Christmas in Puyo

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So Christmas came and went in Puyo. I have to say, it was hard getting into the Christmas spirit here. Yes, yes, the Ecuadorians celebrate Christmas just as we do. They have lights and trees and presents, but somehow it just isn´t the same. Stores don´t play continual Christmas music during the day, there are not Santas sitting around waiting for you to tell them what you want for x-mas. In fact, even Christmas day itself, just seemed different - like any other day. Most of the stores were open, people were out an about and, sadly, people were laboring away on construction projects, picking up the garbage, etc. etc.

Sue and I tried our best to make this Christmas as normal as possible. We had a group of Peace Corps friends come down on Friday for the weekend. We had a blast with them, Friday we pretty much stayed in. I made dinner, we drank beers, told stories, ate cookies, and had fun. Saturday, we went into town and took a walk along the nature trail that runs by the river. After that, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the Eco Park/pool just outside of town to do some R and R. The Eco Park was nice enough, a good place to lounge, but the bugs were terrible. I was bitten about 50 times on my back - so now it looks like I have a bad case of acne or chicken pox - oh well - the price one pays for being shirtless in the jungle.

That night, we made another fine dinner at home, exchanged our gifts, drank beers and other assorted drinks, played speed scrabble, played Texas Holdem - which Sue won again, and then went out to a dance club at 1:00am. Normally, going to a club is not my idea of a fun night out - just not my style. But this club was a lot of fun - there were two bands and a good crowd. Sue and I danced for a good two hours before the crew decided that it was time to go home for bed. Well, our decision was a bit forced, since one of our pals was drunk enough that he felt the need to puke in the club - we shuffled him out as fast as we could.

The next morning, I made the famous pumpkin-spice pancakes - I´ve been saving the mix for a few months now for just this occassion. They were a big hit - I even made my own syrup for them. After breakfast, we headed to Baños to rent bikes. We got our bikes and started off on the Baños to Puyo bike ride. About 20 minutes in, we stopped at a bridge to view the dam. Sue was complaining that her bike was not working right so I agreed to ride it. About a minute later, the bikes derailer exploded on me, it broke completely off the bike. I urged the group to continue on without me while I caught a bus back to the bike shop to get another bike.

Luckily, a bus came along in minutes and I got back to the shop. The woman running the shop wanted to charge me for the broken bike - I explained that I had nothing to do with this, that their bike was already in bad shape. Luckily, one of the guys who worked there explained to her that it was a ticking bomb and that I just happened to be the one on it when it went off. So, I got on another bike and pedaled my tail off to try to catch up to the group. They now had about a 50 minute lead on me. Just out of Baños, it started to pour down rain. I pedaled on and finally caught the group at one of the waterfalls along the road. Half of them took the cable car across the gorge to view the falls, while the other half waited for me.

We found out that the bike I had traded with Sue got a flat. Luckily, the bike rental place had given me a spare tire and a pump. We changed the tire while we waited for the others to cross back over the gorge. Because it was raining and we were having less than stellar bike luck, we decided to only go as far as Río Verde - the next town down the road. We rolled into town, parked the bikes and walked down to a restaurant that looks out at another one of the incredible waterfalls in the area.

We made the decision that the ladies would head back to Puyo from Río Verde, while the guys would return to Baños with the Bikes - No use for all of us to go back to Baños. When we finally returned to Puyo the group was dead tired. Nobody wanted to cook so we decided to go to a local pizza place in town. Once again, the ladies went home ahead of us guys - while we walked around town trying to find some place that might have the late NFL game on. No luck there, and no surprise either.

The next morning, everyone left. Susan went into the office in the morning for a little work, and surprise surprise, she broke the chain on her bike. So in the last 24 hours she broke and or immobilized 3 bikes. Needless-to-say, she is not allowed to ride my bike. Susan and I spent the rest of the day being lazy, relaxing, reading, watching movies, and doing as little as possible. Susan

Christmas day we got up, exchanged gifts, and then went to the internet café to call our families on SKYPE. We were lucky enough to be able to chat with my parents, Sue´s parents and my brother Bryan and his family. We were on SKYPE for about 3 hours, which is a new record for us. But it is so nice to have 3 hours of conversation for only $2.40.

Later in the day we went for a bike ride and then went to Katie´s for dinner. So as I said, Christmas came and went, I know it was Christmas, because we had a tree and exchanged gifts, but it certainly didn´t feel like Christmas. We realized just how much we miss being with our family and friends during holidays.

Peace,
Jeremy

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