Or, "Happy Old Year" as you´ll hear in the streets of Cuenca on New Year´s Eve. Here in Ecuador the celebrations of December 31st are not so much about ringing in the new as burning out the old. Thousands of paper mache masks representing everything from hated political figures to cartoon characters are constructed and placed on dummies in front of homes and business only to be ritually torched in the street later in the evening. 
This handsome couple said that they searched desperately for a George W. Bush mask but, go figure, they were sold out at every place in the city. They ended up settling for Cheney and the next best likeness they could find.
Different organizations around the city create these elaborate larger-than-life diaramas in the blocked off streets of the city center representing various evils, like Ecuador´s most hated politicians burning in a firy hell, or a meeting of the mistrusted Ecudorian Congress. The real show happens at midnight when the effigies are dragged into the closest intersection where they are set alight and burn in towering streetwide infernos.
Just add the requisite New Year´s binge alcohol consumption and pepper the streets with young children shooting fireworks at eachother and the ensuing atmosphere is a bit like something out of Vietnam War flick. As bad an idea as this all may seem, it certainly beats champagne and conical paper hats.
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