Quito and Baños!

The beginning of March marked the Carnaval holiday, and the school had one day of programs and games, followed by more than a week off from school.   We had heard that with Carnaval time came water balloons and games, but we weren't prepared for the water fights that ensued!   Throwing handfuls of flour or spraying colored foam from cans is also common.  We also saw eggs in some of the more serious fights, but fortunately we were able to avoid this:)   The biggest day to celebrate is Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, but, since there was no school during that week, they allowed the kids to play on the Thursday prior.   Their games started with flour, but ended with dumping buckets of water.   Not carrying "weapons" does not make you immune!

As that Thursday was the last day of school before a week long break, we decided to take the time to do some traveling.   That night we took our first long bus journey, an overnight trip to Quito.  We didn't see much for scenery, nor sleep, but I suppose we arrived more quickly than we would have traveling during the day!   For any of you familiar with it, it was kind of like a Megabus trip from Chicago to Minneapolis:)  We were hosted by friends of Seth's uncle, and after a bit of a rest, we spent the weekend visiting parts of the city of Quito and areas around, such as La Mitad del Mundo (Equator), the beautiful and famous market of Otavalo, and a Teleferico (cable car) ride to some great hiking near Mt. Pichincha, some 4000 meters above sea level.  We really enjoyed our time touring and visiting with new friends.

From Quito, we head back south through the Sierra to Baños, a vacation destination for tourists as well as Ecuadorians.  We found a lovely guesthouse filled with paintings from a local artist.   We arrived on the evening of the biggest day of Carnival, and as foreigners seemed to be particularly targeted, even if you weren't trying to participate, we kept a lookout for water buckets on the roof and dodged our way to an upper level coffee place where we could be observers and photographers until the majority of vacationers made their way out of town.  

In the next days we experienced the hot baths, went hiking and biking, visited waterfalls and relaxed at our guesthouse.

We arrived back in Cañar to learn our apartment was ready and we were finally able to fully unpack, for the first time in six weeks!  We were ready for our new beginning.