Carnaval Ambato Style...Fruit and Flowers Festival 2011

Ambato's Cathedral decorated with fruit, flowers, and bread

Every year in Ecuador, the whole country takes time off to celebrate Carnaval. If I could try to compare this to something in the states, I would have to say Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There are two locations in Ecuador that a majority of the people make a mass exodus to: Guaranda and Ambato. Luckily, I live in Ambato and let me just say, Carnaval was AWESOME.

            Ambato’s Carnaval is called the Fruit and Flowers Festival: FFF 2011 has come and gone. However, I felt it was necessary to write about this unique experience in Ambato. 2 of my students (a married couple) had left a schedule of events on my desk while I was talking to Krishna between classes. It read, From: Gonzalo and Vivian To: Caitlin, HAPPY PARTY. This made me smile and let me tell you, I used that schedule all throughout Carnaval. I was unaware of what a big deal this festival was until Krishna and I left work on a Thursday a week before the actual weekend started and ran into a 80s music concert that took place in front of the Cathedral in downtown Ambato. The streets were crowded as we struggled to squeeze into the crowd. I saw several friends and some of my students at this event as well. The stage set-up was elaborate and then the live music group started playing anything from Metallica to Michael Jackson. Random people walked through the crowd and sold boxed wine and beer and there were plenty of drunkards including one guy who danced for 10 minutes straight stripping off his jacket and showing us his crazy legs. Krishna got a good 5 minutes of footage of his dancing. I was thoroughly impressed by his drunken skills.

The real fun started the following weekend when all types of people made the trip to Ambato to celebrate Carnaval. After my Thursday class, several of my students wanted to go meet up with Krishna’s class at Playland Park, a mini amusement park that they brought to Ambato for FFF. I went with my students Romel, Elisa, and Elisa’s 3 year old daughter to this fun filled event. One thing about Ecuadorians, is their endless hospitality. Romel looked at me and asked, “teacher, want to go on a ride with me?” Of course. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love rides. The first ride we went on together was called, EVOLUTION. Romel wouldn’t let me pay for the ride so he bought us our tickets and we climbed aboard. It was a great ride. It spun in circles while it lifted us upside down and around. We went on several rides after that, but I have to say this was my favorite. I looked over at Romel, a man in his mid-late thirties and saw him smiling, laughing, and screaming like a giddy little boy. It was a blast. Apparently his wife won’t go on these rides with him, so it was quite convenient that I was there to take her place.

My friend Amy came in from Machala on the southern coast to hang out with us Ambateños for FFF. The first night we hung out, drank some, and then headed out to a bar for the night. The second day we went to the Center and checked out the flowers, art, and cake exhibit. Some of us decided to go to a bull fight that night. I am not one to advocate for animal violence, but I wanted to check it out for cultural reasons. When in Ecuador right? How wrong I was. I hated the bullfight. The first matador did a poor job. He was on a horse and continually kept stabbing the bull until he started getting tired. He was bad because the last couple of jabs he didn’t put them where they were supposed to go, and they ended up in the Bull’s lungs. The bull was spitting up a lot of blood and making awful noises. I had to get out of there. I thought I could handle it, but I left immediately after this. Sorry to all of you who got phone calls exclaiming how awful it was. I just had to share with someone. I won’t go to another bullfight the rest of my life even if it was a good matador, I don’t approve and I think it is really quite cruel. After this, my friends told me the others were so much better and that they wished I had stayed, however it’s not going to happen. We ventured into the center again and walked around town. There was a concert going on and lots of people in the streets. During Carnaval there is this foam that they have called, carioca. People carry it around and randomly spray whoever they want. Needless to say, the group of gringas got attacked quite a bit.

The Queen of Ambato, Luisa

The next day Amy, Leslie, and I woke up and went to the early morning Parade in the center. This parade meant some serious business. People camped out the night before with seats lined up in the first row. I am always impressed by how passionate Ecuadorians are about their parades. We made the trek down to the center and Cevallos street was FULL. Thousands and thousands of people lined the streets. As we were walking all three of us weren’t very hopeful that we would find a spot to sit due to our late arrival. However, I spotted one of our friends Taty and her family. We went over to talk to her and say hello. She told us to wait a minute and then magically appeared with three stools in the 2^nd row of the parade! We had some of the best seats in the house with rowdy men screaming at the dancing girls and queens that passed by. Street vendors are taken to a whole different level at parades. They run around screaming in their vendor voices selling everything from fig sandwiches to beer at 7:00am in the morning. One particular beer lady wouldn’t stop harassing our section, passing out Pilsener after Pilsener blocking the view. The parade was legit. I was thoroughly impressed with the pageantry of the parade with various dancing groups, fantastic costumes and make-up and elaborate floats.

Fantastic costumes during the parade

That night we went out again and headed downtown. Once again the streets were full of people and full of the foam. There were tons of sneak attacks and I think I was attacked probably 10 times at least. So, I bought some foam as well and started attacking back. It was a blast. I had a great time getting in mini wars while we enjoyed the concert, partying, and dancing in the streets.

I have come to my conclusion, Ambato knows how to party. I am so happy I stayed here to experience, Fruit and Flowers Festival, Ambato style. I will be an Ambateña for life.