Well, Carnaval was this weekend, which meant there were no classes on Monday and Tuesday. In Ecuador, Carnaval is kind of like Thanksgiving, in the sense that everyone does something or goes somewhere. Typically, people go to the beach, but many just spend the weekend with family, relaxing. Every city has a different tradition, variations of the same. In Quito, people throw water; in Ambato, they spray silly string. In Cuenca, where I ended up spending my weekend, they throw waters balloons and buckets of water from cars and windows!
We were warned to plan our trip for Carnaval early because hostels and buses fill up, but between most of us going to the rain forest last weekend and our friends not taking initiative while we were away, we settled on Cuenca and had to take a bus on Saturday night - not really ideal but fine for what it was worth. The other option was paying $20 a night at the beach, and so I definitely wasn't feeling that one.
Anyway, so 10pm Saturday night we all meet at the Panamerica Internacional bus station and settle in for the 10 hour bus ride. We were 9 of us again. I got to see Iron Man 2 in Spanish and managed to sleep a little bit in the night. We arrived at 8am and took a cab to the hostel, where we put down our stuff and then set out to explore and find some breakfast. We did a pretty quick round of the main part of the city and realized nothingggg was open because it was. a) Sunday b.) Carnaval. c.) 8:30am. Luckily there was a cute French crepe place across the street so I had some quiche and coffee and was ready to go.
We walked around some more in the afternoon, visiting churches and the market. My friend Milijana and I bought some toy water guns and as we walked, we were all on our guard because at any given moment, water balloons would fly from cars or rooftops, or kids would come running out of houses with their silly string. It was pretty sunny, which was great because we got soaked several times. It got to where the sound of a car or children laughing would send us all running!!! But it was so fun - these kids got us this one time and the sound of their laughter absolutely made my day. I would have loved to be a kid in Cuenca during Carnaval - pelting unsuspecting Gringos for 3 days straight sounds like the best time ever! :)
Anyway, we walked and walked. Sat by the river, played in the park. We came back and relaxed for a bit, then searched for somewhere to eat. Not exactly a lot to choose from, but we settled on this Mexican restaurant. We were a party of 10 by that point so they seated us in this back room with couches and a large coffee table in the middle - it felt like we should have been smoking hookah or something in there, not having dinner. It ended up being delicious - best guacamole I've had in Ecuador (which is saying a lot since I eat avocados with everything) and I annoyed everyone by playing question games, like going around the room and asking everywhere what their favorite thing in Ecuador has been so far, etc. They were picking on me but I know everyone secretly was happy at what a great group we have :) After leaving, we performed what became a ritual for the next night as well: stopping at a little store to buy some beer and we hanging out on the hostel patio until we went to bed. Because we arrived so early, all of our meals were a little off, so it was literally only 7:30pm and some of my friends were veryyy tipsy. We had a great time though, and were all in bed by 10 (:
The next morning, we got up early went to the bus terminal. After a 2-hour bus ride (can you believe I'm not sick of buses yet?!) we arrived in El Tambo, where we dodged more water balloons and hailed a truck/cab to bring us to Ingapirca, the oldest Incan ruins in Ecuador (part of the Incan trail). We spent a few hours here; the ruins were awesome and we took lots of pictures. Didn't pay for a tour guide so I know very little about the ruins, just that they are ruins and I went there. We had a $1.50 almuerzo (lunch) and took a short hike to see this rock along the mountain that looks like a face and then I called back our cab/truck driver, Ricardo, who picked us up and brought us back to town. Ricardo was so sweet - I sat up front with him and we talked the whole way about languages and his crazy experiences when he hopped the border in Texas, trying to get work in the US. It ended up being great that I befriended him because when we got back to town, we realized there were no buses going back to Cuenca. We negotiated and he drove us back for $30... such a typically Ecuadorian experience as I'm coming to realize - sitting in the back of a truck with 8 other people ("like a bunch of immigrants" as Ricardo said) for an hour and a half, trying to get back to a hostel, 10 hours from where I'm actually living in this country. We were back before we knew and found another restaurant for dinner, more beer for dessert ;) and played card games in the hostel until midnight.
Oh! When we were walking back from the trip to Ingapirca, we saw that a store 2 doors down from the hostel was actually open - it was called Carolina Bookstore and it had used books, so of course I was like, "VAMOS!" Come to find - the owners are a retired couple from Hickory, North Carolina!!! They couldn't believe 80% of our group was from NC so we spent a good hour there, talking to them, browsing books, getting recommendations for things to do/eat. What a small world!!! They were so sweet - one minute we're discussing classic literature and the next we're discussing the scores of the Duke/Carolina game. Love itttt.
Anyway - we had such high hopes for Tuesday but they mostly all fell through. We had a good breakfast at Coffee Tree then checked out of the hostel, then walked around the city pretty much all day. We wanted to go to the museum and discovered - surprise - it was closed! And so was everything else. We had a late lunch, took lots of pictures of the beautiful buildings here (which really can't be under-emphasized - this city is AMAZING - the buildings are ancient and beautiful, and with the blue sky in the background, absolutely jaw-dropping.) Of course - suddenly the sky turned grey, rain started falling, and rain turned into hail! We made it back to the hostel just in time. Though we had checked out, we were allowed to chill there for a while, so we hung out in the giant living room and met all these other people staying there - a guy from Vancouver, London, New Zealand, Louisiana, and Barcelona - all there for various reasons and all super friendly. Some of them left and we got cozy watching TV. I felt like I was back at home - we watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory and Friends as the rain poured and people in the background played cards. Typical hostel, right!?
We finally got hungry and went to the same restaurant as the night before, and hung out there until around 9. We went back to the hostel to get our bags then hailed some cabs to bring us to the bus station. The bus again left at 10pm, but we arrived in Quito at 6am, so it was shorter and gave me time to sleep a little at home and make it to class (almost) on time. I slept a lot on the bus though, so the time pretty much flew by.
Class was normal and easy, and now I'm in my bed, in pajamas, very sleepy and happy to be home. It was an awesome weekend - different again from any of the others before it and exactly what I needed - a very chill and relaxing couple of days with my good friends. We were kind of disappointed that everything was closed but we still got to enjoy the beauty of the city and some greaaat food. And it was cheap since there were no crazy stunts or activities to do ;)
So that was my weekend! This weekend I'm happy to say I'm doing NOTHING. Maybe little things around Quito, who knows. I feel like reading and watching movies so that's my plan. Hope to talk to everyone soon!
Love, Cyn
Love, Cyn
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