¡Carneval!

Our first introduction to carneval, outside the reader on Important Ecuadoran Celebrations that we translated in Spanish School, was a pitched battle between boys and girls including water balloons, buckets of water, spray foam and powder.Almost everyone ended a little wetter than they'd begun and a few appeared prematurely grey from the fistfulls of talk that landed in their hair. The best part was the indigenous woman of 30 or 49 in pleated skirt and high ecuadoran hat who stood on her second floor balcony tossing buckets of water onto unsuspecting passersby below.

In Cuenca, carneval shuts down the city and everyone has ammo on hand. Leaving our hostal we were ambushed by two boys with half a dozen water balloons. Waling around town we cast a wary eye at all balconies before passing under them. Two kids got us with super soakers around the commercial plaza and their neighbor completed the deal with a bucket of water from the roof, which we dodged, but barely. Later, as we walked to dinner, a nine-year-old snuck up on us with a can of spray foam and squirted a pile of it on my neck. The sound of it made me jump half a foot in the air and we all laughed.

A rampant mischeviousness ran through the city and anyone was fair game. Squirt guns aimed from open windows of passing cars, but driving with the windows down was also a dangerous proposition. Everyone joined in, with children taking the lead.

While we enjoyed the festivities, the holiday became frustrating when we tried to leave town on Monday. The city busses, depending on who we asked, either weren't running, or were running on a holiday schedule. The south bus station was closed completely and provincial and interprovincial busses were few and far between. "Porque es Carneval!" was the simple and soon unnecessary explanation. "Mercoles." There will be busses on Wednesday. So we did what we had not yet done and hired a cab for the 45 minute ride to Jima, making sure, as we headed out of town, that the windows were closed.