We spent Valentine’s Day, February 14th, figuring out how to get to Ambato from Mindo. We left early in the morning on the 14th, but just missed the direct bus out of the Mindo town center. We had to get a taxi up to the highway (which some local woman hitched on to, but we, as foreigners, were expected to pay) to flag down a bus heading to Quito. The whole day (and traveling such a distances with our many bags) was pretty insane, as once we made it back to Quito we found a shared taxi to the second bus terminal on the other side of the city… only to find out when we got there that the buses were all completely full.
Since all the locals were on holiday due to the Carnival there were lines dozens of people long waiting for non-existent buses (the bus company told us if they could FIND another bus, then there would be another one going that day) and hundreds of people in the bus station trying to get out of Quito. We got lucky and found an overpriced car share with another couple to bring us all to Ambato. There were many road diversions and the drive was stop and go, but we got there in the end by 3:30 PM and back to our hotel we had previously reserved. I relaxed in the room while Colin got us some lunch and a Valentine's balloon for me!
While Colin set about doing some work, I headed out to see some of the festival straight away. I got to see two floors of interesting rooms in a house called the Museo Provincial Casa Del Portal, which was just near the city park. These exhibits included some paintings, but mainly giant sculptures of flowers arranged in different ways – some in the shapes of animals such as hummingbirds or frogs, some with bicycles, some simply displayed as arrangements on their own or along with dining room table decorations. There were competitions set up and as people walked around they could see how the judging of each category went as the different colored ribbons for winners were on display.
As the evening began I realized I was going to be running late for the free dance show I was eager to attend. I jumped into a tax and rushed off to a nearby arena and claimed my seat just before the announcements began. The show started by introducing the audience to the winner of the ‘Queen of Ambato’ contest – a beauty contest for one young woman to represent her city for the year and the festival. Earlier in the day I had seen one exhibit room filled with the portraits of all the ‘Queen of Ambato’ winners from when the competition first began up until the present one. In 2015 the winner was a woman named Nicole, who came out in her fancy white dress and sash waving to the crowd.
I bought some chocolate covered strawberries, popcorn, and soda and settled down to watch a couple hours of dancing by representative professional dance groups from Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru and Mexico. Overall, the Columbian dancers were by far the best with their rapid movements and incredible talent. Each of the groups completed some traditional dances in their traditionally colorful clothing, but modernized with sparkles and some sex appeal. Towards the end of the evening Colin managed to find me in the crowd at the event and we watched the last couple of dances together!
The following morning, February 15th, was the main parade of the event! This parade or ‘Carnival’ was completely different from the one we experienced in Brazil, but much more comfortable to experience as I watched it from out the window in one of the hotel’s rooms! I had a perfect view! Led by the festival’s Queen Nicole, this parade had loads of different floats in it, all made in some way out of pieces of fruit and colorful flowers. Each float had a couple of glamour girls ‘decorating,’ it, blowing lots of kisses to the crowds. Before and after each float were dancers in creative costumes related to the theme of the float.
In the afternoon after the parade I headed out to see a few more of the free programs on in Ambato. I tried a bunch of free food samples and shopped a bit more, but I was really interested in seeing some of the museums for free. The museums included a history museum with loads of stuffed birds and animals… even some deformed animals such as a two-headed calf and a deformed ‘frog-like’ baby corpse.
That evening (after a quick return to the hotel around the time it started to rain) I went out to one of the night fairs. While I was waiting in line to buy my ticket, I got to see a great view (although between some buildings) of the massive Volcano Tungurahua. I paid and went in, eager to try some of the local specialty foods such as ‘uva chicha,’ or chicha made from fermented grapes instead of the more typical fermented maize. Tasted like grape juice with a slight bit of acidity in it. One woman was cooking some fried dough with cinnamon inside it and I tried a few of those as well (really nice.) Outside there was a big BBQ going on, and lots of agricultural booths with various things for sale such as saddles, fertilizer, tractors, cows. The best was the group of show horses, one of which preformed for the audience.
Before I returned home I watched a pizza being made and bought a slide with guinea pig on it (cuy) and some chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick for Colin as a little post-Valentine's Day treat.
Monday morning was a daytrip a few hours away to enjoy a scenic train ride and lunch we had set up a few weeks previous our first time in Ambato. We met our group outside the agency, (we went with the pretty decent Darvitur for $60 USD per person) and piled into the car. It took a while to get going but once we got out to the city of Alausi (named after the saint ‘San Pedro de Alausi’) the views were stunning. Our first stop was at a huge statue (built by the Ecuadorian artist Eddie Crespo) of the city’s patron saint, San Pedro. The city has houses more than 100 years old still standing, and is most known as the starting point for the Nariz del Diablo train we were about to jump on.
