¡Feliz año nuevo!

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year with a bang here in La Paloma, Uruguay.  At the stroke of midnight the sky was ablaze with fireworks.  With no regulation of fireworks and little fire danger, fireworks were literally being launched all around us from backyards all around town. It was an amazing display and a unique experience to be in such close proximity to the action without a single focal point, but a flurry of fireworks coming from every direction.  Throughout the evening we had seen one or two and it was lovely.  A few small fireworks stands were on the street corners, but we didn’t see anything to prepare us for how grande the display would be at midnight!  The New Year celebrations here are marked with celebrations at home with meat cooking on an outdoor grill over a wood fire.  The air smelled of fragrant campfires and we wandered the streets enjoying the different sounds of children playing and latin music flowing from the backyards.  We found a restaurant to enjoy a bowl of ice cream.  The Dulce de Leche with chocolate chips was wonderful!  One fireworks stand gave us free sparklers and spinners as we walked past.  People are so kind here, and patient with our limited Spanish skills.  We haven’t noticed any other foreigners in town yet, maybe that is because we have a private casita instead of staying in a hotel or hostel.

New Years Eve started with our first Spanish lesson.  Gaston is our teacher here and he taught us the importance of vowels.  It helped us tremendously to change our listening and pronunciation to emphasize the vowels in every word, instead of the way we do in English with the consonants being the strong sound.  We can understand and be understood much better now.  It felt like a light bulb went on in our heads.

After that… to the beach!  This is a quaint town with lots of beaches to choose between.  I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowds at one of the most popular days to visit here.  We picnicked with sandwiches and empanadas  and the kids played in the sand and waves.

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year Celebration too!  Cheers to 2016!  Also, we are posting more frequent casual updates on Instagram if you want to check that out.

Waiting for midnight. Stars were ablaze overhead.

This is apparently the perfect place to grow Hydrangea! Love them!