Las Fiestas de Quito

As I mentioned in my previous post all last week was Las Fiestas de Quito, starting on the 28th of Nov. and ending on the 6th of Dec. The City was actually founded on the December 6th of 1534, but give an Ecuadorian any excuse to party and they will make a week (or 9 days!) of it. The city was founded by Sebastian Benalcazar, this is only significant because my school is named after him. Anyway enough history, to the festivities!

There are bullfights every day during Las Fiestas, many people go on several days if not all of them. I want to take a moment here to further explain my feelings about the bullfights.

I have been catching a bit of grief about my post and pictures from animal lovers and normal friends alike. This took me by surprise because I thought I was pretty clear about my stance on the issue in my last post, maybe not? So here is my official statement: I loved the atmosphere of the event, I loved the cultural aspect, and as an experience, it was thoroughly enjoyable. I did not care for seeing the bulls die, the suffering is definitely cruelty towards the animal. This being said, those people who came at me saying how it was all animal torture and morally unforgivable to kill bulls, I want to you to take note that hamburgers and steaks do not grow on trees. This is not meant to attack anyone's beliefs, I know that killing animals is a touchy subject, but I just don't want to hear any more comments on the issue. There are protest groups that will gladly listen, and I encourage you to take action to support your beliefs.

Beside the bullfights, there were other things going on pretty much every day. Parades were common, usually shutting down some of the main avenues in the city. This made for horrendous traffic and many of the bus routes were altered to accommodate the available streets. Also there were tons of things going on in the Historic Center of the city. I passed through on several days and saw outdoor plays, protests, and live music. I also managed to buy my self a pair of awesome shoes for $5, which is completely irrelevant to this post but the frugal Scotsman in me felt like sharing.

Another big part of Las fiestas are chivas. A chiva is basically a party bus that drives around the city until the wee hours of the morning while tons of people climb on board and sing. They look quite different from your normal bus though. Imagine a flat bed truck with benches on the bed, then build a cover for the benches and put railings onto of the cover so people can stand up there too. Finally make a platform on the back with more railings. They are usually painted cool colors and many have names like "the spirit of Quito" or "The Quiteño Chiva". They start their rounds at about mid-day and finish at about 3 or 4 in the morning. They have set routes which they drive on at about 10 mph, its actually a pretty good way to see some of the city. Some families rent their own chivas and make it a safer, more family oriented experince. I say "safer" only because I think any bus packed full of mostly intoxicated people singing at the top of their lungs could be deemed somewhat a hazard. I rode a chiva briefly with Alex and some friends one night after a party, it wasn't really anything special, but I can now say that I have been on one.

I can't really figure out how to string all these aspects of the celebrations together so I am just listing them I guess. The next thing is a card game called "Cuarenta". Cuarenta means 40 in spanish and as you may be able to guess the aim is to get forty points. I wont go through all the rules, because there are a lot and because I still havnt quite got all the little ones worker out. It is played in two teams, so it cn either be a 2, 4, or 8, person game. I learned to play earlier in my first few months mainly by watching people play at the house and occasionally giving it a go myself. The learning was so difficult because at the time my Spanish was still only so so and when 4 people are trying to explain a rule at the same time, things get confusing. I pretty much have it now and Mami and I got 2nd place in a family and friends tournament on Sunday. There are much bigger competitions in the city with prizes getting as big as cars and vacations, for this reason you can always see people playing in the street, practicing for next year.

And then of course there are the parties. The first weekend was pretty quiet, but the second was crazy like no other. There are tons of private parties which you have to buy a ticket to get into, these range from $15 parties in bars, $30 parties in closed down malls, and then there are one which cost into the hundreds, I don't even know where they are held but they are for the super rich youth. I didn't go to any of these private gatherings, the usual nightclubs were packed with people like myself who don't want / need to pay to have fun. I can't exactly give you a normal account of these nights, due to the fact that I have no idea / control of who reads my blog. If you really are desperate to know, ask me sometime, a real teaser huh?

I can't think of any other things involved with Las Fiestas but if I remember I will update this post.

Sorry, no photos.

Ok so heres a 3 minute later update:

Today was my 100th day in Ecuador, kind of a crazy thought for me. That means I only have 200 more days!