Happy Halloween

Woke up this morning to no breakfast. Not really sure where my host mother was..but that was fine, the more I can avoid the usual boring breakfast the better. Instead I had yogurt with cereal and orange juice, yum!

So some how the summer and fall have ended and now begins the chillyness of winter...well for those of you in the northern hemisphere that is...sorry. hehe. I on the other hand will be headed to the beach in two days! I can´t say we are starting summer here as you all begin winter because some days it can feel as though Im in winter. I really do believe that it´s possible to feel all different climates in just one day here in Ambato.

This past weekend in Ambato was tranquilo, no festivities regarding halloween which felt weird at times but then again not at others because it´s just not practiced here. So for everyone it was normal to do their reg. thing and since no one was celebrating it, there really wasnt anything to miss. What they do celebrate, or traditionally what is celebrated is something like "dia de los muertos" but here is called "dia de los difuntos". On november 2nd families go to the graves of families and loved ones bringing them a special drink called colada morada y guaguas de pan.

The colada morada is a drink made out of a black cornmeal. I think the corn is originally just a darker color, im not sure if it is actually black but that´s what they call it (harina de maiz negro). All types of fruit are added. Really anything you can think of, strawberry, piña, mora, canela..the drink ends up being a thick purple and very sweet. With this are guaguas de pan. Guagua means child in kichwa (one of the indiginous languages spoken in ecuador). The bread is in the shape of a child with an X on the belly. Traditionally these things would be brought to the graves of family members but in modern ecuadorian day people just prepare the drink and eat the pan.

Another interesting part is that both Catholics and Indiginous practice this religious holiday. For the indiginous it seems to be a bit more serious because they still have the belief that family members who have passed away are not dead but rather in another transformation, so they bring all types of food to share with the family members.

So Ecuador will have wednesday off for Dia de los difuntos and then have thursday and friday off kind of as floating holidays because Cuenca has their independence day. Cuenca is a very well known city to turists and for some reason the whole country decides to take off for their independence festivities.

On another note, the director of our office will be going on sabatical..to his house..lol I guess he´s taking off the next year to do some type of research but will be doing it from his home..not sure if that´s just an ecuadorian thing, lol. We are going to have a going away dinner for him tomorrow downtown. Should be a good time, also fun to see people outside of the office. We aren´t sure who will be replacing him but they better make up their decision fast because tomorrow is his last day.

Nothing really going on in the office these next couple days so I will probably take tomorrow afternoon off to get things in order for the trip! YAY! the beach! Hope everyone has a great start to the week :)