tasted good, too!

Meanwhile, Chuck arranged for a van and driver to drive us back to Cuenca - some 400+ miles and about 10 hours travel time.  We were so very lucky to have a cheerful tour guide-type van driver and an absolutely gorgeous day.  This was my first sight of an Andean volcano.   Our driver knew every name, the height and the last time each volcano was active.

Our driver pulled off south of Quito so we could get a good view of the city spread out through the valley.  This is just the southern part of this huge city.

Some of the many, many greenhouses where roses are grown for export. A dozen roses cost about $3 in Ecuador.

Our driver educated us that Ecuador is made up of Provinces and many of these are named for the volcanoes.

This is the one volcano that I seem to be able to remember the name of - Cotopaxi.  I have to say it was my favorite, maybe because of the amount of snow and maybe because we got closer to it than the others, or maybe just because it looks so majestic.

And more volcanoes.

This volcano is called Tungurahua and it's steaming

 and in fact the very next day it started erupting further causing an orange alert.  Read more here: 

http://www.news.com.au/world/ecuador-declares-volcano-alert/story-fndir2ev-1226538249098

  
A big topic in Ecuador right now is the revitalization of the train system which has been defunct for many years.  The original train from Quito to points south was built in the early 1900s.  The Ecuadorian government has poured immense resources into re-building all the train tracks and acquiring a new modern train.  Service was to begin in November but it hasn't happened yet.  We followed the new tracks for quite aways.

 And later on we passed by the new train, waiting to start service.
 

 The Pan American highway south of Quito is a really nice, fast highway, and the few places where it slows down to go through small towns the government is investing in bypasses.  Here is a unique style of roadwork.  These workers are NOT wearing safety harnesses.

 The next amusing thing we saw on our journey was this pick up truck ahead of us full of live chickens.

 

 We also saw many instances of people herding their livestock along the shoulder of the highway.  I regret that I didn't get a photo of the herd of running goats, followed by a few cows, a few sheep and 2 llamas.  I also regret that I didn't get a photo of pigs in harnesses being herded ahead of the cows and sheep.  Alas, this was the only photo I did get and I believe these are sheep.

Another roadside attraction - vertical roasted pigs.

Meantime, back to the volcanoes. Switzerland or Ecuador?

Chuck had our driver stop in the town of Guano, known for both leather goods and hand woven rugs.

Jim has been wanting to replace his shoulder bag for years and just hasn't been able to find what he wanted.  He found a wonderful leather bag in Guano within a few minutes of starting his shopping.  The rugs made in this town are really beautiful, thick wool and are of unique designs - truly artisan work.

Guano is a lovely little town with a typical Ecuadorian square and cathedral

and cows.

As we drove farther south we began to see the cloud layer below us which indicated the banana belt at the coast.

 This is how we knew we were nearing the end of our long, long journey south through the Andes.

Audrey