It’s been a few days now (I am actually sitting in a hostel in El Calafate, wearing a snow beanie and drinking Malbec, so the beach seems like it was ages ago) but this was definitely the most memorable New Years Eve of my life, so I want to share it.
Dan and I started the last day of 2013 at our hotel, reading, writing, sitting on the beach. It was a normal day, but over breakfast, we happened to meet Chris (Cristiano) and his son Eduardo--two awesome travelers from Brazil.
Eduardo, Chris, and his wife Carina had driven 8 hours with their entire family—grandparents, cousins and all, to Punta del Diablo, and they were super interested in getting to know us. Chris was obsessed with San Francisco, and actually worked in high-tech, so of course he had a million things to talk with us about.
Eduardo—who spoke perfect English, reminded me so much of Manny (from Modern Family) in his maturity level, and was one of the most adorable kids EVER. He loved Minecraft and Code Academy, just like my little brother, and dreams of going to MIT.
After talking with Chris, we learned that the Terrazas sister hotel, La Viuda Diabo, was hosting a NYE dinner, and that the whole family was going, so we decided it would be a good option for us too.
As the sun started going down, we walked the 3 sand-dune blocks to dinner.
Chris and Fernando (brother, cousin, or maybe in-law) were drinking caipirinhas on the beach by the fire when we arrived at the hotel dinner. We sat by the fireplace at the ocean, climbed the sand dunes, and drank wine as we waited for dinner to begin.
The food was not extremely memorable--really not a lot better than cold-cuts and frozen lasagna--but the company was the best.
As we got closer to midnight, and polished off more than a couple bottles of wine, there was a lot of hugging, kissing, talking politics with the grandpa--mostly in Spanish, although Chris, Fernando, and Eduardo spoke some English, which meant Dan could join in too. (His Spanish hasn't quite kicked in yet.)
Between 11pm-12am, I had a conversation with one of the aunties (in Spanish) about the pros and cons of fracking in Argentina, and a conversation with one of the children about the challenges of going to a school in the United States. Just like in the states, a few glasses of wine, and there's something to talk about with everyone. And, of course, with a few glasses of wine = my power of Spanish increased exponentially, so that was a plus.
Along with most of the other groups on the dunes, someone from our group had a giant set of fireworks that we buried it in the sand. I have never seen a set of fireworks like this close up, I am 100% sure there is nowhere in the US you can buy/light explosives of this magnitude.
About 30 seconds before it turned midnight, I realized the whole beach had gathered on our little sandhill. Everyone was drinkng, talking, laughing, looking at the dunes . . . suddenly, Dan hit me on the arm and showed me his watch--10 seconds left! We began yelling the countdown in Spanish, and the whole hill joined in -
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
By the end of the countdown, fireworks of every shape and size were shooting off into the air. These would all be completely illegal in America, but here was a total free-for-all.
Finally, the Viuda Diablo "ran out" of booze, although, I suspect they may have hid the rest to get us to leave, so we all walked the hill to La Terrazas Viuda. After trying to get us to kill "one last bottle" of champagne, which I think everyone was already too far gone for, Chris told us, "We're going hard tomorrow! Last day of the vacation!" and we went our separate ways.
On our way to bed, we tried to buy some water to ward off the inevitable hangover, but the hotel had run out (another strange thing that occurred frequently in Punta del Diablo) so Dan and I made our first use of Carly's purification pen to get some water out of the sink. We'd heard the water was OK in Uruguay, but had also been told it was dicey. I figured starting 2014 off with a hangover was bad enough, I didn't need some random stomach illness to accompany it.
Awesome fireworks, awesome new friends, who are some of the warmest, friendliest, funniest, and most open people we've met on the road. I feel really lucky to have gotten to spend NYE in such a beautiful, memorable way.