Viva Carnaval!

Aaaah, Baños. I awoke in the morning (in my very volcanic-ash-filled apartment) to the green of the mountainside, and to the milk lady bleating “leeecheeeee” outside my window. Lots of cleaning to do. And, many dead plants, sadly enough. BUT, the one plant that I thought for certain would be dead, was in fact anything but. And, thus, my little Ascocenda surprised me, with blooms the size of my hand. (This is THE hardest-to-grow plant I have ever had, let alone getting it to bloom… and here it was, so neglected, and had just opened up the day that I got here, as it turns out.) My landlady was so excited about how pretty it was that she pointed it out almost before she even said hello.

Aside from that happy surprise, it turns out that Baños was also having a big party just for me. They are calling it “Carnaval”, or something quaint like that. How nice of them.

Anyhow, Carnaval here is quite the event, complete with parades of half-naked (or in some cases, fully-naked, but painted) women, fireworks, lots of throwing of water baloons, eggs, silly string, and various other spray items (like carioca). It is kind of a zoo, actually. I have never seen more people in the streets here. Oh, and of course, there is the burning things. In fact, there was an entire parade just dedicated to the things that would be burned later in the night.

As I write, Mama Tungurahua is grumbling away, in a series of small explosions. It is hard to tell the difference between that noise, and the firecrackers being exploded all around town to mark the end of Carnaval. The volcano makes the windows shake, though, whereas the firecrackers do not. That said, it is a good night, with the sounds of drunk singing people drifting in through the window, and a brass band playing somewhere off in the distance.