"Quê Bonita Es Carnival!"

OK, Disregard the pic numbers listed because they loaded backwards. Enjoy.
PART 1
The bus was scheduled to leave at 7 am. Deanna and I arrived at 6:20 am, Tricia and Kelsey arrived at 6:30 am, and Jen arrived about 5 minutes later. We bought our tickets, stood in line to pay our .20 terminal gate fee, and finally boarded the bus. We had to move after we realized we had assigned seats, but it was not a problem. We pulled out of El Terminal Terrestre at 6:49 am. EARLY! The drive was beautiful. Pic 1 shows the land divded up and it looks like a quilt. Pic 2 is not very good, but it is of Chimborazo aka volcano with snow on it. It was beautiful. (When we left Guaranda, the bus had a better view because it was clear. There is a different story to why I didn't feel the motivation to capture it in picture though (read more..). ) Picture 3 is on the other side of Chimborazo. The volcano cleared the land at some point. It's completely incredible how the landscape changes so quickly. Deanna and I had fun trying to best describe Ecuador based on what was in the United States. The Rocky Mountain comparison was my favorite. It looked like where my family goes camping, but with giant aloes. I didn't take a picture because I wanted to keep my camera all weekend.

PART 2
We arrived in Guaranda. The bus couldn't get to the Terminal there because there is a parade already in motion. We crammed the 5 of us with our bags into a normal-sized taxi. He kindly drove us far around the city to get us as close as possible to our hostal. Since the parade went up and down many blocks, not just a straight line, we still had to walk across the parade route to get to our hostal. My group has a very blonde girl in it, a dirty blonde haired girl, a light brown haired, a medium brown hair (with bright blue eyes), and myself in it. None of us are dark skinned. We all look very American. Serveral people laughed and pointed out to each other that we were Gringas (Not derragatory here like in Mexico, just Americans). We were sprayed with Garote, (sounds like Karaokee kind of) which is like a can of silly string but it's foam. It was pretty funny.
We made our way (after several failed attempts) across the parade route. We got to our hostal. We checked in, went downstairs to the resturant and ate. I had fresh pinapple juice with fried shrimp, fries, and veggie salad (brocolli, peas, carrots). I thought I was being more adventerous, but the menu was hilariously translated (ex. hot aromatic infusion was the translation for herbal tea).
The group decided to go up to the monument of the indian the city is named after. PICTURE 4! (I'm new to this, so I'm not sure how the pics will post). We took a taxi up the steep, winding hill, and had a good time up there. It started raining when we started walking down the road. We pet a donkey that was tied to a tree. Then, we caught a taxi at the turn in the road. We were wet and cold, so we went back to the hostal, and napped. Dinner time came, and then it was time for the big parade. We managed to miss most of it, but a random guy walked up to us and started talking in Spanish. He then spoke in English and said his family just moved to Chicago. Two of the girls are from that area, so he ran and got his buddies. One was from Chicago, so he was really excited. The group is in Ecuador teaching English for WorldTeach. They invited us to hang out with them, so we agreed.
They commented on us being clean, which didn't last for long. They had flour rubbed in their hair and on their faces, along with a nice grunge appearance. It started raining again. We all ended up with very dirty clothes after that. We danced, and danced, and danced. Every other song the band played was an American song (Play that Funky Music White Boy, I Love Rock and Roll, random 70-80's Rock). There were the 5 of us, and maybe 10 other Americans, and 1 German. Dan, the guy whose famiy was moving to Chicago, is living with a host family in Guaranda. His host brother invited us to his dad's discotec. A lot of fun.

PART 3
Daytime Guaranda was just as active as night time. We picked out a nice place behind a sweet older lady and her family to watch the parade. We stood there about 15 minutes when we got sprayed. We all kind of took it, and it wasn't a big deal. The sweet little lady got sprayed too (the criminal was in her circle-guy in red shirt, about 37). She got onto him, but he sprayed her again. It's all in good fun. It did get bad enough that we ended up buying bottles of garote ourselves. PICTURE 5 is a taste of what we dealt with. That's the back of Deanna in the black and red. If you look at the background, you can see all the spray in the air from various people. A group of boys my age walked up, and since we were already covered, decided to help us out more and spray us. They also floured our faces and scalp. We were worn out, but it was fun. I rode the bus to Ambato with crusty, flour scalp.

PART 4
After having part of the group sprayed with hoses (not fun), we finally found where the buses were loading. We waited for 20 minutes, but finally got to board a bus to Amabato. It was full. I walked to the back, but two of the people from the WorldTeach group were on, so Istood by there seats in the aisle. The other 4 kept my bag and sat on a sorry platform at the front of the bus. The aisle was full. I stood for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and then I was able to sit the last 8 minutes of the ride. While moving along, the German guy, called Pedro (easier to say than his real name maybe?) wanted to take a pic of Chimborazo. It was so much clearer this time. He went across the aisle to take the pic out the window of the nice guys next to us, and someone from the back of the bus sprayed him with garote. Several times the foam was used at the back of the bus, but it was so crowded that my friends at the front of the bus didn't know that had happened until I told them later. They wanted the window shut-spray. There's a Gringa in the aisle-spray. The Gringo is taking a pic-spray. --all in good fun.

Part 5
Ambato was so much more tame. We got to our hostal, and did nothing. I got to wash the flour out of my hair..with a frigid trickle of water. I put on clean clothes, and managed to take a nap. When I woke up, we decided we weren't going out, so I put on my jams and resumed laying in bed. Jen ordered pizza. The desk clerk said he would bring up our change when the pizza was delivered. She is so nice. She went downstairs to get it, so the guy didn't have to come upstairs. When she went downstairs though, he wasn't there. She came back upstairs. About 5 minutes later, the was a knock on the door, and the clerk brought us our pizza and change. We ate pizza (Jen ordered a large cheese, and a medium vegetarian...we got a large meat lovers, and a medium ham and balogne..ya), drank pinapple pop, and watched the Oscars (dubbed in Spanish). I fell asleep after best supporting actor, so I didn't make it far.
The next day, we went to a 'park' to see the view of Ambato and Tungurahua (another volcano). You can see 4 volcanoes from that point, but it was too cloudy, so we could only see part of one. We walked through the little town to get to the bus stop. A friendly dog followed us, and he got on the bus with us.
We had sanduches from a great place. The desserts reminded me of La Baguette in Norman (but not exactly the same). We went to the market that Ambato is famous for, and we got the same giggly Gringa remarks and stares. Then it was time for the parade.
We paid $2 to sit, and it was well worth it. We had cotton candy and peach box wine, high class. The little old lady behind me deliberately sprayed my back. She was not very nice the entire time. She kept sticking her hands behind my back on my chair, and kicking my chair, etc. I would have shrugged it off as accidentS, but since she sprayed me and only me before the other smaller things (big glob on my back), it was hard to ignore.
This parade/area is known for it's Fruit and Flower festival.
The spraying started after the parade was over. We managed to get back to our hotel. We got pizza again, but ordered in person. We had pinapple pizza and cheese pizza with a giant faux-cola. Then it was good night with the Bourne Identity in English with Spanish subtitles.
The trip back to Quito was uneventful and the whole weekend was great.