Viva Ambato.

The doors to Juan Montalvo's house.

We woke up on Saturday morning and realized that we didn't have any plans, so we hopped on a bus and landed in Ambato. We spent the first two days of Carnival in Ambato. It is a city that is just a bit bigger, and it is an hour North of Riobamba. Ambato holds the biggest Carnival in Ecuador. Although the rest of South America turns into the devil's playground, Ecuadorians are genius and just throw stuff at each other. In Ambato they specialize in spraying shaving cream at one another. They have no mercy; 90 year old woman = shaving cream in the face, homeless man on the street = shaving cream, happen to be sitting in your car with the window down = you are now sitting in a pile of foam, and so forth. Of course everyone in the entire city thought it was so hilarious to spray Oliver and me with shaving cream {we were the only white people participating}, so eventually we had to fight back. Soon we were walking up and down the streets spraying every possible person. I think that the highlight of the night was at one point when this lady popped out of nowhere and got Oliver's entire face and neck, luckily I was ready and managed to get her entire body. We also proceeded to get the interior of 4 cars, and any child under the age of 9.

Despite the fact that much of Carnival seems to revolve solely around throwing shaving cream at one another, we also went to parades, ate the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my entire life {Switzerland and Italy ain't got nuttin' on Ecuador - but Oliver says you can't compare Apples to Oranges}, went to museums {one involving stuffed freak animals - i.e. 8 legged cow, two headed dog, a bull with 5 horns}, visited beautiful parks, strolled through art galleries, shopped, looked at all of the decorations made of fruit and flowers strung across the city, and ate more ice cream.

The people in Ambato know how to do everything in life, except sleep. At night the streets turn into dance parties and everyone starts screaming "Viva Ambato" and it lasts literally ALL NIGHT LONG. Although all the buildings in Ecuador are made of concrete, the windows do little to deter noise; therefore between the noise and the shaving cream fights, little sleep was obtained this weekend.

Carnival also marks the one time each year that the people of Ecuador are on time to something {think I am being cruel? move to South America...untimeliness is just part of their culture}. Everyone in the entire city is on time to the parade, and not just on time...3 hours early. This picture was taken from our hotel window at 6am, look how many people there are.

I did not take many pictures of Ambato, because I did not want my camera to get blasted with shaving cream. But maybe we will go back at a safer time. The city is a lot nicer and has more to offer than Riobamba.

After getting back from Ambato, we sought refuge in our apartment. In Riobamba the citizens enjoy smearing shoe polish on one another. I can handle shaving cream, but shoe polish on my face is just out of the picture.