With carnaval festivities over I find myself back in the classroom with my mind still at the beach. This last week was a lot of firsts for me. First carnaval celebration, first time at a beach and first time trying some delicious carnaval food.

What is carnaval? Celebration of harvest time, religious tradition, time to receive taita carnaval. In Ecuador the traditional way to celebrate is by having a full table set with food of all kinds in order to receive tayta carnaval and if you don’t receive taita carnaval in this way then you will have brought bad fortune to your family. More commonly celebrated is the tradition to play with water with water-guns and balloons.

The party started on Thursday night with noche de compadres en el Parque Calderón where everyone played with water and foam “carioca”. Foreigners were specifically targeted to get sprayed!

A group of us students decided to take a trip to the beach in Playas, Ecuador and it was such a relaxing time! It’s ridiculous how much the ecosystem changes in a three hour drive. We went from chill rainy weather to humid sunny weather minutes after leaving the Andes.

I had a well needed break in Playas and the sand felt amazing on my knee (if you haven’t read my previous blogs, I injured my ACL).

Returning to Cuenca Monday evening, it felt like a ghost town. Everything was closed, with only a few people out playing with water and foam. My host family received me with a traditional Carnaval Dish called mote-pata soup that was delicious!! I ate it two days in a row – which is actually how long it takes to properly prepare!

Carnaval was a great break and it was fun seeing so many people of all ages playing with water and foam! Families eating large amounts of food and enjoying time together. I was ready to get my finals done and finish my first quarter courses!