Carnaval!!!

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So it's Carnaval here (February 23-24), which in Ecuador basically means that it's a nation-wide massive water/foam/flour fight constantly. Seriously, before there was some danger of getting sprayed, but now if you leave your house you're going to get foamed or wet. Ecuador is supposedly the only country that celebrates in this way and I definitely think we need to come up with some holiday in the States that involves the same activities. Not even joking. It's so much fun!

Monday (23) Nicole, Elysia, George, Kate, Avive, and I went to Peguche waterfall, the center of the fun in Otavalo. The walk there was half the excitement. Constant battles with other pedestrians and occasional truck-fulls of teenagers with buckets of water and water ballons. We went armed with foam so we were able to retaliate. By the time we were done with one guy with a water gun he was completely smothered in foam! Yes we won that battle. Overall though nobody ¨won¨. If you were still even partially dry at the end it just meant you weren't getting into the spirit of the fiesta. At Peguche people were wandering around up and down the trail leading to the waterfall spraying eachother. Then when we got almost to the waterfall we found the main event. A line of people probably 70 feet long (not even exaggerating) with a constant supply of water from a gutter offshoot of the river and buckets to aid them in their attack. Of course when we got there everyone started shouting ¨turista turista¨so of course we got even more blasted than usual. We made it through, but then just had to go back into the chaos again. By that time our foam supply had been depleted so we made our way dripping back to the beginning of the trail where there were food vendors. It was like being at a fair, all the amazing little food stands. We ate our way back to the road: colada de mora (a hot drink), cheese emapanadas, cheese and potato cakes, and the highlight: choclo (a type of corn on the cob) rolled in butter and grated parmesan cheese. Honestly, it was amazing! Then home to our hot showers, getting water-balloned and bucketed along the way. The 2 most common weapons were water and foam, but some people also had colored flour. Okay, so what happens when water and flour combine? That's right, it turns into a sort of paste. All in our hair. And we were multicolored from all the different types of foam. Amazingly fun though!

In the evening there was live music on the park strip along the Pan-American Highway so we went there for a while. Then to Jalajala for more music and dancing. There was a live band there as well for a while and they were actually quite good!

The 24th was more relaxing; lesson planning, food shopping for the kids, and of course more waterfights. People like to dump buckets from the roofs on whoever walks underneath and people drive around in pickups with buckets. There are also of course the people with foam and water balloons who chase you down the streets. It's a challenge to get anywhere without getting soaked. We literally have gotten chased down the street by little children with water balloons and buckets. But Wednesday it's over. After about a month, culminating Monday and Tuesday, we will be safe!

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Comments

[Marie]

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This sounds awesomely crazy! I love it! Good luck getting the flour paste out of your hair :)