Ibarran Adventure #1

This past weekend, the Ambateñitas and I took a trip to northern Ecuador to experience a festival that one of my Ecuadorian friends from UB told me about this summer. The trip to Ibarra is six hours from Ambato, but worth every second in my opinion. The area is absolutely beautiful (see photo below) and I had the opportunity to stay with the most welcoming and friendly family.

My friend Emily and I arrived on Friday afternoon and met up with the other vols who live in Ibarra for dinner. Then, we went to meet my friend Miguel´s family who lives in Ibarra. They were kind enough to host us for the weekend and I couldn´t thank them enough for their hospitality. They took us out to dinner - yes, we ate dinner again - and we hung out in a the town square where there was singing and dancing. Then they gave us a tour of the city and told us all about the Casería that was to happen the next day.

The main event is all day on Saturday, so we all went to the parade around 10a.m. Anyone who has a horse can enter the parade for a small entrance fee, so it is a massive parade of horses and people with money. Kind of like the pomp and circumstance of the Kentucky Derby, ecua-style. The parade lasted forever, but we cooled ourselves down with some beer and ice cream. After the parade, we got ice cream, then lunch, then headed for the La Laguna Yaguarcocha where the horse races take place. As the people switch locations, the jinetes (horse-riders, if that´s how you say it in English) walk through the mountains and descend a very steep hill. They rest for an hour or so, and then the races begin. There are several divisions of riders by age and gender, but in each race there is a Zorro (last year´s winner) who is chased by other riders. If a rider can catch the Zorro, they pull a tail off of his costume and parade it in front of the crowd.

I found my Quiteño host brother Sebastián in the crowd and we left the races when they were over. It is almost impossible to get a taxi and the busses are even more overcrowded than usual, so we decided to hitchike in one of the million trucks that were headed from the lake to the centro. All five of us hopped in the back of a truck and very shortly after we were headed down the road, it started pouring rain. We were soaked, but having a great time anyway, so we all went downtown to eat and drink and party all night.

Even though the festival on Saturday was really interesting and enjoyable, it was Sunday that was my favorite day of the weekend. Miguel´s family took me to their farm in the countryside, which is absolutely gorgeous. It was awesome to have some fresh air and a peaceful quiet. We toured the property and I helped pick granadillas, uvillas, tomates de árbol, pepinos, pimientos de ají, and mora. These are all fruits native to Ecuador that we don´t have in the US, except for blackberries, which aren´t even close to as good in the US, unfortunately. We gathered all of this fresh produce and ate it along the way (maybe that´s why I don´t feel so great today), but it was so delicious. Also on the farm are ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, cows, and horses. I rode a horse around a paddock for a few minutes and it was so relaxing! We left the farm to eat cuy and then I had to catch a bus back to Ambato. Again, the family was amazing and I was so thankful to be able to spend the weekend with them.

Now I am back to teaching...Friday is a holiday, but since I never work on Fridays anway, it´s not such a big deal for me. I need to spend this weekend organizing my curriculum and getting together some lesson plans for the upcoming weeks, just in case I have the urge to travel to another part of Ecuador soon. I don´t have any big plans coming up, but I´m sure there will be more interesting things to write about in this always entertaining country. Til then...