Evening on New Years Eve in Mindo, Ecuador

The festivities were in full swing when we out for dinner. Here are a few of the images from around town.

Andres, from our internet cafe, gladly posed for me. He has a tongue ring. Scary, eh?

Giant speakers for giant sound that continued all night until 7 am. Unlimited energy to party!!!

The master of ceremonies was very vocal throughout the night.

Effigy of George Bush and company. The shoe thing was very popular.

Black bean burritos and salad for dinner, $5 for the entire meal for 2 people and we ate outside on the sidewalk.

The people of Mindo live outside, they don't seem to spend all the time we do inside and in our cars. Few people have cars, they walk everywhere or jump in the back of a pickup truck. So life is mainly in the streets and shops open to the outdoors. Carrying tables??

 Many, many sidewalk vendors, especially on weekends and holidays.

I took a photo of these children, then 2 more joined in and I spent a happy half hour taking their photos and showing them the results on my LCD.  

The girl on the left kept trying to hug the girl on the right. She didn't like to be hugged at all and kept shoving her away.

He really wanted to see how he looked in my camera.

These effigies were burned in the street last night, not the park as I thought before.

A party bus, maybe? Seemed to just go around the block that the park was on, over and over again.

Birding effigies, I think was done for fun, not maliciously??

Street scene, closed off to the few cars around.

Cleaning up the next day. They sweep everything, even if it's dust on hard packed dirt.

Our internet cafe where I am right this minute posting this blog. Tomorrow we go back to Quito, and our friends Gary and Karen have offered to drive us there, fantastic!!! We'll be at the Nu House Hotel where I can Skype with Joe again, yay!!!