Christmas eve. This morning at around 3am a bus traveling from Quito (capital) to my town (San Isidro, the final destination) crashed and fell off the edge of a mountain. They say that it was filled beyond capacity with around 20 extra passengers and in addition to the weight of all the luggage and the excess of Christmas gifts as well combined with the probably bad condition of the bus it weighed too much and the breaks went out and it couldn’t stop in time and spun out of control around a curve. I think the final number was 23 people from San Isidro died with maybe 8 being children (and babies—7 and 3 months), a few my age and the rest older adults. The whole day people were running around trying to figure out who was on the bus, who didn’t make it, those wounded, from which families were they. My town isn’t that big, everyone knows everyone at least by last name. Because the bus was so full some parents or families told their children to get on and that they would catch the next bus. Because the bus was so full some people weeped for their loved ones who were planning to be on the bus only to find out later (luckily) that they didn’t board. Whole families died. 8 people from one family. 3 from another. 16 other passengers died not from San Isidro. That makes 39/64 fallecidos. The rest are wounded and trying to hold on. My family told me that Christmas is kind of depressing and they never really do anything to celebrate. I was prepared for that, okay with it. This however is on a whole different level and extremely sad. There was a ‘ceremony’ (not sure what you would call it) when all of the bodies arrive. The (whole basically) town lined the streets with candles as the families walked with the coffins of their loved ones through to the centro. They sang, had a mass, prayed. Seeing that many coffins, that many people and families suffering, coffins smaller than I am, little angelitos they call them. The hardest part was when in front of the small coffin was a man holding a box that held a toy car. A Christmas gift.
“La ilusion navidena se esfumo en segundos. Decenas de familiares se quedaran esperando que sus seres queridos lleguen a su destina. Hoy, un regalo amanecera debajo del arbol sin abrir y un espacio vacio sera imposible de llenar en mesa, durante la cena de Nochebuena.” –Extra Judiciales; Guayaquil, Sábado 25 de diciembre del 2010
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