Ambato

Sorry if I sounded a bit jaded in my last email. I'd just crossed the border from Peru to Ecuador and was miffed because we'd been scammed by a cab driver who left us semi-stranded after we declined to have him drive us 7 hours overnight to Ambato. In the end, we lost only $1.50 but it just left a sour taste in my mouth. Peru hasn't been the nicest experience. The country itself is gorgeous with a lot of archaeological points of interest. But, it is inundated with tourists and people trying to squeeze every last cent out of them. What I hated the most was that the minute we'd step off of a bus there would be at least 3 men in our faces essentially trying to drag us to their taxis. Ugh. Shaking it off.

During Carnaval it is customary to throw water and get people wet. Throughout the month of February, there are kids and big kids who wield water balloons to throw into open windows of cars and buses and load up water cannons and buckets to get a hapless passerby soaked. Nat and I have spent the month dodging these assaults or at least trying not to react much when we do get wet. The more you react, the more you get wet.

At the last minute, we decided to go to Ambato for Carnaval. It's famous for it's Festival of Fruit and Flowers during the last weekend of Carnaval and therefore very popular among Ecuadorians. Throwing water in Ambato is illegal. Instead, people spray foam at each other or throw hand fulls of flour. Monday night was the peak of Carnaval festivities. Thousands of people lined the streets to watch a parade. I didn't understand why there were so many people because it turned out to be the same exact parade that had passed through Sunday morning. But as soon as the parade finished, the real fun commenced. Throngs of people armed with spray cans of colored foam stormed the streets. Foam Fight!!! The most common technique was to walk casually by a person pulling out the spray can at the last possible moment so that you can get him right in the face and run away before he can react. Nat and I, being a pretty girl with "blonde" curls and a rare Asian gal, were targetted hard. I remember hearing "Mira, la chinita!" several times right before being creamed and blinded by blue/green/pink foam. But don't you worry, we fought back. We got everyone that sprayed us, even if it meant chasing them down and smearing our enemies faces with our own foam filled faces. After the foam fights, dancing in the street was requisite. Definitely a unique experience.



Now, I'm killing time in Quito before I fly out to Panama City. We visited the Equator the other day. We went with three cool guys (Diego, Juan Cristobal, and Raimundo) from Chile. It was like going to an amusement park! There is a massive monument marking 0°-0'-0" longitude (actually, it's off by 200 m) surrounded by several museums, cafes, and restaurants. An orange stone line is drawn into the ground. I was surprised how fun it was to jump from north to south to north to south to north to south. Weee! Of course, I ran a bitty science experiment in a bathroom sink. Water drained straight down!