Mangoseason

From Beans to Cocoa

December is the month for parties and I for one will have known so. Will decided that it was time to go to work again, took off for San Francisco, and missed out on a lot of the fun ...

December actually started on the 30th of November with the Fiesta del Chocolate. Together with Kai and Karla, I went to the restaurant where Leo (one of our friends) was working to learn how to prepare chocolate. The restaurant is located in a somewhat higher part of town and has a great view over the Panecillo - a small rounded hill that dominates the old town topped by the huge statue of the Virgen de Quito, which at Christmas time was decorated with a gigantic nascimiento scene (Joseph, Maria, the crib, the three wise men and something vaguely looking like a Christmas tree) keeping the Virgen company.

The chocolate of course attracted many people - from ACJ, but also two American sisters, one of whom was volunteering in a project near Cuenca and had the cutest (singing) Spanish accent ever ...

Leo first had us taste the fresh cocoa beans. They come in a bunch out of a calebas-type of fruit and look a bit like litchees, a bean surrounded by white flesh, with a delicious taste. After eating the flesh, you put the nuts to dry - from a couple of days to some weeks, depending on the climate. When they´re dry, you fry them, take the peel off and then grind the nuts. The cocoa powder then is made into chocolate by adding some oil, water and milk powder according to taste. When the chocolate was ready, we had it served with banana, apple and cookies, hmmm ...

Many happy people that evening!

Fiestas de Quito

Another reason for celebration are the Fiestas de Quito. This fiesta, to commemorate Quito´s foundation day, officially takes place on the sixth of December. No mandarins and speculaas for me this year, though, and since everyone was having the day off, I spent the morning reading and totally forgot to go to my Spanish class, poor Mayra …

In the evening of the sixth, traditionally, a huge parade marches through Amazonas; right underneath our window! Representatives from all over the country take part in the parade, performing traditional dances, driving vehicles around with huge foam representations of historical figures, typical animals or people in customary clothing. The local school girls from the oldest schools in Quito dress up like angels, the alumni dance around in traditional Spanish costumes and extremely large persons personifying old myths spit fire …

But Quiteños wouldn’t be Quiteños if they wouldn’t celebrate for a whole week ... All over town you can see artists performing music or other arts and chivas - a type of open bus with a band on the roof playing the traditional Quito song “La Chulla Quiteño” - are continually driving around. You can hire an entire chiva with a group of friends or buy a ticket to a “communal” bus. It goes without saying that people drink a lot these days and especially on the chivas. Canelazo, on the basis of cinnamon, mixed with loads of pure alcohol is THE drink of the fiestas.

One of the high points of the fiestas is the Corrida de Toros, in which internationally renowned bull fighters are invited to show off their prowess in the arena. Many Quiteños are very proud of this practice and some people even invited me to go to one of the fights. I politely refused ...

Christmas

Will and I spent the holiest evening of the year with the family: María, Adriano, Kai and Karla. María made a very nice (traditional style!) stuffed turkey with different types of delicious salads and we had a great pie for desert.

In my family it always seems to be the older generation who is most eager for Christmas presents, and here it didn’t prove to be any different … María was very excited after dinner to move on to the Christmas tree, where a lot of present were awaiting us all. We had a lot of fun distributing them by means of dice and Will and I both ended up getting a very fluffy and warm scarve and hat.

For the first time in my life I went to a REAL midnight mass, i.e. at midnight! As is custom here, María took her little Jesús to mass to be blessed. I have to confess that I had difficulties staying awake ... and mass turned out not to be that different from a European mass, except then for the language and a clapping and dancing priest (well, that last one is maybe just a bit exaggerated ...)

On Christmas day, we went to Pappallacta with its many balnearios. That was great! We first spent a couple of hours in the hot baths, had a nice turkey sandwich and after this went on a walk in an enchanted forest - or that is at least what it looked like, with its rather small trees with moss hanging all over them, a very wet and mossy forest floor and mist all over. (The more down-to-earth name for such a forest is - I believe - "high altitude humid forest".)

New Year´s

Our New Year was spent in Canoa, a small quiet town at the Pacific coast, together with the family and Helena and Jadira. A drive by the 80 year old Adriano took us there. Apart from one incident, I was quite relaxed and having fun with Karla and Helena - sitting in the back of the pick up truck with inflatable mattresses under our bottoms and against our back. Will and Kai, however, who were sitting inside the car and had a good view forwards were not so much at ease … All of us insisted that on the way home we’d have another driver. It took María a lot of effort to persuade Adriano to let her drive, without having his pride affected too much …

We all had a very good and lazy time at the coast (think sea, sun, palm trees, cute old fishing boats, hammocks, …). I sort of re-discovered the sea, overcame my fear for water and I can assure you that it was worth it! I never enjoyed the sea so much before! The water temperature must have been at least 25 degrees and the waves were very nice and not too scary. We experimented a bit with surf boards for children - it´s far from the real stuff, but good fun.

We ate lots of fish and had a lot of food in general and - eventually - ended up in a very nice hostal with "camping", where we ended up sleeping in open air (being somewhat attacked by mosquitoes). The camping experience was one of María´s dreams-come-true, she never had done that before. Quite remarkable actually, a 50 and 80 year old going camping and actually enjoying it!

And we had a real fresh ripe coconut for the first time and mango with lime, salt and pepper. I also introduced Will to the concept of the yapa (that little extra you get for your money). It turns out that people here are apparently flattered if an extranjero tries to get the yapa from them: totally amazed that we would have such knowledge of their culture! So far, they've treated me well, often almost doubling the amount of jugo or ice cream ;-)

On New Year´s Eve, we lit a stack of wood on the beach and watched the firework in the distance. "Local" tradition requires that you make your own giant painted doll/puppet and that you set it on fire at midnight - thus burning all the bad spirits that might have been haunting you over the past year. Twelve strikes before midnight, you should also start eating grapes, one each second and with each grape make a wish for the coming year ... Ever tried putting 12 grapes in your mouth at once??