New Years Tradition

New Years Tradition, originally uploaded by Gavatron.

We started to notice in Tumbes that people were selling papier-mâché heads. Lots of ‘em. And we didn’t know why. Then the heads started to show up on stuffed bodies, like you can see here.

What we guessed was these dummies had something to do New Years–and we had our suspicions confirmed when we spoke with this woman. In my best broken Spanish, I asked “For New Years?” while pointing at her collection. She smiled a toothless grin and said yes.

Then she proceeded to have a long conversation in Spanish with Heather. We both didn’t understand the nuance, but we did get that she and her family were enamoured with Heather’s blonde hair and pink skin. I got pointed at, which didn’t bother me in the least, and I was complimented on my tan (or at least that is what I think they were saying–it could have easily been something about the idiot gringo taking pictures of these dummies).