Ecuador Carnival February 2015

Been a really long time since i put anything in the blog.  Sorry.  Been a busy time.  I think I will have all kind of time to blog but life gets away on me for sure.  At first I was just really, really enjoying this beautiful 3 bedroom condo all to myself.  Slept lots.  I have been having trouble sleeping for a very long time since I was rear ended in  an accident in Ottawa a year and a half ago.  I have a brain injury and have had issues with vertigo, sensitivity to sounds, light, people, work, etc. Have not been able to read a book.  I figured 3 months here without work and no stress would cure me.  And it was working.  All of the sudden I was sleeping like a baby.  My brother arrived  after a few weeks with a friend Beth from the Soo and a few other friends of his from Halifax.  Another friend of mine who was supposed to go, fell over her dog in the middle of the night and broke her ankle and had to have surgery with pins and plates so she had to cancel.  One girl that came down on the same plane as my brother had no place to stay and was going to go to a hostal but I insisted she stay with us.  That is another story.

So once they all arrived , it was basically Carnival time.  One week before carnival , we heard there was going to be a horse parade down the malecon in front of our condo.  I LOVE HORSES and was very excited.  It was truly amazing. I must have taken 1000 photos of 1000 horses.  Absolutely beautiful horses who danced to music on the street.  And beautiful cowboys in beautiful hats sitting on those beautiful horses.  They came up to you and offered  drinks from their bottles.  You must remember, this was before Corona Virus ever hit Ecuador.  So I drank Tequila with some and gave Tequila to others.  Loving the moment.  Got to sit on some great horses.  The parade went on for hours, at least 3.  Just when you thought it was finished , another group of hombres on horses came by and close to the end there were cars as well, and the horses would come right up on the sidewalk. Some would go down to the beach and take their picture on their horse in the sunset.  Apparently they came from Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia.  There was some expensive horses there believe me.  It was awesome.

For the next week,  people were in town getting the town ready for the next weekend Carnival. A huge area was being prepared with sand and a huge stage.  There will be lots of music every night for 5 days I believe. 100,000 people come into Crucita which is an amazing quiet little fishing village on the ocean in the southern part of Ecuador.  The people from the cities take over the town.  Imagine my surprise.The condo is surrounded by a large metal fence which is lovely to look out at the ocean.  During carnival it is to keep the riff raff out.  Was thankful for that then.  The malecon which is a street you can drive down is closed off for carnival and there is just an ocean of people up and down the malecon drinking, singing, dancing, and carrying on. Basically all night long.  Kinda contagious, I must say.  We had a lot of fun.  Getting sprayed with foam and silly things.  Of course we could not keep up with the young ones and was thankful for some very good ear plugs I brought down.