Oh yeah and also at the carnival was THIS THING. You're just seeing the first car. It had maybe ten links, like a big worm, or gusanito as they called it. It is every BIT as weird as it looks. After having our fill of nausea on the rides we hopped aboard the second car and then rode around the town for about a half hour on a surreal journey listening to the sounds of Spanish techno (Like the New Pornographers song I suppose) and every so often, the driver would honkl the horn which played the first part of "La Cucaracha." Over and over and over. And over. And over. Man it was sweet.

Last night, July 1, was the start of the myriad festivities here in my site. Accompanying this was a parade (cars and trucks with balloons tied to them honking their horns) and a biiiiig ho-down at the city stadium, where they had that Gran Bingo Millonario (which was to raise money for this party I think). The ho-down consisted of some rides, inflatable slides for the kiddies, a stage with a number of live musical acts, and lots of big BOOMS like the one pictures above. That was from my roof at a little after eleven pm.

And then this one was a bit after that.

Once the pyrotechnicians seemed to have run out of ammo I wandered down to the stadium to see what I was missing out on. A HUUUUUGE Ecuadorian band was playing, and like EVERYONE knew the words and was dancing and crying and having a blast. You know this band, they rock. They're the ones that sing that song, umm, how does it go? Oh yeah... Do Do Do, Do Do Duh-Do, Do Do Do. That's the one. I'm sure you know it. Next time I'll try to get some autographs for everyone back home okay?