Parades, parades, parades

This weekend is the big festival weekend for Cayambe, the festival of San Pablo and the Sun (at the middle of the earth). Friday night, my padres said they had to work after dinner and I offered to help them, thinking it was just going to be a small task or two. We drove out into the middle of the campo to deliver some flowers (since they own a flower shop). First of all, the stars were the most breathtaking stars I have ever seen. They were soo bright and so close, I felt like I could almost touch them. They were easy to see because there is hardly any light pollution, but it was just incredible.

After star gazing from the back seat, we drove up to this sketchy house with this giant garage. Inside the garage was a magnificent float for the parades that were to take place. My parents were decorating it with about 40 bunches of two dozen roses. It was incredible. The center of the float was an indigenous woman with her typical clothes and jewelry, made out of foam and paper. On the sides, they had painted scenes of Cayambe and the mountains. We then placed lime colored roses all along the float, it was beautiful. There is a competition for the floats, however we did not win...which was suprising because I thought our was the most impressive. Each float represented a plantation, or flower plantation. (I will try to post pictures later...my battery is dead).

After watching the parades yesterday, we went to the grandparent´s house for lunch (right next door to where I am living) and had some "espeghetti". They showed me their pigs (SMELLY!) and their guinea pig cages (sorry kids, for eating, not for petting). Then their friend Rocio picked me up and we drove out to San Pablo de los lagos, where there are large lakes. It was beautiful. The indigenous people are different, dress differently and the men wear their hair long. Even though it was about 45 minutes away, the culture is still different. After the lagos, we went to a Condor Park, or bird zoo, and looked at all of these indigenous birds. It was cool, but the neatest part was where they held demonstrations for the birds. It was basically an open amphitheatre that looked out onto the whole Andes Mountain range. It was soo crazy...the view was breathtaking once again. I am so lucky to be here! We drove through Otavalo on the way back, where they host the biggest markets in Ecuador.

Today there were more parades, but it is just full of dancers. The streets are full of people just dancing the traditional dances with their traditional clothing. Bumped into some PC kids and we just had some pizza (so sick of rice!) and then went to the internet cafe....we needed some AMERICAN TIME!