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Published: July 23rd 2006
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Yesterday was the party for the nearby town of Machachi, it's a celebration o 6f the Chagra, a type of cowboy that originates from there. Anyway, during the day all the people who own horses or farms in this area dress up like the Chagra and have a horse parade thru the cobblestone streets of Machachi for roughly 6 hours, each rider takes two laps through town while drinking ungodly amounts of the devils juice. Old women sit on the curbs selling ice cream, bracelets, warm beer, or whatever lil' trinket might earn them a few bucks.
There are so many people at the parade it's difficult to walk around freely or drink a beer without half of it ending up on my shirt or accidentally on someones back ( I swear someone knocked my elbow ). Our hosteria had 4 horses in the parade and I stayed until the second lap to see them because I guess I was preoccupied with something on the first pass, probably the beauty pageant float(see pictures). After I got a few photos of our horses, I had to hop in a truck back to Papagayo and work a little bit, it's not all fun
Beauty Queens
Yup, I think i was occupied taking this photo during the first pass of our horses and games down south, i actually do quite a bit around here.
After doing random work around the farm, my near future was uncertain. I really wanted to go back to Machachi because after the parade the party begins. Esteban, my boss, wasn't sure if I would be able to leave again because that group of brits was STILL camping in the backyard and they order lots of food at night and cause us TONS of stress. Duque, my main man at the farm, did a lil' sweet talking though and we got to leave Papagayo around five to go drink a beer, yes just one because we were "supposed" to ( actually make the air quotations please when reading, it enhances the story 10 fold, thanks ) be back at 7:00. I know a lot of you reading this are from Wisconsin, and there is never a time where a Wisconsinite goes out for just one drink.
We got to Machachi at around 5:30, hopped off the bus, and went directly to the beer stand and Two big beers for 2 bucks makes duque and bryan really happy.
Remember how I said that the horse parade takes about 6
Chagras
typical Cowboy from Machachi hours, well close your eyes and open the nostrils and try to picture what the streets would look like after all the horses have done there business in the middle of the street, it wasn't pretty and definitely didn't smell like roses. A few beers later however, I think i actually smelt roses, so it's okay.
Seven o'Clock came real quick and I had no intentions of leaving the party at that point, besides rules are meant to be broken arent they? We made the brash decision tdo stay in Machachi and party for a lil bit longer, well okay maybe for a lot longer. Anyway, you're probably thinking why and the hell is this entry titled Jennifer Lopez, Pat Riley, and vino oh my!, well i'll tell you now.
Apparently 73% of the guys in Machachi either watched the NBA finals and thought Pat Riley looked really good with the slick backed doo and they too wanted to be NBA world champions or Rico Suave ( remember that song/video in the early 90's ) is still really popular in Ecuador, but yeah they all really liked slicking their hair back. Now for the girls, really really tight jeans, small
Lil' Chagra
cute kid on a horse shirts, big butts, and huge sunglasses were very abundant. I think i saw 874 J-Lo wannabees. Oh yeah, vino ( wine ) there was lots and lots and lots and lots of vino, lots of vino.
Ok, so now you have a picture of what the guys and gals are like, lemme describe the street and music scene. The streets of machachi are very long and narrow so they are packed shoulder to shoulder, or butt to butt in J-Lo's case, with people. There are tons of music stands playing all sorts of music from reggaeton to salsa, with a crazy electronica stage as well. You see, the deal in ecuador is who can play the loudest music and who can get the most people dancing so what they do is set up stands next to each other and try to outplay each stage. I don't know how it's done, but there seems to me a magical barrier where in one spot you hear reggaeton, and one step over you hear salsa. I tested my theory of the magic barrier and sure as shit, i'm right. straddling this so called barrier, my left ear was treated to reggaeton while my
Hat Vendor
sold em for a buck right here was gettin groovy with some salsa.
Being the only gringo at this shindig, it's easy to make friends and all you have to do is follow these simple instructions. Find beer vendor. Buy lots of cheap beer, Pass beer to fellow drinking partners. If you follow these steps, I can gurantee one of the DJ's will say " Thank you ( insert name here, in my case it's Bry On) from los estados, Viva Machachi" then pat riley and jennifer lopez will say thank you and ask you to dance, Jlo that is....Pat Riley is already getting down with another Jlo. When all the cold beer is gone, then the wine vendors step up to bat. I'm glad I came with Duque because he is friends with one of the store owners who was selling wine. Instead of paying 10 dollars for a box of wine, 15 dollars will get you a case of boxed wine. Once again, the gringo is loved by all. Everyone buys boxes of wine with lil' dixie cups and pours shots to pass around to everyone.
We're looking at 9 o'clock now and I'm well past my curfew ( not sure what that
Dancer
Must be hot in those clothes dancing all day long word means ) and everyone is definitely good and drunk. The DJ's decide they also want to play nice and synch there music so two stages side by side are blaring tunes and everyone is dancing. Apparently I picked up on the salsa thing pretty quickly because J-Lo decided to keep dancing with me instead of searching for the next NBA coaching legend. Lots of wine, a plate of eggs and rice, and a truckride home we finally got back to Papagayo safe and drunk. Esteban was not mad with me only because I told him that the people of Machachi refused to let the gringo go home early, which was true to a certain extent I suppose. My bed at Papagayo was glad to see me, or maybe the other way around, but at midnightish i crashed hard, only to be awoken this morning at 6 am. to make 12 tuna sandwiches for the climbers heading to Cotopaxi, and I gurantee those were the slowest sandwhichs ever made, but the time and care that went into that tuna will be tough to match.
I know this is a long entry, my fingers a lil' tired and I need to
get back to work. Overall Machachi was a great time, im glad I got to dance this weekend because 10,000 lakes festival was this weekend and I heard Umphry's put on a killer late night...Hope everyone is doing great. I miss everyone. Cheers, love, good vibes for all! Peace
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Leslie
non-member comment
Cowboy Hat
Hey bud man! Sounds like you are having a good time. Can you hook me up with a cowboy hat like that little boys? No way can I find something that cool here. I'll make a trade with you. I'll send some of Holden's old clothes for a hat. How old is the little boy and what size clothes does he need. Be safe and keep having fun!! Talk to you later! -Leslie