Christmas in Quito

    Dec 24th: the smoke and smog has cleared over the past two days and we have intense sunshine with intermittent rain, with thunder and sometimes lightning over the mountain peaks that surround the city.

    Yesterday we had the Salazar family over for lunch. Deb made Hainanese chicken and Maggie made her famous cheesecake, which she sells to embassy staff for $20 - it's pretty delicious; Maggie also made Christmas sugar cookies, and Deb made her melt-in-your mouth shortbread. They spent the whole day prior in the kitchen, comparing recipes, messing with animated Christmas cards, having a lot of fun.

    Deb made traditional egg nog too, which you don`t see in the stores here, although they do have Christmas turkeys.  I provided rum for the egg nog, but the Salazars all declined - they had closed the factory on Friday and had a factory party with employees, and on Saturday another party with other friends kept them up until 8 a.m. this morning.  Edwin, in particular, needed shades to face the bright sunshine today. None of them drink alcohol on a frequent basis.

    Afterward, Any drove us back up to Itchimbia, the glass palace, to enjoy one of the most charming Christmas traditions anywhere. The residents of Quito fill the space with nativity scenes made by children and families, professional artists, churches, community groups, you name it. These are called Pesebres, or manger scenes ("pesebre" means "manger"). Someone screens them carefully to ensure that no two are too similar, either in materials used or appearance. They are made from found objects, bottles and trash items, fabric, paint, grains and foodstuffs, electronic trash (old circuit boards and capacitors, for example), recycled metal and car parts, burlap, paper maché, chocolate and marzipan, recycled glass, straw and corn husks, light bulbs...just about anything the creators can imagine working with. And they are all charming in one way or another. Here they are - if you zoom in, you`ll see lots of cute details.

    Tomorrow is Christmas. A few fireworks have already gone off. Maggie and Deborah have agreed on an exchange of Christmas gifts that seems most appropriate for two skilled cooks: Deb will make her pear puff pancake dish for breakfast, topped with some real maple syrup that we brought along, and Maggie will make a full-blown traditional Ghanaian dinner with fufu, fried plantain, and peppery tomato turkey stew for the sauce that goes with the fufu.

Next: Birds in a Gilded Cage