An Ecuadorian Ritual for a New Beginning- PCT 2024!

As the evening of December 31st was closing in, I grabbed my backpack and ran five laps around the house, wishing for smooth travels for each section of the trail: please no snakes and deep snow in the desert, a low snow year to the Sierras with easy snowfield and water crossings, lower temperatures and full-water cashes in Northern California, late or non-existent wildfires and fun trailhead reunions with all my friends throughout Oregon, and finally healthy, strong legs to push through the unrelenting terrain in Washington, the North Cascades and into Canada.

This is New Year’s Eve, Ecuador style.

Ecuador’s New Year Traditions

Before the pandemic, I taught English in this small Andean country for the US Peace Corps and I lived with a traditional and loving host family. Since the pandemic ended, I have continued roaming around South America, but about every two years, I make it a point to come back into their embrace.

This year, as I am prepping for my thru-hike on the PCT, I decided that acquiring some new red blood cells at 7,500 feet in the Andes was a good way to start my training. I arrived here just as the festivities for Christmas and New Years got underway. Christmas is a familial affair in this strongly Catholic country, but New Years is a party to remember- or not!

In addition to their favorite pastime, all-night dance parties, Ecuadorians practice many New Year’s traditions. Running around the house with your luggage ensures safe travels in the coming year. Lighting candles with twelve grains cleanses your home and brings opportunities for a prosperous future. Building a manigote, a likeness of yourself, and burning it at midnight helps to send away the misfortunes of the previous year. Then, jumping the flames while it burns will bring you luck for the next year. There’s also your choices of intimates… red may bring you love, while yellow could offer you fortune. Don’t you wonder what color I wore?

PCT Wishes from Ecuador

At midnight, as the clock rolls over to a new number, it’s very important to eat 12 grapes, making 12 wishes for each of the coming months. I used the first few of my wishes for the health and peace of my family, then I ate a grape for each section of the trail, reviewing all of its challenges and concentrating on the amazing experiences each will bring. Finally, I ate some grapes in hopes to have the physical and mental strength to reach Canada but with enough grace to be content with whatever happens along my journey.

The next morning, I completed the final tradition- for me, it’s the most wonderful of all. I learned this tradition from my host mother who learned it from her mother many years ago.

As the morning sun brightened the first hours of 2024, I prepared a ritual bath by lining the bottom of the shower with flower petals and pouring warm herbal “tea” over my head. The tea was made from a concoction of fresh herbs meant to cleanse away bad spirits and bring invigorating life and energy to my new year. I augmented the broth with the peel of mandarins, canela sticks, aromatic flower petals, and cedron. In truth, I had nothing bad to wash away from 2023. It was an amazing year of adventures, where I found my center- my place, my people in my backpacking travels around Patagonia. It was this past year where I symbolically found my feet – my ground – in my solitary life and a new way of being more content and more sure that this is the path I am supposed to be on.

But there, standing in the shower, sending especially good vibes to my feet, my ankles, my legs, my glutes and core which have been conscripted into this PCT plan without their agreement, I breathed in all the light and energy I will need for this trek- this amazing transformative experience to come!

And with that, I stepped into 2024, the beauty of new adventures, and the beauty of me.