Did I already upload this photo? No importa... If you had come to visit El Castillo a couple of weeks ago, this is what you would have encountered on my rooftop - a beautiful bromeliad blooming in red and white! This poor thing was picked up off the ground while I was on a hike last year and had been looking first worse, then better up on the roof. By the looks of this bloom, it was doing just fine with a diet of water and sunlight. I have other plants up there whose flowers smel better, but I don't think any of them look better.


December 1 was World AIDS Day. (Probably World AIDS Awareness Day more accurately, but you get the picture.) Anyways, the remaining volunteer here in the city was coordinating among schools and the hospital and the firemen/police to have an awareness parade on November 30 and wanted to know if I was interested in helping out. So I show up and chat a bit and see a gigantic white condom costume. Awesome. I ask those in charge who is going to wear it, and noone has a clue. By now I suppose you see where this story is going...


Just in case you've ever wondered what the world looks like from inside a giant white body condom made of foam and insulation so that it gets so hot your glasses steam up repeatedly, forcing you to remove them to wipe while surrounded by laughing and pointing children, many of them probably too young to really understand what a condom is used for in the first place.


First photograph in history featuring a dwarf looking confused at a giant dancing condom? Perhaps. The drawf's name is Alejandro. He's cool. You should see him lip-sync in costume. I'm not kidding, it's a riot.


December 1 was ALSO the day of the great pichirillo race down the streets of Zaruma, and I was on hand again this year to enjoy the festivities. Here's one of the smaller entrants.