Carnaval

What an enjoyable four-day weekend! This is going to be a long one. Perseverance is key ;)

Saturday, we left for Yunguilla. Carolina (one of my host sisters) and I rode with her aunt, uncle, and cousin Danuel (I think that is his name). The rest of my host family came later that day. It was about a 2-hour drive. Count your blessings about the roads in the States. The ones on the way to Yunguilla were TERRIBLE- HUGE potholes and places where traffic could only flow from one direction (which slowed things down significantly- to the point where people were walking up and down those stretches of road selling snacks and such). The festivities had already begun when we arrived at our little farm (owned by the abuelito and abuelita—grandpa and grandma) in Yunguilla. The scenery around it was amazing (as is, I’ve come to find out, the scenery around basically everything here). All the relatives this weekend were on Lia’s (my host mom’s) side. Most of them were there when we got there; and most of them were quite wet and foamy when we got there ;) Carolina told me that if I didn’t want to “play Carnaval” that I could just tell them that, and they’d respect my wishes. They did a very good job of doing just that. No flour was put in my hair, no foam or water on the rest of me. The weather was absolutely perfect- sunny with a little breeze—wonderful. I enjoyed watching everyone play Carnaval; I love to people-watch. They made a slip and slide and were on that for at least a good hour. They looked like a bunch of penguins, sliding down one after another. It was mostly the guys that played on the slip and slide. They came out with some fierce battle wounds: scrapes on their backs and arms from sliding beyond the plastic onto the rough ground. Ouch. It was during this that I experienced my first bug bite of the weekend; I felt this “pinch” on the bottom of my foot and looked down to find this nasty little beast covered in my blood trying to chew through the sole of my foot. That was the first of probably 15 bug bites I attained this weekend :/ I wore bug spray the entire time, but those little guys are tough and bloodthirsty. Oh well; it happens. Mosquitoes in Wisconsin and these nasty little bugs in Ecuador.

Back to what we did this weekend: Saturday, we had chancho- roast pig. I saw someone out there with what looked like a blowtorch, roasting it all morning. We had cascarita with mote in the afternoon (that is, the crunchy skin of the pig [cascarita] with a type of corn [mote] that is very popular here). You are supposed to dip the cascarita in either ahi (a spicy sauce) or salt. I ate a little of that; it had an interesting texture and taste. It was enough for me to say I tried it and to stick to the mote after that. That night, we had what I guess can be compared to little “chancho brats”- kind of. Honestly, they looked like something you’d see on Fear Factor- black and just “interesting”- looking. Lia asked if I wanted some, and I was rather skeptical. But I have resolved to at least try everything that is put before me at meal times, so I took one. I ate it with some rice and ahi, and it had an interesting flavor. Like the cascarita, it was enough for me to try it and then go on to something else :) OH! Speaking of chancho, you’ll never guess what the men used when they were playing Carnaval later that afternoon—PIG BLOOD. EW. All the sudden, you look outside, and all these guys are covered in blood. These people go crazy for Carnaval. They’d come inside the house and just grab one of the ladies and take her outside to the little kids’ pool and proceed to douse her with more water. Then they’d look at me and be like “you next?”. I always shook my head and was like “no, gracias.” Jenni (the maid) commented on how lucky I was that I remained dry- they spared nobody else. Oh, they were so kind to me :)

They had this big stereo system set up on the back porch and had music on pretty much constantly. Well, one time I was sitting down out there, just relaxing, when all the sudden I see the cute little abuelito coming toward me. Uh-oh. He took my hands and started to dance with me. Oh dear, I was so embarrassed because EVERYONE came over to see the little Gringa dance (which I couldn’t do very well at all). One of the cousins even caught it on tape- many years of laughs to be had, I’m sure. And I can’t even say that was the only time that happened! Two more times, I was pulled out there to humiliate myself by an uncle and my host dad. It’s funny to think about now, but of course they would pull me out to DANCE.

Sunday, around 1130, I went with 4 of the cousins to Parque Extreme (an extreme sports park about 5 minutes from our farm). It was even warmer out Sunday than Saturday; I wore a tank top, shorts, and flip flops- in FEBRUARY! Nice. We mostly just walked around the park; it wasn’t too busy, so that was good. We got to see some dirt bike races and four-wheeler races. I told them that, in Wisconsin, we drive four-wheelers on the ice and snow in the winter. They found that pretty interesting. I think snow and ice in general is a pretty intriguing topic for them, as they don’t really have that here. As a sidenote, my shoulders got quite burned on Sunday; I sure have some funny tanlines now. My shoulders don’t hurt too bad anymore today. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t wear sunscreen after not having been in the sun for about 5 months ;) 

Sunday afternoon we ate cuy! I got some pictures with the little guys being cooked. The outside was crunchy (but different tasting than the chancho), and the inside was much like chicken- pretty moist and good tasting I guess. I had a hard time, though, while I was eating it because I kept seeing little guinea pigs in my head. I probably won’t eat it again by choice, but I can say I ate some ;)

Interestingly enough, on both Saturday and Sunday nights, we lost power! I don’t know if we just used too much during the day or what happened, but there was no light. Saturday, it only lasted probably an hour, but Sunday it lasted all night; we ended up eating supper by candlelight. All the older men went outside onto the patio, started a fire, and belted out some songs. It was pretty amusing to listen to- they were slightly/ rather inebriated.

We came back Monday around noon and just hung out at home since then. Everything (stores and such) was closed for Carnaval, so there was not much to do. I had been hoping to go buy a book I need to read for my Spanish class, but that didn’t happen. (The book is called Entre Marx y una Mujer Desnuda. Do you know what that means? I definitely didn’t when I was assigned the project. It means “Between Marx and a Nude Woman”- oh great, I’m going to end up reading some Latin porn book. No, I don’t think it can even be that bad- it’s for a class, after all. Hopefully…) I’d also wanted to maybe go explore Cuenca and get some ice cream ;), but that was a no-go. I did get an ice cream sandwich Tuesday on the way home from helping at Miguel Leon though because I was incredibly hungry and needed something to eat fast. Mmmm, how I love ice cream sandwiches.

Carnaval is officially over until next year. No more foam or bombas del agua. I managed to come out relatively unscathed and not too wet :)

Well, I do believe that is a good enough account of the weekend. I tried to be brief, but a lot was packed into this weekend. Tomorrow I will put some pictures up from the weekend.