It won’t be long until Christmas arrives, and there are some tell tale signs around Cotacachi. For one thing the city has already had the crews engaged to set up a nativity scene in the center of Parque La Matriz. A few days ago, out came the animal and human figures for the scene and workers busily erected supports and created a thatched roof with long strands of soft dry grass that sways whenever the wind blows through. The scene is encircled with multi-colored barricades, and more touches will be added to the scene as the day approaches.
The other tell tale sign is not seen, but heard. There are explosions going off at all hours — pretty much whenever someone has some fireworks and feels like setting them off. If you are a newbie in Cotacachi you might at first be alarmed and think you are hearing gun fire, but since people here, generally speaking, do not have guns it is easy enough to grow used to random explosions followed by brilliant rockets or multicolored fireworks in the sky. It is much like U. S. Fourth of July celebrations, only they go on for weeks.
Other signs you will see that definitely tell you it’s Christmas time in Cotacachi is the appearance of children wearing white gowns and angels wings (usually in parades) and they are frequently accompanied by some very cute teen aged girls in Santa costumes wearing high heeled boots and mini skirts. ‘Mini skirts’, you ask? It is rather warm to be wearing a full Santa costume for any appreciable amount of time during the day; and besides, the girls really are super cute.
The featured image is a woman in traditional clothing sitting on a park bench with the nativity scene in the background.
Looks like Cotacachi does more at Christmas than a lot of places in Mexico and central America where the celebration seems to get started later for 3 Kinds Day and so on.
Always interested in how the various regions celebrate!