El Carnaval

Many parts of Latin America celebrate a festival called "carnaval" every year leading up to the season of lent. In Ecuador, el carnaval is essentially a water fight over a four-day weekend. At least, it only officially lasts for four days. Most people leave Quito for the holiday weekend, so things here aren't too wild, but in other towns, you can't walk down the street without getting water dumped on you from rooftops, water balloons thrown at you, or sprayed with carioca (a sort of colored foam comparable to our silly-string). To experience the yearly celebration, Mandy, Valerie, and I went to Carapungo, a suburb of Quito, to "play carnaval" with Mandy's former host family.

We started as observers, watching Mandy's host parents scheme to get the employees of their furniture store wet before closing up for the night. Soon enough we were the victims, covered in carioca. We slipped out to get our own foamy artillery. The game was on. Val, Mandy, and I made a pact to work together, and as our adversaries did not understand English, and we did understand their Spanish, we had the upper-hand in planning tactics. They, however, had access to buckets and water spouts. We were soaked in no time. The fight quickly moved to the back alley, where we fought over buckets, defended the water spouts, chased each other like children, and all ended up completely soaked. Lucky for us, we escaped the flour that was dumped from the rooftop and nobody brought out the most lethal weapon -- raw eggs.

I'm not sure how the tradition began or what its significance is, but playing with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers of all ages is a celebration indeed (when you're prepared for it, at least). As much fun as we had last night, we stayed inside today, avoiding another soaking.