Carnavaling in Banos

On an average weekend, Banos hosts mountain bikers, city dwellers seeking gorgeous vistas and cheap spas, and adventure seeks hoping to jump off bridges and canopy across rivers. Due to the recent desrumbes (landslides) on many of the major highways, passage was cut off to the Coast... and to Banos went Ecuador, to celebrate Carnaval... a Fat Tuesday of sorts that began on Saturday and lasted through Tuesday night. It was insane fun, filled with mischievous little kids, water balloons, cans and cans and cans of sweet, sticky Kareoka (a watery foam that comes in various colors that stain everything they touch) and loads of gringo targeting.
I am not quite sure what we were celebrating, not quite sure what watery foam and water balloons represent in the grand scheme of life and Lent beginning, but it was the most inclusive party I have have ever experienced... everyone was in, there was no bench warming, no tagging out for a breather, no place of respite.
Because the weekend was filled and my memory is cloudy with bits of foamy Kareoka (I wonder if any longitudinal studies have been done on the effects of Kareoka on one's mental capacities), I will simply list the most vivid memories from the weekend:
*On Friday, on the bus out of Quito, I met a small boy who was carrying his new pet bird, a brown, raggedy little thing, in a black plastic bag. The bird's head was sticking out of the bag and the boy was so dang proud, clutching the top of the bag around the bird's neck. I wonder how long it will survive.
*On Friday night we met the Reinoso family, friends of my friend Mary Beth, who took us into their humble home and showered us with generous hospitality. It was home, next to a volcano, with a poodle named Munenca and a small farm of fruit trees out back.
*On Saturday afternoon, we watched a long, colorful parade with every elementary school in the area represented with outrageous dances and elaborate floats. It was mesmerizing to watch 8 year olds wiggle their hips in ways I will never know, until, alas, one of them cried and then peed in the street. Three hours is much too long to hold it, even when a gal is wearing a sequined skirt, high heels and glitter on every piece of exposed skin.
*On Sunday, we played Carnaval at the Rio Verde, hiking and sprinting and spraying Kareoka on each other as I hemmed and hawed a bit about water pollution and tried to read the not so natural ingredients on the side of the can. The highlight of my day? Being shoved into a waterfall by the Reinosos, who were tickled pink, and green, and blue, and foamy yellow, to have a gringa to pick on a bit.
*On Sunday and Monday nights, we went to the two squares in Banos to listen to live music, spray Kareoka on clean passersby and laugh as people got tossed into the fountain. At some point, I was hit directly in the crotch of my jeans with a water balloon, which made the wee Reinosos giggle with delight. An adult who peed her pants, now that's something! I should have been in the parade. At the end of the night, the square was littered with empty cans, bits of sticky flour and drying Kareoka. It was a war zone, abandoned for the sunlight to come.
*On Monday, we took a bike ride along a highway, through dripping waterfalls, into and out of a rough tunnel, singing the whole time. We were, of course, sprayed with water and foam by every third car that passed. It was beautiful, even through a helmet of sticky Kareoka.
*On Tuesday morning, we walked to the store with some of the smaller Reinosos to buy food for breakfast. I had an overwhelming sense of calm as we trudged through patches of sunlight, along a dirt road, next to a smoking volcano, with scraggly Muneca leading the way.

Banos feels like home, due to the generosity of the Reinosos and the way the roads wind into mountains. I was invited back, told that my return was anxiously awaited. The world is small but the people who love it are not.

Note: photos to come!