Sunday 2-22-09: A Parade in Amaguaña

On Sunday, our host family took us to a pueblo called Amaguaño, about 45 minutes south of Quito. We watched a parade that is part of the city´s carnival celebration. Most of the floats represented different countries in South America, Central America and Mexico as well as many different native tribes in Ecuador. About 25% of the Ecuadorean people are of pure native descent and speak Quichua as their first language, 65% of the population is a native/Spanish mix, 6% is of pure European descent, and the rest are mostly Afro-Ecuadorean or Asian. The cultural mix is interesting to watch as many floats included native tribes wearing various white-faced masks or sunburned-faced masks making fun of the arrival of the Spanish. The native costumes were very colorful and beautiful and are still seen in pueblos throughout the country on a daily basis.

It is popular to cover people in foam, called espuma, made specially for carnival which evaporates after a while but leaves behind a sticky colored residue. It is also popular to cover people in egg and then flour, this little girl is working the carnival, selling both products. We luckily avoided eggs but I was covered in a little flour and lots of foam.

Afterwards, we went to another nearby city for a HUGE lunch of typical Ecuadorean food: roasted pork, choclo (big corn), cheese, mashed potatoes, mote (bigger white corn), avocado and a little ahi (spicy sauce) to cover everything.

Next we stopped by René´s military club for a tour. It´s a really nice recreational facility with pools, spas, horseback riding, etc. René explained that there are several facilities like this throughout Ecuador as well as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and a few more countries. These countries have an agreement that the military personnel can travel to any of the countries and stay at these facilities very inexpensively.

Last they took us to the oldest cathedral in Quito, built by the first Spanish settlers.