From New Year's Eve with sunburn and old hippies in top form

On the afternoon of New Year's Day we visited an aging hippie lady. Margerita, a journalist, originally from Vorarlberg, emigrated to Ecuador 35 years ago to open a travel agency in the Galapagos. For the past nine years, she has been living in the small town of Macas and is happy to be able to speak German again in her home. She was so happy that she showed us everything the city has to offer. Of course, Margerita knows all the airports from which the villages in the Amazon are supplied with essential goods. And of course, she is also acquainted with the pilots and mechanics. To make a long story short: she spontaneously arranged for us to fly over a small part of the Amazon and the city of Macas in a small Cessna! It was a bit shaky, but I can now say: the rainforest looks like broccoli from above!

New Year's Eve is celebrated in Ecuador with a special tradition: dolls filled with wood shavings, symbolizing the worries of the past year, are burned at midnight. So, we, along with the whole Natalis family, set out to find the best party, which turned out to be quite difficult, as half of the city was prepared as a party street: with stages, beer and food stands, bouncy castles for the children, which are taken everywhere, and of course, the most important thing: ear-deafening loud music! At midnight, the bonfires were ignited and fed with dolls until the last worry of the old year was burned!