We came to Latacunga for the Mama Negra Fiesta, and my did it ever deliver. We switched hostels, found a nice cheap one with a really sweet lady owner. Our first day in Latacunga (sept 22) we just walked around and went to a few shops. Discovered a great little cafe where we ate 2 meals that day. There was a little girl who came over to us when we were eating and played peek-a-boo and made silly faces at us, she was the reason we came back to eat a second time.
The second day there was when the Fiesta started (sept 23). My goodness it was crazy. There is one reeeeeaaaalllyyy looonnnnggg parade that goes around town all day and late into the night with 20 or so different sets of dancers in different outfits, live bands, people in crazy costumes & masks doing 'blessings'(explained below), men cross-dressing, children giving everyone shots from the bottles of liquor they held, "Mama Negra" riding a horse (which is really a man in a dress with a mask of a black lady on), princesses on horses, kids dressed up as captains on horses, and men carrying these huge baskets filled with various skinned, salted animals (ex, pig, guinea pig, rabbit, chicken, turkey) that had bottles of expensive liquor and packs of cigarettes attached to them. The blessings were done by running the sticks these masked men held up and down your body, having another man run a bunch of herbs up and down your body and having another man take a gulp of tequila and spitting it all over you..and then you give them a dollar hahaha.
Everyone was drinking big beers and pouring shots of beer/liquor into plastic cups and handing them out everyone around them. It was really easy to get drunk, and drunk I (amanda) did get.
When Robbie and i were watching the parade, a woman started to talking to me in english, asking me where i was from. Her group of friends, robbie and i really hit it off, so they asked us if we wanted to go to where the party was. We followed them through town to this plaza where people were selling beers for $1 and food. We hung around the plaza for awhile drinking and talking. We met this great hippie couple who were selling their hand-made jewelry. (Might meet up with them later in our journey so the lady can wrap our quartz stones into necklaces.) We also met a group of students from Germany and Denmark who tagged along for a few hours. They left us when we (robbie, me, ecuadorians we met earlier) went to watch the fireworks at the end of the night. At the fireworks, there were people giving us shots of hot tequila, so hot you had to blow on them to cool em down, but they go down sooo smooth (you should really try it).
The next day robbie and I watched the parade for a bit and then met up with 2 different students we had met the night before, from France and North Carolina. It was pouring rain so we all went for a coffee. We learned that in Ecuador most people drink instant coffee, and you have to pay a pretty penny for real drip coffee. We watched the parade with our new friends then went for dinner at the cute cafe robbie and i discovered 2 days prior. After eating we all went to watch and follow the parade. We decided to get a little more involved and were dancing with the costumed people. Rachel (from north carolina) ran into some of her friends so we drank a bit and danced with them.
The next day Robbie and I met up with Joss (from France) and the family he is living with. We all went to the market and bought delicious fresh tropical fruit. There are some weird fruits that grow here, like red bananas, and these things called `grenadilles`` which are kind of like pomegranates, but not red, or sour. It`s hard to describe them. They have a hard exterior, but when you break them open, there are lots of seeds with jelly-like stuff around them. You just suck it out and eat it. so tasty!
Joss` host family dropped us off at a restaurant so we could try Latacunga`s signature dish- pork, corn (cooked 3 different ways), empanadas (sweet dough filled with cheese) and fried bananas. It was verrrry good! Although the pork was too salty. They don`t refrigerate their meat here..unsanitary, so they must salt it alot to preserve it.
We then caught a bus to Banos.
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