Fiestas

One of the first things I learned about Ecuadorian Culture (besides ecua-time) are these annual events that each community has called fiestas. They are usually held one month a year every year where everyone in their respective communities, plus it seems like every known relative, get together and have fun, ecuadorian style. For what reason? Supposedly it is religion (catholic) as one weekend my community celebrates the patron saint (Lorenzo, hence the name of the town), another is the virgen, another is something I can´t remember off the top of my head. All that I can tell is that their may be a lot of religious sentiment and some people do go to church and worship, I see a lot of booze, bullfights, and baile.
Now I haven´t been to fiestas in every town across Ecuador, but I have been to three or four, and as far as I can tell, the majority consist of these few items. If you don´t have them, it can´t be an Ecuadorian fiesta.
1. ¨Toros¨ - I am not sure why they´re called toros since the ecuadorians actually use young cows, but I guess toros sounds better than saying, lets go to the vacas. Usually there is a fenced in area, similar to a corral, and people stand around watch as people bullfight the cows. In San Lorenzo, they built a small stadium out of wood and charge people to see the toros, but hey, atleast you get a stadium seat. A lot of times people from the crowd hop it and give it a go, it is pretty fascinating to watch. Usually, it ends up being drunk people who run in the ring and try to get the cow´s attention, once successfully done, they run to the side of the ring and hop over before the cow rams them. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes it isn´t. The crowd gets into it when someone get tromped, as long as they are not too hurt. By the way, there are red cross people in the crowd as well. Being stomped and showing off your scars in alomost like a badge of honor. My local friends want me to give it a shot, we´ll see how it goes.
2. ¨Baile¨- or dance for all you gringos out there. Pretty self explanatory, as it starts around 10pm and goes to about 2 or 3 in the morning, when the music shuts off. Mix lots of beer and trago (a rum type liquor) plus a DJ on the stage plus ecuadorians and you get the drift. 80% of the men are drunk and even some of the women drink too, but not as much. What gets me in that the songs are mixed into sets, so during one song you can dance from 15 minutes to sometimes 45 straight minutes. It is no wonder that ecuadorians don´t move around a lot when they dance, you would get too tired and the buzz might actually wear off. Not to worry though, there are people that walk around and hand you bear or trago during the dance. We wouldn´t want to lose the drunkeness factor.
3. ¨Games and Fireworks¨- A small old ferris wheel was built in our plaza, foosball tables are here, endless vendors hocking food, trinkets, music, and DVDs are everywhere. At night before the baile, firecrackers and small fireworks are blown up. Firecrackers are a big deal in San Lorenzo, everyone loves them.
So there you have it, enjoy.