Today we departed from Riobamba and went to Cuenca. The drive was close to 6 hours long. During this time I tried to write some blogs but when we got up into the mountains, I couldn’t do anything because I was so distracted from the beautiful view. We were basically up in the clouds. The roads were crazy to drive on since we were going up for long time and what seemed like we were doing a bunch of U turns. We passed through some small towns that I thought would be an awesome place to live in because of the gorgeous view. We then arrived to Cuenca and boy did this look like it was going to be a crazy city.
We arrived to the CEDEI and I met my host family. The first thing my mom did was give me a gigantic hug. My mom, Clara, knows very little English but my brother, Marcelo, knows quite a bit of English. We arrived to their house and it was absolutely stunning! They have a beautiful kitchen, living room, and dining room along with an upstairs with all the bedrooms. I was not expecting to see this at all when I thought about my host home. My room is on the main level and I have my own bathroom!! The first thing my mom did when we got home was cooked me a huge meal of chicken, lettuce, and potatoes. It was fantastic. They then asked me if I wanted to go to the other brother’s place for New Years tonight with the whole family. I would have to dress in costume though. Of course I couldn’t say no so I went as Spiderman.
I had no clue what to expect from the night. We got the brother’s house and my jaw dropped. The house was massive! The inside was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen such a beautiful house before. It was so different from American homes. There were about 25 family members there including about 6 children. I walked in and greeted all the women with a kiss on the cheek and the men with a firm handshake. After I greeted everyone we were all poured a whiskey shot including myself. We said “salude” and took it down. Then another whiskey shot was poured, “Salude”. After about 5 minutes of entering the house I greeted 25 people and had 2 whiskey shots. It was weird greeting everyone because I said, “buenas tardes,” to everyone and they said the same thing back. You only spent a second greeting everyone so that meant you never got the chance to catch anyone’s name. The whole family knew no English so I relied on Marcelo to translate it to me since I know very little Spanish.
More whiskey shots were poured for me and the family. Dinner came around 9:30 and this became very awkward for me. They told me that there was potatoes, another noodle dish that I forgot its name, pollo (chicken), and another meat that I didn’t understand. I went straight for the chicken and potatoes since I knew those were the safe bet. I did put everything on my plate though and tried it all. During dinner, I just went along eating my food and listening to the Spanish conversations going on. I was at the “adult table”. I could tell that the family members were disappointed that I didn’t know Spanish because I’m traveling here to their country. The family told jokes at the table and everyone was laughing having a great time. I could tell the family was talking about me because when someone said something they would laugh and look at me. I didn’t crack a smile or anything, I just kept eating my food pretending to be oblivious to the whole situation. They never asked me questions about my culture or myself. It was very uncomfortable and it was going to be a long night if this continued.
The chicken, potatoes, and the other noodle dish was absolutely delicious. I could not get over the taste of the other meat though. I tried grinding through it and eating it because I assumed it would be rude to not finish it. Another full plate of that meat came out and that’s when I finally realized what it was…. Guinea Pig. It was a fully skinned Guinea Pig on a plate. You should’ve seen my face. I was done with dinner after that. When dinner was done we went outside where the DJ was and danced. They then started karaoke but only the kids sang. It was very cute watching them dance and sing in their costumes. The whole family was very supportive of the little ones and we all applauded them when they were done. When all the little kids were done singing their songs, everyone got dressed up in their costumes. One by one everyone was introduced by his or her costumes including myself in Spiderman. When everyone was introduced, the dancing continued. My dancing partner was very cute 2-year-old girl. We danced for about 20 minutes together while she was laughing and smiling. At this point it felt as though I gained respect from the family. They all took pictures of me and her together and from this point on, the night was excellent. The family was attempting to make conversation with me and then on I was called Minnesota. At 12:00 we collected all of the Manigotes (stuffed dolls), put them on the street and lite them on fire. We “saluded” again with another whiskey shot. The streets were covered with fires from burning Manigotes and the sky was lite with fireworks. Everyone was running around with such joy and with so much energy.
Tonight was an experience that I will probably never be apart of again. When I was saying my goodbyes, the family was very loving to me telling me that I was a great dancer and that I’m a nice boy. In the end the night started out kind of rough in part to me probably not being myself but ended with one of the uncles telling me in front of everyone that, “I was the shit.”
