Karioka en Cuenca, by Mia

Karioka en Ambato(Mia)

talk about
carnaval
a little bit about the parade
and all the floats
all those cool costumes
also maybe some about the mass
but more about in the night time
with the live music every where
and all that karioka
how it was like snow
a bit about restaurant and dinner
but more like the streets at night
and finally the little battles
and how im def gonna miss this holiday in the states

Carnaval

As my parents have probably already wrote about, carnaval is a holiday that we celebrate here with all different kinds of rituals and traditions. In Ambato, they have a magnificent fruits and flowers parade with all these amazing floats made completely out of fruits and or flowers. They are amazing. Anyway, for carnaval the tradition all over the country is to get people wet. you can do it by dumping water on their heads, throwing water balloons, spraying a hose, whatever way you want. But in Ecuador there all also "props" so to say for carnaval like maicena (corn flour), karioka, and others. These are like different sprays and colored corn that you spray or throw at people. I also heard that in some places like Guaranda they don't just throw those things, but eggs, oil, and flour too.

In Ambato, it's supposedly prohibited to throw water, but when we were there, that was not the case. Everybody threw everything. Especially karioka. It's a type of foam that is white and usually smells pretty good. No one sprays you, unless you're a kid and unless you have a bottle. Well, me and Nikki were considered kids, and boy did we get sprayed. Our parents were not too happy about that, so they made us walk like 10 meters in front of them always. It was kind of annoying because everybody sprayed us and we had no defense. So we finally convinced our parents to let us buy 1 can each. From that moment, it was pure craziness....