New Year - New Luck

A lot has happened in the past few weeks and as mentioned in the last entry, there is also a change regarding our project here in Cuenca.

But first, let's tell you a little bit about the election of the Princesita Navideña (Christmas Princess) and the slightly different New Year's Eve.

In addition to the two Christmas parties we have already attended, there was also one at the Guarderia. Although the party spirit was not present among the attendees, the most important thing was that the food was good.

A new tradition was introduced... and we were there to witness it. The ladies had the priority and the two male participants had to take a back seat. By drawing small lots, the Princesita Navideña 2018/2019 was chosen. Who has the honor and can take on the role??? Señorita Simonita :)

New Year's Eve

It's quite strange when you are used to freezing on New Year's Eve and here you walk around in a T-shirt. Once again, we went to the hostel 'Cigale', where you can get unique food and good Maracuya Mojitos. At 11pm, cocktails and beer were no longer available, so we hit the streets of the city center. On New Year's Eve, it is tradition here to symbolically burn the old year (Año viejo) in the form of a "doll" (usually self-made) - we already knew that from kindergarten.

But we had no idea of the scale of it all at midnight. The normally busy street in the city center was now empty of cars - it wouldn't have been possible to drive anyway, because everything was on fire. If we hadn't been aware that it was New Year's Eve, we would have thought we were in the middle of a riot.

Huge dolls, wooden and cardboard cars and houses, and who knows what else, were set on fire in the middle of the streets. People danced around the fire, jumped over it three times (for good luck), loud music played everywhere, fireworks were set off, men dressed up as women and wished a "Feliz Año", it was hard to breathe because the whole city was smoky, etc. - a successful last day of the year 2018.

For the first time, we didn't celebrate with friends and family, but just the two of us, and we have to say, it was a lot of fun.

Our last experiences with the kids

To end the year in a special way, the caregivers, and we, took all the children on a bus to a great park on the other side of the city. The joy of playing in the park was clearly visible in the children - we enjoyed it too, but we were often busy keeping the "herd" together so that no child would get lost.

As mentioned earlier, we also said goodbye to the old year at the kindergarten. On the Friday before New Year's Eve, we celebrated another birthday and then burned all the self-made dolls "Año Viejos" of the different groups. Most of the kids and also Simone didn't care, but Michi was excited (he's an old pyromaniac) and bravely jumped over the fire three times.

The end of a great experience

With the end of the year, our time at the kindergarten also came to an end, much earlier than expected. We will be happy to tell you personally how and why this happened when we are back home. For those of you who are super curious, you can also write to us - an answer will usually be given within 7 working days :) Any costs incurred will not be covered by us.

To say goodbye, we had a cozy breakfast with our 4 caregivers (from left to right: Vero - Lady - Andrea - Isa) and we also received some small souvenirs from our two kindergarten groups. We are a bit sad to say goodbye to the little ones who have become very dear to us.

But since we will be back in Cuenca again anyway, we were invited to visit again before we head back to Austria.

What's next???

This question has been on our minds for almost a month now and has cost us a lot of energy. We couldn't find a new project in Ecuador as quickly as we had hoped (preparations for a project usually take several months - so nothing could be organized in the last 3 - 4 weeks).

Spontaneity is required - a new plan had to be made and we quickly found a common ground. Tomorrow (Sunday, January 13th) we are heading to the north - our first destination is the capital city of Quito. It is still uncertain how long we will stay there, as there are many national parks and volcanoes for hiking and thermal springs for relaxing around Quito. We will stay wherever and for as long as we like, as we currently have no time constraints.

It is also certain that we will soon travel to Colombia for a few weeks before meeting Simone's dad and his 3 amigos in Quito at the end of February to explore Ecuador together.

Dear dad aka Schwiegercharlie - we are really looking forward to seeing you.

Currently, we are in contact with a project in Cusco - Peru. Hopefully, it will work out and we can have another great experience, probably starting in April - we will keep you updated.

Warm greetings to snowy Austria from home :)