Carnaval: Cuenca

Several weeks ago, our group was supposed to visit the Amazonas (as in, the jungle), but bad weather, flooding, landslides and the resulting closed roads kept us from going. Not to be discouraged, a group of us traveled to Cuenca and several surrounding pueblos for five days to celebrate Carnaval, a festive holiday that occurs during the few days before Lent begins. It was easily one of the best (most fun) consecutive five-day periods of my life.

View of Cuenca and a market from our hostal

Cuenca's grandiose city hall: taken from the corner of one of Cuencas gorgeous square parks

To begin, Cuenca, like Quito, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site, which basically means that the city, specifically its colonial architecture, is indescribably beautiful. Along with all the "normal" beautiful buildings, there are dozens of magnificent churches and two breathtaking cathedrals, one new and one old, along with several interesting and impressive museums. To add to the architecture, the city is surrounded by a landscape of picturesque moutains, and four small rivers flow from the mountains into the city allowing for beautiful riverside pathways, parks, and views.

Colorful, cute architecture

El Rio Tomebamba

Take this scenery and add to it every child's most elaborate dream - a multi-day, city-wide, all-inclusive water balloon/water gun/foam spraying/flour throwing war - plus celebratory Zhumir. Allow me to elaborate. The guidebooks warn: "Carnaval is celebrated with boisterous water fights in which no one is spared." Being American doesn't help. Ecuadorians delight in dousing an unexpecting gringo with large quantities of agua (water), espuma (spray foam... think the foam version of sily string), or polvo (flour). They get an even bigger kick out of it when travelers respond with a good fight back: water guns and espuma cans ablazing. We were those travelers:

Teo & Juan (his host brother): I just liked this one

The best part was, as the days progressed, the fight got more and more intense. When we arrived on Friday, we received the occasional squirt in the back from a hidden vender while walking through the artisenal markets. By Friday afternoon, squirting could come from just inside any store front and water balloons often accompanied. By the end of the day, we purchased ourselves several bags of water balloons and some medium-sized water guns (which were being sold everywhere). We spent a the few hours around sunset lobbing water balloons at passersby from the rooftop patio of our hostal.

Saturday seemed to us like all-out war. While touring the city, we were chased for blocks by groups of kids with water guns and balloons and the occasional can of espuma. One kid followed a small group of us for nearly 30 minutes, sometimes going around the block to catch us off-guard from the front. By the end of the day, we had all reloaded our guns countless times, purchased multiple cans of espuma, and had several changes of clothing. See below:

Teo & Philip (Gloria's host brother): soaked, covered in espuma & ready for more

Sunday was a quiet day. Church. I spent the day with Chicho and Miche (my host parents who were visiting relatives in Cuenca for the holiday) and two girls from our program - Gloria and Steph - visiting the nearby Cajas National Park. Unfortunately, it was a very rainy day and we only got to drive through a small portion of the park, but afterwards we returned to the relatives' house for a traditional Cuencano Carnaval lunch. Delicious. In the early evening, we drove part way up a nearby mountain to a beautiful church with a view of the entire city and surrounding valley.

Cuenca at sunset from the mountainside church

Gloria, Miche, Steph, Chicho & Seguismundo with Cuenca behind

As the weekend came to a close, we were preparing to change hostals for the remaining two days of Carnaval. We spent the next two days celebrating the holiday by visiting the nearby towns of Gualaceo and Azogues. Each town deserves its own story. Read along now.

Photo albums: "Carnaval en Cuenca - Parte Uno" & "Carnaval en Cuenca - Parte Dos"