The Best Winter Vacation!

The Best Winter Vacation!

Winter was one of my favorite seasons in Ecuador. I start my three month vacation during that time. Since I was young I loved these months because I could play with my cousins and visit some of my relatives that lived in different parts of Ecuador. The most memorable vacation I had was when I was about 12 years old.  I went to Santa Maria, Manabi which is a beautiful place surrounded by nature. Whenever I went there, I saw lots of animals outside each house. Most of the animals were pigs, donkeys, chicken, etc. I learned what things these animals ate, even though I wasn’t expecting them to eat left over and it was surprising when I saw pigs and donkeys eating banana peel. I also got to meet nice people. I can still remember how one night everyone in the village met outside a house. I was stunned by how many people were there. They all met there for one purpose, to pray to “El Nino de Caracol” which means the snail boy. El Nino de Caracol is a porcelain image of a boy inside a snail shell, which every year the image of the boy comes out of the shell miraculously. That night everyone lit a candle to the image. The owner of the house made food for all of us, and later we went to the streets and sing to the boy and god. After that day we went to visit my great grandma’s house. It was pretty and old. The house was basically made of cane woods, and it was surrounded by mandarin trees, cacao trees, and breadfruit trees. I loved to eat all this and I miss the flavors each fruit has. When night arrived, you could hear sounds of the insects. The emptiness of this city at night was kind of scary but peaceful. The rest of my one week vacation was fun, enjoying the nature with my grandparents, and relatives. Hopefully my next visit to Ecuador, I could go to this beautiful place and experience great things with the people I love.