After a long trip to Cuenca from Riobamba, Jenny and I finally got our host family yesterday afternoon. Our host mother is Sandra, a business woman, the host brother name Andrés who is 23, and a host sister Dominica who is 12. The family is very nice and was very excited to welcome us into their home. After we unpacked all of our luggage, Andrés and his best friend also named Andrés showed us around the city. They showed us the new and old cathedral as well as some of the restaurants, coffee shops, and ice cream stores. It was awesome to be able to walk around the city with people who know it well. We walked around for 2 hours or so, but after a long day of traveling we were exhausted. We decided to go back to the house to relax before the new year's celebrations.
Our host mother's father was having all of the family over for dinner and the new year's party. It reminded me of a holiday dinner here because a big dinner was served and all of the family was very happy to be together. I was very nervous going into the dinner because of the language barrier, but the family was very understanding and patient with me. Jenny was able to translate most of what was said so I could still communicate with the family. May of the cousins of our host brother were able to speak English so I could speak with them also. At the party we had a delicious dinner of ham, turkey, rice, and potatoes. We had bunuelos for dessert, which is a dough ball that was covered in a sweet topping made of naranjilla and brown sugar. I was taken aback by how sweet this desert was because the dough ball essentially acted like a sponge soaking up all of the sugary topping.
After dinner we lit off fireworks with the family before the burning of the monigotes. It is tradition on new years eve to construct a life size doll and burn it to represent last year and to give good luck for the coming year. During the day we saw several people with these dolls tied to their cars. It was fascinating to see this tradition because it is so different from what we have in the United States. Everyone celebrated this way though, because we saw many monigotes burning on the way home.
Another tradition our host brother explained to us, was how men dress up as the widow of the monigote that was burned on new year's eve and block off roads collecting money. We saw this at least six times on our drive to Cuenca. The men were wearing scary masks and held a rope across the road blocking traffic in an effort to collect change from the drivers. I was very confused at first but after having the tradition explained it made more sense.
Everyone in the family was given 12 grapes as part of a tradition of celebrating the new year. You are supposed to make a wish on each grape and eat them as the clock chimes as it hits midnight. It was impossible to keep up with the clock without choking on grapes, but it was fun to make all the wishes and watch everyone eat grapes as fast as they can! Tomorrow is new years day, and Jenny and I plan on sleeping and relaxing after traveling so much the past few days. Our first day in Cuenca was enjoyable and I can' wait to see what else we will see while we're here!