November 1st marks the Ecuadorian holiday of Dia de los Muertos which commemorates loved ones past. This celebration is widespread within Latin America, with different customs in different countries. Ecuadorians typically prepare flowers and food and visit the graveyard. Instead of being a somber holiday as you might expect, Dia de los Muertos is a joyous occasion where families get together and celebrate the lives of their lost loved ones. During the season,guaguas de pan (sweet bread shaped like babies, usually filled with jam) and colada morada (thick fruit drink coloured purple by blackberries and purple maize) can be found in nearly every restaurant in Quito. Since I don´t have any relatives here, and certainly no dead relatives, I partook in this unique holiday by having my fill of guaguas and colada morada. The guaguas look very appetizing, but unfortunately, in my experience, I´ve only had dry, stale ones. Colada morada is served warm (like most coladas) and contains chunks of fruit such as strawberries, blackberries, and pineapple. It is sweet and thick and very consoling on a cold, rainy day.
Fig 1. Me smiling like an idiot with my stale guagua de pan and colada morada.
Here at the reserve, we also celebrated Halloween. In the afternoon I made hideous cookies shaped like ghosts and skulls, and after dinner set up a small “trick or treating” experience for the kids. All the volunteers dressed in makeshift costumes (salutations to everyone´s creativity), and scattered to various places in the reserve so los niños could come find us and receive candies. Not quite the same as Halloween back home, but the best you could do at a remote farm in Ecuador.
Fig. 2. The family and us volunteers dressed up for Halloween. I am the fat white thing in the middle (marshmallow).
Cloud Mountain 