The Nariz del Diablo train is an incredible engineering achievement, built with a political purpose in order to carry the riches of the coast to the sierra. Previous to the railroad it took 2 weeks to get a product from the coast to the sierra, and was completely impossible a journey in the rain. Purchasing the rail tracks from London, the Ecuadorians began measures to shorten this arduous journey. Through multiple Presidential terms starting in 1873 the railroad was worked on, finally completed in 1902. Brought in to to work on the railroad were 4,000 Jamaicans, 240 Puerto Ricans, and 204 from Barbados. It was believed that these workers would be more resistant to tropical climate and diseases. 500 colony prisoners were used, promised their freedom in exchange for their labor, and some indigenous – however, they were frequent deserters of the rail project during planting season.
In its construction, the train line connected Quito with the coastal city of Guayaquil, opening Ecuador up to trade and investment from the rest of the world. Specifically the trains moved cotton and wool from the haciendas and brought products from the city to the countryside. Many people, mostly Jamaican slaves, died in the process of its construction. It was also said that there used to be many condors living around the area, but that they were scared away during the train’s construction due to the loud explosions of dynamite. Moreover, the difficult topography of the Andes combined with the rainy climate made the construction of the train become known as the ‘most difficult train in the world.’ Up to 96,000 cubic meters of material were required for each 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of railway built – an incredible amount. All of the fear and death associated with the area, as well as the shape of one of the mountains the train passes by, is why the place has become known as the “Devil’s Nose.”
At Sibambe station a snack and museum were waiting for us. We were first greeted by a group of dancers, who were already shaking to music when the train pulled up. I checked out the museum (up a load of stairs) while Colin stood in line for our snack plates.
While we were at the top of the viewpoint I spotted some strange fruit I wanted to try. The first looked like a small banana, but was in fact a more ‘hollow’ fruit called taxo or banana passionfruit. This fruit is native to the South America, specifically in the the Andean valleys between Venezuela and Bolivia. I bought one of these fruits and tried some of its inside – which was a bit sour and had loads of hard seeds in it you were just supposed to “chew through.” Neither Colin nor I were fans. I also saw an orange passionfruit called granadilla – we’d tried this one before and weren’t keen on wading through more seeds for some fruit.
We took our seats on the train again and headed off. Before the train turned around to head back to Alausi we had to go through its infamous switchbacks in order to get on the right track back. Since the mountain is too narrow to have the train go around too many curves, in the construction of the train extra bits of track were added. The train could then drive up onto and sit on these tracks while the train’s angle was being rerouted be a manual lever. We watched as a guy jumped off the train and changed the direction of the track so the train would head back down. Now the train could start moving again, this time on a new bit of track. Very clever – and really cool to watch!
We had a fantastic lunch stop after the train ride. Though it was typical ‘set menu’ lunch food (soup, meat, rice) there was loads of it and it actually tasted pretty nice! We even got loads of bread and a dessert called ‘panela’ to go along with it. Colin really enjoyed the panela- it was a sugar cane dessert- and he ended up eating both of ours!
On the way back to Ambato our group stopped for some photos and time exploring a lake and church. The lake, named Laguna Colta (or Duck Lake) had a little island in the middle of it you could walk out to, and some birds swimming around in its waters. The small and quaint little church is named Iglesia de Balbanera and it is the oldest Catholic church in Ecuador, built by the Spanish in 1534. On the inside of the church was a painting of the area when it was hit by an earthquake in the 1790’s. After our group finished at the church (and found a couple of lost group members) we packed in for the long ride back to Ambato. The traffic was quite horrible, but we had some afternoon snacks (fruit juice and cookies) to keep us sane. We were lucky and had some great views of volcanoes along the way – Volcano Chimborazo and Volcano Carihuairazo on our left and Volcano El Altar and Volcano Tungurahua on our right.
In the evening after our daytrip was a second parade. Since there was so much traffic trying to get into the city of Ambato that evening coming back from our daytrip, I was a bit worried about being late for the parade. However, I ended up with two things which required no worry at all – we arrived back in the hotel with many minutes to spare… and the evening parade was almost the same parade as the morning one I had already seen! There were a few minor differences – the night parade was a bit bigger because it had some school groups (such as marching bands and cheerleaders) in it as well, plus more promotional flashy attractions (the start were a bunch of flashy cars with stereo systems playing) but not much different otherwise. Here are a few other photos I got then:
The following morning Colin and I had our breakfast at the hotel, then packed up and left Ambato. We had decided to head out to try and see a breathtaking crater lake! On to Colin for that one!
Francesca
No comments:
Post a Comment