Saturday, slow start

We have been anxiously awaiting Carnivale, and it's been a rather slow start. Last week was the final push, the fishermen getting the restaurant ready, and ive been getting my crafts done. Mike helped the fishermen, and we all made quick work on a beach clean up, we had the place looking great.

I decided Saturday morning after the egg man came, that I should go do some shopping in case the stores sold out. I didn't plan on doing much cooking for the next couple days, but better to be prepared. As I was coming home from town, I saw two large buses filled with people dropping off. These people were loaded down! Some are here for family beach houses, some may decide later if they want to spend the night and see if there are any hostel rooms available, and others may be vendors coming to set up. Our little cove got quite busy, but I'm sure the bulk of people were down in the next cove where the shade structures and hammocks for rent are located. The morning wore on, and low tide gave the beach goers a nice beach day. 

We expected the restaurant to open Saturday, but they never did, that was ok, We had a pool party to go to. Our friends recently bought and completely renovated a cluster of guest cottages, (I'll do a whole post on that another day) and we were invited to join for pool and refreshments. 

One of the things that happens during Carnivale is foam and water fights, this mostly is a big city thing, because here on the coast buying foam to spray on strangers is frivolous. But some people "from away" buy it, and of course the gringos! Mike joined in, in what we were calling "Canadians gone wild" but there were many nationalities involved.

No one was safe! But as the "foamers" pointed out, some of these vehicles turned around and came back thru, so they must have been having fun too.

Good clean fun on the coast of Ecuador!!

A vacation these guys won't soon forget...good times!

We stayed til almost dusk, then walked home to see what was going on in town. Had a quick hamburger from a street vendor and wandered over to where the stage was being set up...or was it being torn down?! It was being torn down, the police were saying they didn't have a permit and couldn't set up, what the heck?! We didn't care, since we'd been in the pool all afternoon, we were calling it a night. 

We never heard any noise, so they must not have gotten the permit thing worked out, too bad. The next morning on Facebook, there were stories of restaurants being hassled and complaints that the ministry of tourism (or whoever) was discriminating against our little town...don't know the whole story, but I know Carnivale has been much smaller this year, BUT!

Stay tuned, the adventure continues!