Feb. 3 - CARNIVAL!!!!!!

Carnival is celebrated in Quito by throwing water at other people. We decided this was not our style, so instead we opted to head down to Ambato where Carnival is celebrated with a fruit and flower festival. We headed to Ambato early in the morning (Same group, but we substituted Wendy for Mer) for the 2.5 hour bus ride down. On the way Mer, who has a Masters in Spanish from Western and has been traveling around Central America for about 2 months, educated me on Latin American music (which, as I have learned, makes it impossible to sit still) and told me her life story.

Once in Ambato we headed off in search of the fruit and flower festival only to find out that it doesn’t start for a few weeks. Instead we went to the main street where the parade just had just gone through. The street was filled with people selling various things, spraying each other with foam and general merriment. No one was safe. The army was sprayed as they passed, people would roll down their car windows and spray each other, even some of the police were holding cans of spray foam. It didn’t take us long before we were doused with foam and were forced to arm ourselves with cans of foam with which we could spray on other people in defense. We had a great time, especially watching Lee chase down the little kids who were spraying him, and chasing us around. Everyone seemed to know that we were in for the fun and spared no mercy in covering our faces, and clothes with the foam. Mer and Kat made the unfortunate decision to wear white shirts, because by the end of the day, their shirts looked tie-dyed.

After lunch, we decided that we needed to head someplace more docile. So, after handing our half full cans of foam to street children, we climbed into some taxis to head up to the Monumento a la Primera Imprenta to see the view over the city and the still active Volcan Tungurahua in the distance. The view was remarkable, and there was music playing since there was going to be a festival later that night. So, without skipping a beat Mer decided to start dancing and we all joined in (with all the locals watching and wondering what we were doing). I do feel the need to say that aside from Mer (whom I’ve dubbed a “white chocolate covered raisin” because she’s white on the outside and latino on the inside) none of us knew how to dance. One man did join us and tried to help, but to no avail. It was just Mer teaching us how to meringa (I think that is what it was). Kat was pretty good, but the rest of us needed a lot of help.

Once we were tired (it is quite high up and the altitude kills you) we started our walk down the steep hill and noticed that people were lining the streets waiting for the end of the donkey race through town. Definitely not something you are expecting to come across when you are walking around town. While we were standing there, about five people passed us riding the donkeys, but the last one was having some troubles with his donkey which would not do what he was told.

Once back in town, we sat down for a while in the main square and watched the people come and go while we waited for Mer’s friends to meet her (she was spending the night there) before we hopped on the bus and headed back to Quito for a much needed rest.