New Year's at the beach with my Ecua Familia :)

December 30th 2010

The water was perfect!

My host family is originally from Chone, but they have a beach house in San Clemente and I decided to take them up on their offer to go spend New year's with them. It was so wierd to be on the beach and getting wet, while back home in the States my mom and dad were trying to stay warm and avoid going outside. I really enjoyed my time at the beach, everyday while I was there we had an amazing time just going to the beach and laying down on the sand.  On our way to the beach we made a stop to say hi to the family in Chone. I met my host mom's mom, sister, and other family members. They were all nice and some came with us to the beach. That night los jovenes decided to go see this new bridge that was just opened in Bahia which happens to be the longest bridge in Ecuador now. Then we decided to drive a little more and go to Canoa, which was this very turisty beach that had a very fun and live atmosphere. We danced and then ran into a little but of trouble and had to leave.

December 31st:



Dinner with the host family :)

Once again I spent most of the day on the beach, walked around the town with my German friend Thomas and then got ready for the big night by taking a shower and a short nap. We had dinner and I helped serve the drinks. It was a very fun and laid back dinner. We talked about some of the festivities that Ecuadorians so vs. the traditions that they do. Usually on new year's eve the men dress up as women and hit the streets asking for money. They do this because they are the "widows" who are grieving because their husband, el ano viejo (the past year) is passing away. They make road blocks and demand money, we saw a couple on our way to the beach and it was great to see, brought memories of Crystal Ball back at K. Anywho we had dinner and then went to the beach to start our bonefire.



My host family, including Thomas, I love them all!



I was wishing him farewell because after this picture was taken he was tossed into the bonefire.



During dinner I was told that it was their tradition to go skinny dipping at midnight. I told them I would get into the water, but not naked. SO after we tossed el ano viejo people started to get pushed into the water so I decided to take my shirt and shorts off and run into the ocean, I thought going in without some clothes was close enough. Thomas and I were so excited that we didn't notice that NOBODY else was taking their clothes off. Well we ran in, got wet, and had a lot of fun doing it. When we got out everyone was telling me how smart we were for bringing our bathing suits with us, I then giggled a little and when they asked what was funny I told them the truth, that I did NOT bring my bathing suit. They all laughed and told us that we didn't have to take our clothes off, in fact they then told us that the whole story of having to skinny dip was a joke. Hahaha. It didn't really matter we had fun and the water was great; surprisingly it was warm!

Everyday there was a great sunset this was the first one of the new year!