We arrived to our hotel in Ambato in time to see the parties in the streets after the Carnaval parade. We planned this so that we could be in Ambato for Monday night's Ronda Nocturnal, the Carnaval Night Parade. I'll get to that later. We had a fair night in our tiny room after the street revelers were run out by the police for drinking in the streets. Then a good breakfast and hit the town. (2/16) Ambato is working class and much newer then Cuenca. In fact it has been leveled by earthquakes within the last century so all of the buildings are relatively new concrete, not very attractive construction. The people were in party mode. The main square by the cathedral was full of Ecuadorians eating street food, listening to music, buying crafts and seeing flower exhibits. Ambato's Carnaval is themed as the Festival of fruit and flowers. Have any of you readers ever been to a Carnaval city? Flowers were everywhere from the cathedral altar, business windows, and the parade floats.
Oh the parade! It passed immediately in front of our hotel down a tight two lane street with every space of side walk taken up by Ambatoens of every age. The parade was floats made of fruits and flowers made with actual fruit and flowers and grains. Each had a Carnaval princess waving from the top. Then there were bands and dancers from all over the area and representatives from many other Latin countries - Mexico, Columbia, Brasil. Stephanie was grabbed to dance with first a Mexican dancer then to join a group of retired merenge dancers. Our kids bought caroche, cans of spray foam which is used to spray people for fun all during Carnaval. They were both excited to use them because they had seen the locals spray each other both in Cuenca and Ambato. But, when it came to the end of the parade, they were a little reluctant to spray others. When they got started it was hilarious. Go see our pictures of the parade and epic foam battle.
I should point out that our children are a constant source of interest from open stares to little ladies patting their heads to kids wanting pictures taken with them.
The next day (2/17) we were slow to get up after a late night at the parade. We headed to a little town (Quinsapincha) way up a steep hill to see their leather goods. I tried on a bunch of leather jackets but never found the right one. Steph got a nice backpack. On the way back to town we stopped at a big family park overlooking Ambato. For the way home, we waited for a bus. Ecudorians have little concept of waiting in a line. When the first bus got there everyone shoved past us and got on that bus filling it up. So we waited. Along came a taxi and I waved it down. Unfortunately a girl totally ran past me to jump in. So next bus I did the shoving and got the Scanlon/Hillmans damp seats for a hair raising switch back bus ride. And that's not by far the craziest road in Ecuador. We are skipping that ride.
Today (2/18) we caught a bus to Baños. Baños is snug in a valley on the side of an active volcano. Yes that is right. Tungurahua is as big as any volcano you see in the Cascade mountains but here near the equator 8000 feet is a great place to put a town. It is hot, there are over 60 waterfalls, the gorge is beautiful and there are lots of sporting opportunities. Tomorrow we will hike. Tonight we enjoyed our bed and breakfast at Casa Verde. Their son is a seven year old Aussie crazy kid. Just what our kids needed especially Cael. We are off to bed to sleep with the sound of a river, peepers and maybe volcanic grumbling. Tomorrow? Adventure. Have any of you ever slept on the side of an active volcano?
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