Thanks very much to all of our loyal followers! We hope you had a great Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year. Without further ado, here’s how we spent our Christmas in Ecuador.

Quinn, with help from mom and grammy, made a gingerbread train. Check out the smoke!

The big Christmas Eve event here is the Paseo del Niño, or passing of the Child. It’s a huge parade that lasts all day and draws people from all over the country and even from Colombia and Peru. Families decorate their cars and trucks and form a procession through town. We asked a local when we need to be at what point to catch the parade, and she just laughed and said, “don’t worry, you can’t miss it.” She was right.

We set out in the morning, wandering along the street looking at all of the home-made floats. We didn’t make it far, though, before my mom, Kathy, tripped on the uneven street and hit her head on the ground. Immediately several bystanders helped her up and someone went to get help. A lady offered a cut up lime to help clean the wound. Within a couple of minutes there were several young Red Cross volunteers. They cleaned and bandaged the cut and advised us to go to the hospital for stitches.

Kathy got lots of attention from the medics

My mom and I rode in an ambulance to a hospital where a doctor cleaned the wound again and put in two stitches. After it was all over, we asked where we should pay. No charge they said. Oh, and by the way if you want a ride back to the center of town, the ambulance will drop you off. I thought back to when Jen had to call an ambulance when Quinn had an allergic reaction when he was little. That cost $750 just for a 3 mile ride. The rest of that visit added up from there.

Back at our apartment we re-grouped, had lunch, and went back out to see some more of the parade. It was still going on, some three hours later. We had a great time watching the floats and the people.

Floats were elaborately decorated with whatever was on hand – fruits and veggies were popular, and some even used bags of chips.

This float features roasted guinea pig.

The parade was a great opportunity to see traditional dress.

It turns out that most of the roses imported into the US are from Ecuador. This is because they grow with straight stems near the equator. We bought some for our Christmas centerpiece. These cost all of $3.

The next day we went to a local park. The weather was great and we had a good time exploring.

Sparks on the rocks

For more on Paseo del Niño and some fun in the park, here’s a short video: