Reading: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
February means "summer" vacations (for the coast), hot weather, rainy season and CARNAVAL!
This is perhaps the most fun and ridiculous holiday that I have ever experienced - really, it's a shame we don't celebrate it state side save New Orleans. Basically, it's a three day long free for all involving spray foam, water balloons, buckets, flour and eggs (nice clothes and cell phones not recommended.) Although, I have been told that it's really only celebrated at full force in select towns, otherwise Carnaval is nothing more than some rowdy kids throwing water balloons at passing motos.
So how do four gringos decide to spend this fabulous holiday, knowing that their last minute planning will not find them a hostel at the country's best party in Guaranda? Go to Vilcabamba, por supuesto.
A nice perk to Ecuador being a developing country as opposed to an underdeveloped country is that its full of these wonderful little expat havens of first world greenies, adventures, and misfits. Which means when I decide Saturday morning that I would like to forget real world Ecuador for the weekend, gringolandia is only a few bus rides away. In theory, this would be three buses, but since traveling the day before Carnaval is like traveling the day before Thanksgiving, our trip required four and sleeping for a few hours on the floor of the Cuenca bus terminal at odd hours of the evening. Landslides may have played a part in all of this.
Either way, Sunday morning we found ourselves deep in the Andes, hiking back to our campsite at an ecolodge owned by some Argentinians. After a quick lunch at a restaurant recently opened by a family from California, we took up arms in the form of foam bottles and joined the melee in the center of town.
I like to think of the whole thing as a battle between good and evil, with myself as the Robin Hood figure who dished back to all the guys what reserve Ecuadorian women will not after they had been made part of a city wide wet t-shirt contest. In reality, we mostly just chased after small children. Once we were fully soaked and chilled we stopped by an Englishman's restaurant for hot chocolate (feeling the gringo invasion) before preparing for Monday's round two.
Having our ranks double to four, day two of Carnaval was spent with a haba of Pilsener on the side of the street while repeating Sunday's water wars. There was an unfortunate addition of raw eggs.
Come Tuesday, I think we all felt that our clothes no longer existed without a foam covering and that it was time to return to reality. But not before one last stop at an Ecuadorian owned American style pizzaria in Loja.
February means "summer" vacations (for the coast), hot weather, rainy season and CARNAVAL!
 |
| Foam wars, an integral part of Carnaval |
So how do four gringos decide to spend this fabulous holiday, knowing that their last minute planning will not find them a hostel at the country's best party in Guaranda? Go to Vilcabamba, por supuesto.
A nice perk to Ecuador being a developing country as opposed to an underdeveloped country is that its full of these wonderful little expat havens of first world greenies, adventures, and misfits. Which means when I decide Saturday morning that I would like to forget real world Ecuador for the weekend, gringolandia is only a few bus rides away. In theory, this would be three buses, but since traveling the day before Carnaval is like traveling the day before Thanksgiving, our trip required four and sleeping for a few hours on the floor of the Cuenca bus terminal at odd hours of the evening. Landslides may have played a part in all of this.
Either way, Sunday morning we found ourselves deep in the Andes, hiking back to our campsite at an ecolodge owned by some Argentinians. After a quick lunch at a restaurant recently opened by a family from California, we took up arms in the form of foam bottles and joined the melee in the center of town.
I like to think of the whole thing as a battle between good and evil, with myself as the Robin Hood figure who dished back to all the guys what reserve Ecuadorian women will not after they had been made part of a city wide wet t-shirt contest. In reality, we mostly just chased after small children. Once we were fully soaked and chilled we stopped by an Englishman's restaurant for hot chocolate (feeling the gringo invasion) before preparing for Monday's round two.
 |
| Carnaval essential: Pilsener and spray foam |
Come Tuesday, I think we all felt that our clothes no longer existed without a foam covering and that it was time to return to reality. But not before one last stop at an Ecuadorian owned American style pizzaria in Loja.
No comments:
Post a Comment