New Year´s Eve Mayhem, Shrek Burns

  While in the Galapagos, we had the chance to see Ecuadorian culture up close when we went ashore to the small 7,000 person town of San Cristobal to celebrate New Year´s eve.  People were all out with their children at 11 pm dressed in their finest.  The girls had dresses that would rival those from prom.  Kids ran around throwing fire crackers at each other and in public bathrooms while the sea lions on the beach burped and bellowed about their disturbed sleep.  A public showing of Shrek was playing in the park while a life size paper mache statue set of all of the main characters lingered nearby.  In fact, all along the street there were dioramas of cartoon characters such as Woody from Toy Story and Hellboy as well as representations of people and events that memorialized the previous year for better or worse. Some mache dolls were of disliked politicians and some were representations of bad fires that had happened in 2010.  Unfortunately, at midnite, all was not going well for Shrek.  For at 12:00 and the New Year, the effigy burning commenced and bonfires lit up of the city streets.  The toxic smell of burning plastic and paint lasted for only as long as it took the youngsters to throw fire crackers in the fire. It was mayhem and picture that I took of the event looked like an enormous riot was taking place.  But, as soon as the innocent Pixar creations were nothing but ash, and the kids tired of putting their limbs on the line for the sake of a loud bang, the sea lions were at peace once again and everyone still dressed as if they were going to a state dinner went out to eat.  The Ecuadorian New Year´s eve.

Effigy burning.

Someone committing Woody to the fire.

It looks just like a crazy riot!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!