Carnival Part Two - Not the Carnival Anyone Expected

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What says fiesta better than fantastic fireworks every night?

What exactly is Carnival?  Well, in Ecuador it is celebrated in February or March during the week before Lent.  Lent is forty days of pentinence and abstenation leading up to Christ's crucifixion.  It is a time to suffer as Jesus did.  So what do we do before that?  Well, we celebrate.  It is done all over the world in all different cultures in all different ways.  New Orleans in the USA, Venice in Italy, Rio de Janerio in Brazil, Quebec in Canada, Colongne in Germany, Nice in France, Panaji in India, and the list goes on.

Are we compensating ourselves for the abstinence practiced during Lent?  Maybe.  Maybe we are celebrating our belief in Lent and Christ.  It is not for me to say.  I suppose it is a matter of personal choice.  So, we celebrate and in Ecuador we do it very, very well.

Both Malecon and la playa are filled to capacity by revelers.

So which is it?  Carnival?  That's what I see on many websites and blogs about Ecuador.  Carnivale as it is in Brazil and as I see on other sites?  Carnaval as it says on the spray foam cans and other paraphernalia sold here?  Just like many other words and phrases used in Ecuador it probably depends greatly from which province you hail.  Does it really matter? Not really. Everyone knows exactly what you mean.  We may not all spell it the same way but regardless, it means only one thing.  Fiesta!

The Malecon is gearing up.  This is just side street parking.

I am sure part one of this two part article was not what you expected.  Part two may not be either.  It was not what I expected.  Expect the unexpected right?  It is true.  I was excited for Carnival.  There was a lot of anticipation. What were we going to see?  How loco would it get?  Well, it was loco in a way. Just not they way I expected.  We took a lot of pictures.  Well, my wife took a lot of pictures.  I took some.  OK, a few.  I will bet if you try, you can tell the difference.

She has the "eye" as I believe the industry calls it.  I'll say talent.  No kick butt camera.  Just a cheap phone.  Really cheap.  She's good.

Our first ever Cumbia concert.  Reggae with a Latino back beat.

We got rain.  Rain every day.  You might think we should have expected this.  We live in Ecuador after all and it is the rainy season.  You might be right if you were talking about some place twenty or thirty kilometers inland but not Crucita.  In Crucita this sort of rain doesn't generally happen. You see, Crucita has a desert climate.  February boasts the lowest rainfall average of the year at less than five total millimeters.

Rain, rain, go away.  Come again next week!

                                                        Four days of the month you might see rain and then only very little each of those four days. Really, each night.  Okay, early morning, say 03:00.  We have cloudy days.  It rains almost every day thirty kilometers inland but here you will not even know it happened.  Not unless you were sitting out on your terrace watching the moon set over the Pacific early in the morning. There will be no puddles.  There will be no washouts.  You will not know it rained at all.

Except-

There is this weather "event" called El Nino.  It is in full effect.  For the second time since we arrived here it rained four days straight.  It rained all day.  It rained all night.  Maybe a break where there was only mist.  Just like Forrest Gump in Vietnam said, "We been through every kind of rain there is.  Little bitty stinging rain and big old fat rain, rain that flew in sideways and sometimes, the rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."  At one point my wife looked at me and said, "I gonna lean up against you, you just lean right back against me. This way we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud."  She was mostly joking.

Beer and cocktails for sale on the street.

The rain started on Friday and it rained every day of the Carnival holiday.  Tuesday it began clearing up. That is the travel day.  The day when everyone leaves.  Add to that the ultra high tides (normal for this year) and what you have is one whole hell of a lot of wet.  On the north end of Crucita there was major damage.  The Malecon is right on the beach and the tide took it.  It is as well protected as the central or south ends but the tides took some boulders, then some road, then a building or two.  Man could not stop it though they tried mightily.  Water always wins.  It is the truth and it is a truth best not forgotten.  Still, no one was hurt or killed. That is a pretty amazing thing.  I don't mean because someone should have been with the damage from the surf.  I mean that I think there there were probably twenty-five thousand people here. These people were all drinking, partying on the beach, and attending open air beachfront concerts in the rain, every day and night for four days.  That, plus the damage and no one was killed or severely injured.  None reported anyway.  Not that I can find.

I know there were minor injuries because I saw some happen.  I saw a few fights.  They would last for about 10 seconds.  Then came the policia.  Lots of them.  On motorcycles, on four wheelers, in trucks and cars, and on foot.  There were at least four officers stationed at every street accessing the Malecon.  If you were being malicious, you were being busted.  Not jail necessarily.  Corralled, given a stern talking to and sent on your way.  I never saw anyone get arrested.  I never saw any reason why they should.  That is not to say no one actually got arrested.  Just that there certainly were not many.

Street performers doing their thing and doing it well.

