Saturday was El Dia de Los Difuntos (the Day of the Dead). Walking through much of Quito, you wouldn't even know it was a holiday, except for the abundance of colada morada (a fruit drink with a deep purple color to resemble blood) and guaguas de pan (bread shaped and decorated like a baby) everywhere. However, John and I decided to spend the afternoon in one of Quito's largest cemeteries, El Cementario de San Diego. Here, you could definitely tell that it was a special day. At the entrance to the cemetery, there were hundreds of people selling flowers, rosaries, and of course, colada morada and guaguas de pan. The cemetery itself was packed with families, painting and decorating family members' tombs, eating food by the tombs, and just spending time with each other. It was a pretty powerful thing to watch - definitely made me miss my family.
Saturday night, John and I went out for one last meal together. He left Quito on Monday morning to return to the states, with no plans to return to Quito in the near future. It was a pretty tough goodbye, as John is the friend who helped me to arrange this entire gap year. We went to an Italian restaurant which was delicious (if anyone comes to visit me - we will definitely go to dinner there one night). Plus, the meal did not include rice!!
I spent Sunday relaxing in one of Quito's many parks with a few friends. I love spending Sundays in the parks. Since Sunday is a very family-oriented day, there's always plenty of people watching with a lot of cute kids and adorable puppies!
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| My way of participating in the day's festivities - my guagua de pan |
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| The flowers outside of the cemetery |
The pictures below are all from inside El Cementario de San Diego - John and I got a little carried away with taking photos.
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