San Somthing Festival

Today we walked to the town square. Celebrations are going on for an indigenous festival. The indigenous men, women and children wear their traditional apparel and come down from all the surrounding mountains. They marched around the square whistling and cheering. Today it was the men, on Wed the women will march. It is dangerous because 1) some of the tribal communities start to fight and then 2) the police throw tear gas into the fight to break it up and this causes a stampede. However, if one doesn’t get too close and stays for minimal time like we did, it is neat to watch. The Ecuadorians we talked to all warned us and they stay away for the most part too, but at some point most go watch. I took a picture of all the people on the church steps watching and also a mannequin in the men’s clothes. The celebration is the please the sun and get a good growing season, and also a fun tradition for them.
Ceci gets into the Quito airport tonight and as of today we now all have our bed frames to sleep on! I never realized that there tons of fruits of which I had never even heard of! Now I see them, taste them and get ice cream made of them. The ice cream is different here though it isn’t creamy, it is icy. I have heard of a great ice cream shop in a nearby town. The town has the one Wal-mart like store and everyone travels to it for groceries. It is called the Super-Maxi. Most people take the bus to it, which is fun and quite an experience.