Feistas de Quito is a week long festival that celebrates the foundation of the city with concerts, bull fights, parades, and lots of partying :) Sarvie and I decided to go see this orchestra that was going to be playing in Old Quito as a way to being the festivities of Fiestas de Quito. It was really nice, we ended up racing to get there on time and got there right on time, but of course the concert didn't start for another 30 minutes (aka Ecua time). There were also dancers who were teens from the ballet company in Quito there. The environment of el centrol historico is great, and we could see the city all around us, I definetly thought it was a great event and would advise others to go see these sort of events that are actually put on almost every weekend.
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| The orchestra was made up of jovenes and with the backdrop of the city =a pretty great event :) |
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| The folkforic dancing was cool to watch along with the orchestra in the background. |
We decided to hangout as a group seeing as a big group was leaving the next day to go to the Amazon. Someone decided we should play a little game that started off fun but ended up being a shit show, I mean everyone by the end was eighter throwing up, taking care of someone, crying, falling, peeing in interesting places, etc.
December 4th:
I woke up with a slight chuchaqui but I was not going to miss out on this parade that was happening so I got up and went with my friend Dita to go see this parade that was suppose to last for about 6 hours. Once we got there we saw people everywhere. I couldn't see a thing so when a lady selling stools passed by I bought one, I mean everyone was standing ontop of one so I decided to do it was well. The parade was really cool and there were police and military everywhere. Dita and I decided to look for a place to have lunch so I sold my stool for half the price to this old lady to sit on and off we were. Once we started walking we noticed a cool float going by so we stopped, I had Dita's camera so when I felt someone unzipping my sweater I figured it was her trying to get her camera, but then I thought of how she wouldn't just take it but rather ask me for it (like she had been doing) so I look back and Dita is a person behind me. I look next to me and see a woman staring at me, and her hand out by my side and I instinctively slapped her hand. She looked at me out with this surprising face and when Dita asked me what happened I told her that the woman was trying to steal her camera from my sweater. She took my hand and we speed walked away. Well after that we saw more of the parade and then went back to my house and decided to watch a movie and take a nap before heading out to go see this concert in Quitumbre with my other friend Melba. Quitumbre is REALLLLLYYY South of Quito and we wanted to save on a taxi so we went on the MetroBus which took us about 45 minutes to get there, but this is where the concerts were being put on for the Fiestas de Quito. The concert went on for 3 full days, but we were going to see one band...Calle 13!! I didn't really take my camera out of fear of having it stolen. Calle 13 is a very popular group and in case you haven't heard of them here is one of the songs we hear when we were there:
After the concert we were going to take a taxi back home, but the roads were being swarmed by people and so we decided to get on the TroleBus. Once we finally got on it we were in a fully packed bus but everyone was happy and yelling VIVA QUITO! I decided to rest my head on Melba, I was pretty tired and it was sometime after midnight. Then all of a sudden I hear "cumpleanos feliz, te deseamos a ti..." and I look up and the whole trolley is singing Happy Birthday and looking at me...it was INCREDIBLE!!!! I was pretty embarrassed but mostly surprised and well what else can I say, it was a prefect way to being a very memorable 21st birthday. THANKS MELBA AND DITA FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!!!
December 5th:
When I woke up Hannah called me up and invited me to go see the bull fight, las corridas de torros, with her and her host sister. I had been debating whether to go or not, but they didn't have tickets and were going to go not knowing if they would find tickets so I decided to tag along and if it was meant to be we would get tickets, if not ...well then oh well. There were a lot of tickets being sold by scalpers but Hannah's host sister said they were waaayy to high, so we kept on looking until we found a good deal. We bought snacks and then went in. I didn't take a camera because I thought it was going to be waay too brutal for me to take pictures of, however there was a lot more to the corridas de torros than I thought. I learned about the clothing, the different sort of tarps, spears, and about the different stages that the bull fighter goes through before they start the final stage.
Following pictures were taken by Jacob Morden:
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| This was the arena, which is really close to the airport so there were many times during the bull fights when we would have a plane right above the arena, it was surreal. This is a picture of the bull fighters coming into the arena for the first time. |
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| This pink tarp is used in the beginnig to sorta move the bull around and get a feel for him. |
There were six bulls but I decided after watching three that I had seen enough. There were mistakes made by the bull fighters in two of the three that I saw, which meant that the bull didn't die like it was suppose it and instead was moving about in pain until the bull fighter got it right. I had also promised to have lunch with my best friend, Sarvie so off I was. Lunch was great, and the free gelato that I got for telling the waiter it was my cumpleanos was delicious.
I then went home and then got ready for a night out in the fosh to celebrate my birthday. We first went out to dinner where I invited the K crew and some of my new friends I've made here in Quito. It was very delicious and I even got a birthday (slice) cake. My host bro stopped by with flowers which were really pretty and we talked for a hot second before he went to a club with his friends. We went to this bar called Chupitos and had a couple drinks before hitting up a club. Overall, I had a very excited and memorable birthday, surrounded by new and old friends and lots of dancing. While at the club there were a couple shout-outs made to me, which was really cool, and what can I say...I had fun!
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| Oh yeaa birthday cake!! |
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| Mis nuevas amigas! |
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| My b-day cake that my host mom made...a week later lol ahhh gotta love Ecuadorians. However, I say better late than never ;) |
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