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Carnival in Cuenca
The day the Gringo's came to town - and invaded the Parish of Quinego to be exact. It was a tour organized by Terra Diversa. The purpose of the tour was to witness how Carnival is celebrated in the traditional way by a nearby village. We did not realize until much later however, apart from a parade, it was an all-out fight with water, foam and flour bombing.
The day had finally arrived. We dressed, had a small breakfast and armed with our backpack with some provisions, headed towards to the city center to join our fellow Gringo's on a bus headed for Quinego. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and we were all in a jolly mood. Some of us are expats who live in Cuenca, and others were short-term visitors to our city.
After the usual meet and greet, our tour leader on our bus "Alvaro", welcomed us aboard and explained that we were going into the village of Quinego for the Taita Indigenous Carnival Celebrations. There were over 30 of us, and two buses had to be used.
Our mission, should we choose to take it, was to enjoy and have fun and don’t be too upset if we were totally drenched with a bucket of water or sprayed with foam and flour. We were then well provided with our own "ammunition" - a squirting water bottle, a can of foam spray and a box of corn starch flour.
These are our fellow troops who were ahead of us as we marched from the bus toward the town square - ready and armed but still dry and not covered in foam or flour.
The idea was to go in and join in with the locals and wet and foam as many people as possible. This was the first time Alvaro's contractor, Juan Heredia from TerraDiversa (www.terradiversa.com), had compiled such a mission with Gringo's going into unchartered territory. Juan was actually worried as to how the day would turn out.
Just after we hit the square, we were welcomed over a public address system by the President of the Village. He was standing on a platform in the middle of the town square surrounded by local villagers, and probably visitors from other surrounding areas.
As we were welcomed by the President you could feel the tension in the air for the fun to begin with the Gringos.
I know we stood out in the crowd (as Gringos) and some of the locals came and welcomed us and shook our hands. Then all of a sudden we were bombarded with foam and water flying about. Ok, it was time to fight back. Many of us separated into different groups and some had battles with families and children who absolutely delighted in foaming up and wetting us Gringo's. Many times we had to replenish our supplies of water and foam spraying cans. A few of us even decided that we should go in guns ablaze so we armed ourselves with a spray can in each hand and went in for the kill :). It was like playing cowboy games again, with a "gun" in each hand!!
Rich, our fellow compatriot had been a welcome target. He received back a lot of what he gave out.
Unfortunately it was hard to keep the camera shooting as we were attacked no matter what we had in our hands. This photo shows that even the camera had it's lens foamed over.
Many of us were foamed or drenched by passing traffic before we were about to leave.
This is time-out to watch the parade, and we didn't think we would be sprayed from flying water bombs of foam spray. But we did manage to enjoy a delicious traditional lunch at $3 per plate. You can see a short movie of the parade at my
YouTube page.
http://www.youtube.com/dcdby2006
These young men were at the ready down the road from the town square and where our bus was parked. Each time a car or motor bike or people walking passed by, they would throw buckets of water onto poor unsuspecting people. One of our troops got quite involved in helping them (after he had been drenched) and became the "forward scout" warning the bombers ahead of time of any incoming potential people to throw water at. He was then provided with his own bucket to be totally involved.
These kids were hoping that the plastic would protect them from hidden attackers along the road. Rarely did this strategy work because they were attached from both sides of the road
A truce was called and some local boys found our young female troops and managed to get this photo before we left the village of Quinego. Well done girls..
As for us, we were satisfied we helped out and wet and foamed as many people as possible. We left the village totally drenched and out of ammunition but with a satisfied feeling of enjoying a truly fabulous day out.
Later that evening Juan Heredia called me to check out how his troops went, and how the tourists enjoyed themselves. I advised him that it was the best day out in a long time and we think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and that it will definitely have to become an annual event. John and I will certainly be back again next year with some old and hopefully many fresh troops to experience this wonderful fun day of Carnival celebrations.
So if you are coming to visit us in Cuenca for Carnival next year make sure you book this trip through TerraDiversa.
We know our own young adult children would love to join in with their not so young parents who loved acting like big kids again for a day.
Chao for now
Dixie
PS: Warnings: - Wear glasses of some kind for some eye protection. The foam can irritate your eyes. Make sure you wear a hat if it is a sunny day. Clothing should be comfortable and maybe have lots of pockets to place your "ammunition" - foam spray, flour and water-squirting equipment.
PPS. For those of you who are subscribers and were here to enjoy the day, please write me a testimonial of your expedition with us.
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