carnival - updated

it was a day just like any other day... wait... no... today is carnival, and to tell you the truth I feel like I've never experienced anything like this before. but before I jump into today's stories I have a little recap of yesterday night...

we set out before dinner for the local music pop stars who happen to live in peguche; ñañda mañachi (their group had the #1 hit in ecuador a few years back). it was dark, but our entire group followed obediently as dr. W took off walking in search of the famous household. unfortunately, the eve before carnival is probably not the best time to be strolling the streets (especially in the dark), and we were soon reminded of this when we approached a small town square alive with chaos... teenage boys were espuma-ing (foaming) each other, but combined with likely a decent amount of alcohol, the innocent carnival foam was soon evoking fist throws and other violence. we found ourselves in the midst of this and very quickly retreated to safety. these boys were taking off their belts to attack each other with the metal part - holy painful!! one glimpse of that and I was practically jogging in the other direction, ducking behind food stands to avoid being caught in the crossfire. fortunately this was more of a street brawl fueled by testosterone than part of the typical carnival festivities (which no one is exempt from), therefore we weren't in as much danger as it first appeared.

 eventually safe and sound at the home of the musicians, we watched how they make some of the wind instruments (he seriously made this pallas in a matter of minutes right in front of us - wild!!). then he demonstrated how to play all of these interesting instruments, which we tried later and failed at for the most part... and we got a mini concert from the group, these people have some serious skill (which I, in particular, appreciate given that I have absolutely no musical talent)...

...now for the good stuff: carnival in ecuador. and if you've thought any day up until now sounds crazy, today is a whole different level of celebration - and we joined right in :) ...before breakfast the streets seemed alarmingly quiet and I could've almost convinced myself that maybe on actual carnival everyone is in church or something and celebrated-out...? wrong... oh so very wrong... having learned from the past few days, we dressed in old clothes, left our cameras and phones safely in the room, and set out looking for trouble - which was pretty darn easy to find :) we were soon swept up in the midst of a massive parade - partially musical instruments and costumed dancer, and mostly locals, already deep into the celebration. in the middle of that crowd it wasn't long before our clean clothes were blending in quite well with the messy, dirty, wet, foamed, powdered, flower pedaled dress of the locals. like amateurs we were totally unarmed to begin with, but that doesn't deter the attacks here. the seasoned vets of ecuador (men, women, children, the elderly, pretty much everyone), all carry large espuma canisters and buckets of water filled with colored powder or flower pedals. all fists are clenched with colorful powder or paste and this rainbow colored chalk dust is gladly rubbed into the hair and on the clothes of anyone within reach. the face is not so much something to be courteously avoided, but more the main target of most attacks. it seems the more foam, colored paste, water, etc that you can get in someone's mouth, the better. and to top it all off (literally) when you would have been hard pressed to find a clean or dry spot on my entire body, I got an egg cracked over the top of my head...

what a total blast!! I mean c'mon, this celebration is like the food fight you were never allowed to have, and the entire country is participating. we danced around in a huge circle with everyone at the town square in front of the amarillo eglise (yellow church), as they shot off fireworks... and when the official parade fizzled away, the massive carnival battle began and we literally just spent hours attacking and being attacked. I would squat on the edge by these cute little girls in raincoats and offer my hand in peace. they, in turn would place some of their colored powder from a baggy into my hand and point at who they wanted me to get. I'd go attack and get attacked and then return to my 4 year old supplier, slightly less recognizable under the added grit, and eager for more amo. the only real problem is that you're laughing so hard most of the time that your open mouth is an easy target and I was glad to have brought some bottled water along for rinsing my mouth out periodically.  when we eventually tired of the battle zone in front of the church we decided to head back to the hostel... c

overed in a lot of who-knows-what at this point in the day, we were proudly wearing our carnival "costumes" and everyone seemed to love our wholehearted participation in the day's events. but on our walk back home, we encountered a familiar situation (see blog post on the day we went running, I think last wednesday, and the ambush that occured)... today was a replay of past events, only the kids were bigger, faster, and had better aim. after running that gauntlet we were drenched, but practically clean of carnival... not for long. you see, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately - for the sake of getting the whole experience) our hostel happens to be on one of the main roads leading to and from the waterfall, which is practically the epicenter of the carnival festivities.

our group set up on either side of the road with buckets of h2o and bombas (waterballoons) and ambushed every car and person passing by - save for the youngest children, grandmas, and those defenseless; we play fair! unlike everyone else here... finally it felt like we had the advantage on our home turf. trucks would drive by with the back so full you couldnt squeeze an extra person in if you wanted to - the perfect target. when we eventually tired of this we made like storm chasers and headed straight for the tornado that is la cascadas (the waterfall)...

with tupac leading our team we were a force to be reconned with. finally adequately equipped to fight back, we stormed the packed streets leading up to the waterfall... aaannnddd they stormed us back - we expected nothing less at this point. you know in horror films when the main character is headed deeper into the house where you know the guy with the chainsaw is just waiting? this is what I felt like as we entered the park - like if someone was watching they would have been like "turn around you idiots!"...

we didn't listen... the narrow trails in the park, lined with rock walls, make it impossible to escape the clouds of espuma, powder, water and colorful clays. if we were easy targets before, now we were sitting ducks... or rather, very slowly moving ducks (speaking of ducks, go oregon!!)... shoulder to shoulder with equally messy locals, every person we passed took advantage of the close range prey that we were - clearly still a particularly desirable target because of our light skin and the lack of other gringas brave enough to enter this war zone. we walked just to walk, to experience carnival at its messiest - and when you add ridiculously muddy trails to the mix, believe me we couldnt have been dirtier if we wanted to be...

eventually, exhausted and ready to wash the chemicals from our ears and eyes, we made like stealth locals and snuck our way back mostly between houses and through corn fields... we got cleaned up in time to head to the sweat lodge at 3:45 - thoroughly exhausted but extremely satisfied at our once-in-a-lifetime experience... little did we know there was more on the way...

and for those you dying for more ecuador stories, here is lo's blog she is keeping during our trip:  jardinedelosandes.blogspot.com

xo!