Who needs Rio...
...when you've got crazy Ecuadorians.
Carnaval weekend.
We'd arrived in Tena, hoping to organize an excursion into the Amazon Jungle. What we got instead was a weekend filled with tubing races, eating with a sloth, and the biggest water fight I have ever been part of.
After two days of hunting down an excursion that seemed to tick all of the boxes, we lined up a trip to Laguna Limoncocha. But as it was Carnaval weekend, no-one was heading out of town until Monday, so we had to stick around.
The line up started on Saturday with the inagural beach party at Shandia, a local indian community about half an hour's bumpy bus ride out of Tena. We were the only tourists to show up. Although there was a Canadian volunteer based in the community who filled us in on the day's events. It was a fun day - rather like being invited to an extended family's (one that you don't know) BBQ lunch. Mike came third in a inner tube race down the river while I upset the local kids by taking some of their photos. Jealousy kicked in and pushing and shoving ensued followed by tears as they all tried to get their photos taken. They just loved to see themselves in the display on the digital camera.
So after a hectic day's BBQing and being eaten alive by sand flies, we opt for a salad at Tena's finest restaurant. It's a slightly surreal set up, with the young, akward waiter, trying so hard to do silver service that he can't manage the small details i.e. Like when I started to cough and was obvioulsy in need of water, he proceeded to slowly and carefully lay out my napkin and cutlery followed by Mike's, before even thinking about getting me some water. All the while, I've turned a strange purple/red colour and Mike insisting 'Agua pronto, pronto, rapido, rapido'.
Then came the sloth, crawling along the rafters, hanging down stealing the folded napkins from the wine glasses. She kept us amuzed for a while as we ate our rather scrumptious salads, anything was better than chicken and rice.
Sunday was spent in Misahuali, a half hour bus ride in the other direction. This party was much better organised and has been an annual event for years. There were latin bands, girl bands, boy bands and rock bands. All this in between the bikini girl wet (beer) t-shirt competition, which of course had all the guys cheering heartedly. I think there was a section of muscle men posing on stage too but that somehow didn't seem to rouse the crowd as much. Not quite what the missionaries had in mind when they converted the locals to Christianity all those years ago, I'm sure.
Besides the music and frivolities on stage, the crowd were entertainig themselves as well with water fights, flour bombs and something like shaving cream being squirted over any unsuspecting party goer. I think some girls took a fancy to Mike and we ended up getting saturated and squirted all afternoon.
Carnaval weekend.
We'd arrived in Tena, hoping to organize an excursion into the Amazon Jungle. What we got instead was a weekend filled with tubing races, eating with a sloth, and the biggest water fight I have ever been part of.
After two days of hunting down an excursion that seemed to tick all of the boxes, we lined up a trip to Laguna Limoncocha. But as it was Carnaval weekend, no-one was heading out of town until Monday, so we had to stick around.
The line up started on Saturday with the inagural beach party at Shandia, a local indian community about half an hour's bumpy bus ride out of Tena. We were the only tourists to show up. Although there was a Canadian volunteer based in the community who filled us in on the day's events. It was a fun day - rather like being invited to an extended family's (one that you don't know) BBQ lunch. Mike came third in a inner tube race down the river while I upset the local kids by taking some of their photos. Jealousy kicked in and pushing and shoving ensued followed by tears as they all tried to get their photos taken. They just loved to see themselves in the display on the digital camera.
So after a hectic day's BBQing and being eaten alive by sand flies, we opt for a salad at Tena's finest restaurant. It's a slightly surreal set up, with the young, akward waiter, trying so hard to do silver service that he can't manage the small details i.e. Like when I started to cough and was obvioulsy in need of water, he proceeded to slowly and carefully lay out my napkin and cutlery followed by Mike's, before even thinking about getting me some water. All the while, I've turned a strange purple/red colour and Mike insisting 'Agua pronto, pronto, rapido, rapido'.
Then came the sloth, crawling along the rafters, hanging down stealing the folded napkins from the wine glasses. She kept us amuzed for a while as we ate our rather scrumptious salads, anything was better than chicken and rice.
Sunday was spent in Misahuali, a half hour bus ride in the other direction. This party was much better organised and has been an annual event for years. There were latin bands, girl bands, boy bands and rock bands. All this in between the bikini girl wet (beer) t-shirt competition, which of course had all the guys cheering heartedly. I think there was a section of muscle men posing on stage too but that somehow didn't seem to rouse the crowd as much. Not quite what the missionaries had in mind when they converted the locals to Christianity all those years ago, I'm sure.
Besides the music and frivolities on stage, the crowd were entertainig themselves as well with water fights, flour bombs and something like shaving cream being squirted over any unsuspecting party goer. I think some girls took a fancy to Mike and we ended up getting saturated and squirted all afternoon.
posted by Michelle at 7:29 pm
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