Hmmm…What I have been up to in November….lots actually…

It has been a quick month! My last post was about the fiestas in Cuenca, the second week of the month was full of fiestas in my town.

I spent the early week teaching and doing normal stuff, but the weekend was filled with activities in my town (parades, concerts, mass, bull fights, mass, fireworks, mass…you get the idea). When I asked, "Why the celebrations?", I didn´t really get an answer, as though people didn´t know. It is just the 15 of November. Later, I found out that the fiestas originated with a Jesus statue that the town proudly displays in our only church.

On Thursday my friend, Lindsay, came to visit me and we led the smallest parade I have ever seen. We ended up being the first “float”, so the first thing people saw in this parade were two gringas on a jimmied horse drawn cart. Lindsay was riding the horse and they gave her a super awesome hat to wear. HA. Then I was in the back passing out chicha out of a barrel, wearing my own hat.



Chicha is a traditional celebratory drink. It is difficult to explain the taste. When I asked what was in it, they said, “everything.” Of course. Definitely in the mixture is fresh brown sugar and a local herb. The Amazonian version of this drink is made by women chewing a particular type of leaf and spitting the juice into the mixture. And yes, only women can do this, we apparently have sweeter spit. Luckily, the Sierran version of this drink is boiled. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha

We later went to the concert at night held in the center of town. The concert included many drunk men passing out the moonshine from the region (which is famous in Ecuador, known as Pajaro Azul, or Blue Bird, and only comes from my area). For an hour or so we dodged the drink from everyone except my very insistent counterpart. We decided to go home early when we could see that there was clearly no end in sight for this party. Later at 4:30am, the local band marched by my house blaring off beat music, then proceeded to stop on the nearest corner and play for a half hour.



My friends and I skipped the next night of fiestas and fireworks for some food in my house and decorating my Christmas tree, popcorn on a string, lights, and all! My house appropriately has paper snowflakes on all the windows and mirrors.

Later in the month, I had to run to Quito to visit the Peace Corps office, which was a nice little trip to the big city. There I took care of some errands and on my way back I saw something I must describe.

The south bus terminal in Quito is beautiful…very new, clean, and usually pretty easy to get around. This terminal connects Quito to the southern portion of the country (which is most of the country). And in this terminal you see a quick glimpse of some of the many cultures in Ecuador. For example, Amazonian indigenous groups, with face paint and interesting piercings, people from Santo Domingo (with red painted hair), indigenous groups from all over the Sierra, afro-Ecuadorians from the coastal region, also tourists, and business people.

While getting a fresh blended juice (carrot-orange…yum) in the food court, while waiting for my bus, I noticed they installed a new escalator where stairs were previously located. I hardly thought anything of it and sat down with my juice.

Then as I people-watched, I noticed many grown people have their first encounter with an escalator. A young, Sierran, indigenous women with a baby on her back, laughed for a while and then put her hand on the rail and was pulled up by her moving hand. She continued to laugh the whole way up. Two older women stared, laughed, shook their heads, and then right before stepping on decided they should take the stairs instead. Then a man with the two older ladies acted like this was no big deal and stepped on the crack and almost fell backwards.

I loved this…there are escalators in Ecuador, but only in malls, airports and such places. Typically very few indigenous people frequent these places.