These blog posts are something required in this program, so others can understand better our experiences and our lives in Ecuador thus far. We have been slacking on posting, but believe me when I say that is a good thing. This first month has been packed full of amazing opportunities, places, people, food, learning..it’s hard to take a second to reflect and share with all of you as I want to be as focused and immersed in my life here in Cuenca. However, here we go…
We just returned from a week long independent travel vacation because of carnival. We left Cuenca early saturday morning to make it to Ambato with enough time to prepare for the festivities starting on sunday. The morning started with the main street packed full with people from Ambato, neighboring towns, and the 20,000 some people who travel here from across the country just to celebrate carnival here. The parade started with extravagant floats with beautiful women in tiaras and ball gowns, each followed by music and dancers. From what I understood each float and their group of dancers represented a different city or country in Latin America. Although we were on our tip toes trying to see the whole time because of the crowds of people it was one of the best parades I have seen, the amount of time and energy they all put into the costumes and dances was incredible. It was also very interesting to see how each city or country chose to be represented in this parade, with their costumes and types of dances they performed. Once the parade wound down everyone took to the streets in a war frenzy. It is tradition that during carnival to spray everyone with a canister of foam they call ‘carioca.’ You aren’t safe anywhere so if this isn’t your thing I recommend staying inside, which in fact I don’t recommend at all because of how fun it is. Just be prepared for anything.
The next day we spent in a town about an hour away from Ambato called Baños, it gets its name because it has the best thermal springs in Ecuador. It was a very cute city and although there will still a lot of people it was much more relaxed than Ambato. We spent the day walking around, playing in hot springs, and eating at a wonderful restaurant called Casa Hood. The next day we took of on the long bus ride to the coast to experience a small but bustling coast town called Montañita. We got off the bus planning on making our way to a hostal we had called the night before when we got offered to check out a different place to cheaper. We thought we might as well so we follow our new Argentinian friend, Celeste, to a hostel they call ‘Dónde el Pato’ because they have a pet duck named Patricia living their as well. We fell in love with the people who were mostly Argentinians who were there for a few months working and traveling. We fell in love with the communal room fit for 15 mattresses and the dozen tents set up outside. We fell in love with the way the water worked for only a couple hours out of the day. We fell in love to waking up to endless cups of fresh mate in the morning. We fell in love with the heat and our sunburns. We fell in love with the ocean as we spent the days and nights swimming. We fell in love with the chaos and how simple it was. Most of this was thanks to the people we met along the way, sharing stories and languages.
Although it was hard to leave Montañita, the people, and the careless relaxation after only such a short time it is also such an easy transition back into Cuenca because of how wonderful our lives here are. I’m excited to get back to our classes and back with our friends here in Cuenca. We’ll try to be better at updating you all on our adventures and experiences, but you should all know that everything about this program has proved to be far greater than I ever could have imagined, a lot of it is due to the people that I am here with and the people I have met along the way.