Carnaval--Parte 2

I'm back from Carnaval, and it was a blast...for the most part.

On Saturday we took a five hour bus ride to Guaranda. There was a parade going on, so we wandered around the city looking for our hostal, while getting sprayed with carioca, foam spray a bit like silly string, and squirt guns. That's carnaval for you. It really wasn't that big of a deal. We got to our hostal, had lunch in the restaurant down stairs and went to explore the city, during which we got foamed and sprayed a lot of course. Then, we took a taxi up to a monument, enjoyed the view of the city, and pet a donkey. After that, we took a taxi back to our hostal, napped, and ate dinner. After dinner, we went to a parade, met some gringos there, and went with them to a dance, which was super fun.

On Sunday, we went to Guaranda's big Carnaval parade. Little did we know it would run on Ecuadorian time, so we were standing around waiting for the parade to start and there was nothing better for the locals to do than to have carioca fights. So, we all got completely covered in foam, including in my eyes. To top it all off, it started to rain, and we all got really cold. So, after the parade, we headed back to the hostal, grabbed some lunch, and tried to find the bus to Ambato, which was quite the adventure. The buses couldn't get to the terminal because of all the festival traffic, so we just and to stand on the street that went out of town and hope the right bus would pass us. While we were wandering around looking for the bus, a bunch of guys sprayed us with a hose, completely soaking us. By that point we were all more than ready to get the you-know-what out of Guaranda. Once we got to Ambato, we basically hung out in our over priced hotel because we were all cold, wet, and tired.

On Monday, we went to a market in Ambato, up to another monument to see views of the city and the surrounding volcanoes, to a fair/expo, and then back to our hotel. During that time we did not get sprayed at all. Afterward, we went to Ambato's big Carnaval parade, which was very pretty and civilized. At the end of the parade, people started busting out the carioca, but it was definitely not as bad as Guaranda. After the parade, we headed back to our hotel and conked out.

Today, we took a bus back to Quito. And that's how my first Carnaval in Latin America went.