The festival was on, day and night, rain or shine.  Street vendors with so many great things to eat, so many hand made wares. Even tattoo artists.  Street performers were about.  Beer was available on the street, on the beach, and at the concert venue.  Walking and enjoying a beer or cocktail was no issue.  Water blasters and super soakers, spray foam, and colored powder were also available.  Lots of them, everywhere.  You had to have them.

Well, we had foam. I think the water guns were moot this year due to Mother Nature's contribution.

Lalo's.  The best hot dog I ever ate, hands down.

You could get hit at any time from any direction.  Tamera got foamed by a three year old.  I got foamed in the ear and never saw my attacker.  Water was sprayed from the balconies.  Even water balloons were thrown. Had the sun been out it would have been welcome.  Since it was raining it was largely unnoticed. There was actually a point when taking shelter from a particularly drenching rain shower that a woman looked at me and said "frio!" or cold!

She said this with her arms wrapped about her and while shivering.  I was thinking it felt great.  It was probably 27 C (around 80 F).  With the ocean breeze it felt like 22 C (around 70 F).  Nice, unless you are a local.

Espuma de Carnival.  Required gear!

The powder was something else.  A few of our local friends said it was a new thing.  I guess it is usually water and then bags of flour.  This year it was red, blue, or black powder.  I think black was the most popular color.  We were never hit.  It seemed to be something the teenagers were doing to each other.  Since we were not hit by the colored powder I cannot say how easy it was to clean.

The foam was surprisingly environmentally friendly, clean and fun.  It stained nothing, had no aroma, and seemed to actually have some lotion in it.  Just rub it into your skin,  Hit back of course!

Carnival ammunition could be bought day and night all along the Malecon, at the concerts, and from any street vendor.  Ecuador might have a law in place that says business owners have to sell the stuff.  It was always used in good fun.

We went out day and night.  We ate the street food, we drank a few cocktails or beers, we attended concerts.  We even got front row at one show.  The musical styles varied but all were good.  Our friends Jared and Tamy invited us to a small private party for the main event concert.  Tamera bought a beautiful Ecuadorian style dress during Carnival for the party.  Wilfrido Vargas, famous Merengue singer was the headliner.  The amazing show kicked off at midnight, right after a beautiful fireworks spectacular that lasted at least a half an hour.  I should have mentioned, there were fireworks every night at midnight.

From left to right, Jared, Willie, Tamy, Tamera.  Merengue!

Yes, it was even raining for this.  We were glad for the invitation to the party as it was on the rooftop of the condominium next to the venue.  We had a great view of the stage.  We also had a great view of the ocean and the Malecon.  As I said before, the concert was beach front. Since we had learned how to dance the Merengue from YouTube videos, we danced.  We weren't the only ones. Picture thousands of people dancing Salsa or Merengue at the same time.  Beautiful.


We met new friends and yes, had a few cocktails.  I ate Lalo's.  The Ecuadorian hot dog.  The ONLY hot dog.  We really just had a whole lot of fun.

The woman I love.  So happy!

After the show was over, it was time to walk home.  I don't mind telling you I was tired and hungry.   Tamy suggested we stop for one last cocktail and some food on our walk home.  We stopped at Rimini, the local Tiki Bar and restaurant. A blog about Rimini and their food is forthcoming but I will say they know how to cook fish and make some really great cocktails. We had a mixta of fried fish and shrimp and it was delicious.  

We even ran into our friend David and his wife Denise, the owners of Restaurante Motumbo there.  They were taking in some well deserved R&R.  Shop and restaurant owners are open from early morning until 03:00 during Carnival.  That leaves them only a few hours of sleep and prep time for the following day.  If we thought we were tired just think of the one to two hours of sleep these people are getting.  I believe some of them forgo sleep altogether, at least for awhile.  They need to cut loose a bit too.  They should.  A lot of hard work goes into this celebration.

A partial view of the concert crowd from our rooftop vantage point.

So we got home from the concert at about 04:00 on Tuesday.  When we woke up there was sunshine.  The Malecon was not empty.  There were still street vendors and the like.  People were on the beach.  Just not thousands.  Closer to a normal day by about half.  I ate Lalo's. Yes, again!  Available in Portoviejo every day.  Tamera bought fresh vegetables from a local street vendor. Crews were almost done with the final clean up rounds which were constant during Carnival and I mean constant.

Men and women in white jump suits with dust masks walking behind a garbage truck.  The went up and down the Malecon day and night while the workers emptied every trash container and picked up every little piece of trash from the street and beach.  We found the damage to the north end of the Malecon.

Tamy and Jared.  Artist and Musician.  Husband and Wife.  Great friends.

We have since learned from shop and restaurant owners there should have been more people.  That the rain took its toll in more ways than one.  Next year perhaps we will see the full effect of Carnival in the sun.  More people, more fun.  For now, we will rest ourselves.  Enjoy the peace, quiet, and tranquility that is Crucita. What will we do when we are rested? What then?  Well, then we travel someplace we have never been before.  Chao!

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