“Carnaval” in Ecuador = Water, Foam, Mosquitoes and Transportation Conflict... but I love it.

Sadly, I have no photos from my long weekend in Canoa, but I’ll try to describe the mayhem to the best of my ability. We (the Guápulo crew) departed from Quito on Saturday morning (the 2nd) and arrived eight hours later in Manta that evening. Dark clouds and dirty streets welcomed us as we slumped around town with our heavy bags in search of a hostel. I was pretty disappointed with Manta on many levels. First off, we had all been expecting a packed city with a beautiful, accessible beach; but instead found a run down port with a military base and the smell of dead fish lingering in the air. Luckily, our stay there was short because we had to depart the next morning for Canoa. The highlight of Manta was attacking little kids with water bottles who were poised to strike back with foam as soon as we made our move. 

I’m actually at work right now. It’s been a while since Carnaval and quite some time since I wrote the above paragraph. It’s hard to remember all the details of our trip, but I’m sure most everything will come back to me as I write. Before I go on any further, however, I should probably explain what Carnaval is and why it’s such a big deal in Latin America. People all over the world celebrate Carnaval, as it is a time of craziness and indulgence before Lent. Because the majority of South Americans are Catholics, the people have been celebrating Carnaval for over a century and have gained worldwide recognition for their wild parties sometime between early February and early March (depending on the year). Although Brazil’s Carnaval is the most famous, I’ve found that Ecuadorians also know how to party and they add their own little twist to the fun. For example, as mentioned above, it’s very common to find little kids ominously hanging out on street corners with huge water guns, cans of dyed foam and buckets of dirty water contaminated with God only knows what. We discovered pretty quickly that one of their favorite targets includes passing buses with the windows wide open and innocently sleeping gringos inside. 

Returning to my adventures... from Manta we took a bus to Bahía de Caraquez, a short boat ride to San Vicente, and then another 20-minute bus to Canoa. What is normally an almost deserted beach, reserved for surfer bums and young explorers, inevitably turned into a madhouse of Carnaval clichés for the three days that we spent there. Trash flooded the streets, loud techno boomed from every restaurant and the beach itself was almost impossible to navigate with so many pitched tents, umbrellas and bodies competing for every last plot of sand. By the time we arrived, all the hotels and tent rentals had been booked, so we ended up having to sleep in an office that was in the process of being remodeled. Although it wasn’t the most private of lodgings and we didn’t have a key for the room, we did have our own bathroom (that guests thought was public and were constantly trying to use) and a mosquito net too! Overall, I had an absolutely wonderful time in Canoa despite the dirty chaos. I soaked up the sun, ate delicious sea-food and completely forgot about my cold-highland home. 

That’s not to say that I wasn’t excited to get back. Anxious is probably a better word, considering that all of the buses were completely full on Tuesday and we were all a little panicked that it would be impossible to find anything that would get us back for class and work by Wednesday. Long story short, we eventually made it back to Quito after several bus rides, and about three hours spent in a run-down little city called Tosagua, where we picked up some lunch and had a wonderful time teaching local kids how to play the card game called “BS” (which we translated to “mentira” or “lie” in English). Great weekend, great fun and I can’t wait to get out of Quito again for my long awaited trip to Vilcabamba in March. I hope that you all have a wonderful day of love tomorrow and I’ll try to write again in the near future! ¡Te amo mucho!