Chiva Ride 2005

Chiva Ride 2005
Originally uploaded by Stan & Sherri Hall.

Prospero 2006! We celebrated New Year's Eve by observing an Ecuadorian tradition of taking a Chiva ride. A chiva is similar to a 2-story bus without a roof on the second story. It is also open on the sides. You can stand up on the top. Families line up along the streets and people on the Chiva throw candy to the families. The trip ends in downtown Colonial Quito for a time of drinking hot chocolate. After the Chiva ride, the Howards (another missionary family here) had a "muneca" (a stuffed doll) and burned it. This is another Ecuadorian custom for "burning away" the bad things of last year, wishing for only good things in the new year. One other custom that we did NOT observe is to wear yellow underwear on New Year's Day, so fortunately for you, there are no pictures of that!