carnaval weekend

hey. i just got back from an amazing weekend celebrating carnaval.

we left thursday night from Quito and got in Ambato around 9pm. Our hostel was super ghetto. the bathroom was a community bathroom, a shower and toilet and dirty sink. the beds were super hard. our light was hanging from a string from a hole where the wires were in the cieling. the toilet had no seat. super ghetto. but we had fun anyways.

we ate pizza and played card games thursday night bc it was too late to do anything really. then friday morning we got up. ate breakfast. met the others who came late. and then we just hung out around the city basically. ambato doesnt really have that much to offer. a couple people went to a museum. i didnt feel like spending money on it - sounded like the same thing as the museum we saw in Banos last time. we went to a great restuarant from my guide book for dinner. i had a super good chicken salad sandwich and raspberry juice. and great ice cream. some went out to a bar that night but i stayed in. whitney, cathy, andrea, and i just hung out that night .

then saturday we went to the park in the middle of the town where it was much like festival in the park at home. one thing that was different though: there was an art contest. but it was art on bodies. female bodies. the art was BEAUTIFUL. and there was this one pregnant woman as one of the canvases and it was beautiful. very beautiful. it was interesting though because the women only had on underwears. well and paint all over their bodies. but it was really cool. there was art and crafts being sold. and there was a huge fruits and flowers celebration design on the front of the church in the middle of town. for ambato - its the festival of fruits and flowers more than carnaval. so that was that.
that night we went to the bull fight. so cool. i mean cool that i can say i have been to a real bull fight. the people wore cowboy hats. the matadors wore real matador outfits. and the bulls were real bulls. it was entertaining for a while. until the bull started bleeding profusely. and then i think the 3rd or 4th bull when he was stabbed for about the 6th time, he started bleeding out of his mouth. i couldnt watch. it was all very gruesome. if you ever get the chance, you should go. but it definitely also gives you a chance to see the machismo culture at its best. man proving his masculinity by fighting the meanest male animal of nature. interesting.

we then headed to Banos. all the buses had already left for the night so we had to take cabs. $25 for 4 people for a 45 minute ride to Banos. not too bad if you ask me for a taxi. but definitely more than the $2 bus ride. oh well. we got there and checked into our super nice hostel. andrea had gotten us this hostel right in the middle of town on the plaza. really super close to everything going on. we had individual bathrooms. clean. cable tv in all the rooms. we had 4 rooms of 2 people and it was just like a hotel in the states. but for only $15/night. nice.

sunday we got up and went to an adventure company. we went swing jumping. if you have never heard of it, the idea is this: there are 2 bridges parallel to one another. they have a rope connecting the 2. then there is a rope that hangs down from the connecting rope. that rope connects to your harness. and you jump off one bridge, much like just simply jumping off a bridge into water, but instead of actually getting in the water, you swing back and forth. MUCH MUCH MUCH FUN. so scary. but VERY fun. i was last to go, which meant i had no one on the bridge with me but the man in charge and some spectators, the rest of the group was down at the river watching and waiting on me. so i was scared. but it was INCREDIBLE.

that night we went out into town. carnaval, like previously stated, is basically just one big party for the whole town. we were under the impression that it included water being thrown on EVERYONE in sight. in Banos, its more foam. like shaving cream, but colored foam. everyone has cans of spray foam and you just attack anyone and everyone in sight. its a lot of fun. we were in the streets of Banos for a couple of hours just foaming and being foamed. so much fun. haha. then we sat down to hang out for a bit on the stairs of our hostel and we were talking there sitting and a car drove by and threw an egg. the egg hit me in the mouth. i almost threw up. so i went upstairs and immediately got in the shower and that was the end of the night for me. but it was fun until then. it was just pure innocent fun until the egg was involved.

the next morning we got up and went white water rafting. so much fun. let me just tell you what happened:
we got there and went in the van to the river. we had our lesson and all piled in our boat. we started going down the river. nice. beautiful scenery. lots of green and fun. then we got to these rapids, our guide told us to get out and float down them like he had previously shown us. everyone thought he was kidding. but he was serious. so we all got out of the boat and started floating. i was right beside my friend katie. i got turned around in the current and when i was facing forward again, i realized katie was gone. i was about 30 yards away from the raft, everyone else was hanging onto the raft being pulled in and i couldnt get in the current to get back to where they were. they were yelling at me to lay on my back and get back in the current but i was already in a super rocky area and everytime i tried to move, i hit another rock. i was basically being pulled down the river, my butt hitting every rock possible and i was super far away from the raft. i was really scared for a bit. but i finally got on my back and tried to swim some and finally got back. but it was pretty touch and go for a bit hah. an adventure though.
so we all get back in the raft and start going down the river again. we get to some rapids and get through them. then once out of the rapids, we realize that something happened to the raft. the outer shell has been ripped open on the inside of the raft and so all the air is being pushed to the back of the raft. theres also bubbles coming into the boat under me and adams seats. so our guide made a funny face and said 'thats never happened before'. so we finally got on shore and we all got out. the guide made all the girls get into different rafts and the boys stayed there to try to repair the original raft. katie and i got into a raft with 4 other people (a different group of people, all from ecuador) and laura and jackie in another. we finished out the river worrying the whole time about the boys because they were nowhere in sight. but when we got to the shore at the end of the route, the boys got there about 5 minutes after us. in the original raft with the boys.
it was a ton of fun. and id do it again in a heartbeat. im so glad we did it because i wanted to last time i was in banos and the other girls didnt they wanted to hike. but it was definitely an adventure. to say the least .

anyways last night we went to dinner and then to the top of a volcano, its inactive but you can see the whole town of Banos from up there and there are bars and some cool fire juggler guys up there performing. we also got this really good cider from the guides there. we came back and went to bed. this morning got up, ate breakfast, got on the bus and headed back to Quito. now i think i have some homework to do and then bed. so tired.

but it was a great weekend and i had so much fun!!!! hope you all are enjoying snowwwwww.