Happy New Year with Ecuador's new president!

As in previous years, I spent the holidays in Ecuador with my brother and his family. This year the New Year's celebration was something special. We celebrated on the street with the neighbors, including Ecuador's president-elect Rafael Correa.

The tradition in Ecuador is to burn an "Ano Viejo" (Old Year), a doll with mask to represent something that was bad in the year past. Mr. Correa said he'd burn himself, perhaps to beat others to the punch. He's also a fan of fireworks. So, when the clock neared midnight, the president-elect and his family were out on the street. So were we.

Mr. Correa is a very charming, charismatic man, very chatty and always smiling, at least that's what he was like on New Year's eve. He's very open and will come up to you and ask questions, for example how much the bundle of fireworks that we were shooting after midnight cost. But he's also happy to answer questions about the challenges he faces. Ecuador has had several presidents in the past decade that were ousted before finishing their term.

Our family chatted with his and we presented him with a bottle of champagne. After midnight, we shared several glasses of Champagne, lit fireworks together and some of us walked away with a Cohiba cigar from a box that Mr. Correa had been given by Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba.



(In the picture, Mr. Correa is the man in the blue sweatshirt, third person from the left. My brother has his arm around him, I am standing in the back. The rest of the group are neighbors and family.)