Carnaval

Monday, 07 de marzo, 2011

1.) from the last post "Hiking the Ecuadorian Trails" my shoe was found!! if anyone was really worried about how i lost one of my expensive, fairly new converse shoes, don't worry it was incredibly found along the way by a tio. It was dropped on the hike over, on the hike back the 7 of us didn't spot it, we had all taken it for dead-lost-forever. a few days later tio returns from the farm with my shoe, says he just saw a small piece of it in some bush along the way. que suerte.

2.) we are in carnival. It's pretty exciting, it lasts only about three days (sunday, ,monday, tuesday) and most everyone goes to the beach to celebrate. i went sunday (yesterday) afternoon with a some friends and family and we traveled to a nearby beach about 2hrs away. The beaches are crazy packed with people and music (in many beached there havent been ocupancy in rooms for weeks--all booked). I heard that during carnival they have water and egg fights in the street. luckily there were no eggs. however one of the main themes is that they want everyone to be super dirty. As we were driving out of town (san isidro) heading for the beach, in the back of the pick-up we got water thrown on us a few times. Along the way, a few other times whether it be from people in the streets or in other cars driving by. Upon arriving we got bubbles (i think) which come out of a spray can just like whipped cream (and looks like it too) sprayed all over us. Walking in the street from balconies, truckes, people walking by you get water shot or thrown at you (from a bucket). sometmies its regular water, sometimes its ice cold, sometimes its brown, and sometimes red. In addition to all of that there is paint. The paint method usually is people walking around with paint on their hands (lots of paint) and as you walk by they run up to you (from all directions) and rub their hands all over your face, body, whatever. This gets you completely covered in paint. So everyone at the beach was walking around wet with crazy army paint all over their faces and bodies and occasionally covered in white from the whipped cream bubbles. it was actually really fun and i found that there was no way to avoid it. first i tried walking normally with a serious face--that didnt work. then i tried dodging it when i saw them attacking someone in from of me id try to walk around them-further away...no use. i only wish i could celebrate this longer (i have to work) AND i really really really want to get some people with paint or water...que diversion.

unfortunately my camera broke some point during the hike (last post) so i couldnt take any pictures of the craziness...maybe i will be able to get some from a few friends later.

feliz carnaval!!