Carnaval time has come and gone.

A picture's worth a thousand words? Then this is Carnaval.

I feel this a pretty representative picture of the craziness that is Carnaval. Even the dancers in the parade were not spared.

Ok. So this is a waaaaay overdue post. I've been meaning to write about many things, but well, let's be honest - I'm lazy. And busy living life. I figure I'll just first write about what has happened most recently and then get to that other stuff.

So. Carnaval. Kind of awesome.

In Ecuador, Carnaval is celebrated a little differently. It's not the samba dancers and scantily clad women that you think of when you think of the Carnaval in Brazil. Think water. Eggs. Flour. And Carnaval foam (in an aereosol can to spray at people). In Ecuador, they throw all of that stuff at you. Yeah, there is dancing, drinking, cultural events, and parades. But I would say the most distinctive characteristic of an Ecua-Carnaval is throwing water and spraying Carnaval foam (flour, eggs, and other nasty stuff in other places). And Carnaval starts early. The actual official days are Monday and Tuesday (Feb 23 and 24), but I would say I started to see little boys throw water balloons at people, buses, bikes, anything as early as Feb 5th. At that time, it was few and far between. It crescendoed closer to Carnaval and during my walks to class there were a few times when I got hit in a drive by water ballooning or hit from a roof of a house. Before Carnaval frenzy came, I remember thinking I was going to love Carnaval with a big water fight. But then when I got hit walking to class, I realized that I didn't like the sneak attack wetting.

For Carnaval, Debby and I had planned with some other vols to go to Guaranda and Ambato as those are where the biggest Carnaval celebrations are. All I had heard about Guaranda from my host fam was that it was crazy, cold, and that it was a free for all of flour, water, and eggs. Ambato is one of the few places where water is not allowed and it is known for it's parade of fruits and flowers.

Guaranda:

We got there in the afternoon and went to our hostal (which was a total sketchballish type place despite the fact that it was set up through the host fam of one of our friends) and then went out to one of the small parades (as our friends we were meeting were in another town next door for the bigger parade). We ended up in the parade for that barrio with the cross dressing group and danced around in the rain. That night, there were concerts in the parks and dancing all around. We avoided water balloons and flour that night and thought we were good.

But then there was the next day. Which I was looking forward to. That's when the craziness started for us. We got to the town center at about 10 am, which was absolutely packed. We bought our Carnaval foam and took up our spots to watch the parade. While there, we essentially entered the war zone. In seconds, we were covered in foam so that you couldn't see, breathe, or hear anything but the crackle and pop of the foam. Then the water balloons came. And then the flour in the hair and face. And the poor people in the parade were no exception to this craziness. The folk dancers and the reinas had to just take it and continue on their way. People were even shooting the foam into the band's tuba. And instead of giving out candy or flowers from the floats, they gave out small bottles of parajo azul which is essentially pure cane alcohol and some sugar. That's how Ecuador does! We fought with the rest of Guaranda and watched the parade in the rain for pretty much the whole afternoon. It was just as we expected. Crazy, cold, and a free for all. That night, we went out dancing in the cold Andean rain in the main plaza for probably hours. I'm probably paying for it now with a cold, but it was worth to have my first crazy Carnaval experience and to see a lot of the other vols.

Ambato:

The next day we made our way over to Ambato, which has a larger Carnaval celebration, but a little more cultural and sophisticated. The big parade was at night. These were some fancy floats made entirely of fruits and flowers. And I've never seen so many reinas with crazy elaborate costumes (some of them had the samba thing going on) as well as great dancers from all over. A great parade and a very different vibe than Guaranda. More put together and cultural, but more subdued too. Until after the parade, when the giant crowd went crazy with the Carnaval foam (the only thing they do in Ambato). They were not taking prisoners either. They went straight for the face and eyes. In some ways, more malicious than Guaranda. But overall, really fun too.

When we got back into Ibarra, I saw people everywhere with GIANT buckets of water just throwing it at people passing by. It was a free for all of water in Ibarra. No one was spared. Being tired of being abused by water and foam, I quickly took a cab and made it back to my house. It looks like Carnaval in Ibarra was pretty fun too.

In summary, it was a great Carnaval for me. My very first experience which was pretty awesome.

Why don't we have Carnaval in the U.S. I mean we have Mardi Gras, but that's only in New Orleans and it's different. I want to just sneak up on any one on the street in DC and throw a bucket of water on them and foam them in the face. But I have a feeling I'd get arrested for that. Oh well.