Fiestas del Centro & Fiestas del Quito

I know it's only December but I think this was just my favorite weekend here yet! Every year the city of Quito shuts down on the 6th to celebrate its founding and there are parties the whole week leading up to it. Also, the school celebrates its founding on the 5th with a HUGE all day long party! I'll put up pictures soon of all the fun things that went on but for now I'll just tell you...

Saturday- In the morning a bunch of the other volunteers and I went to a BULL FIGHT! It was mostly gross and sad but it was a great cultural experience and I'm really glad that I went! They only have bull fights five days a year during these fiestas so it is a very upper class thing to do and the people there reminded me of the Kentucky Derby almost. They all had the same type of hats and all the ladies were wearing high heels...we were very under dressed!
In the afternoon, we went to the Center #1 in La Marin to decorate it for the fiesta on Monday. David and I had made paper chains all week in art class so we were able to cover the entire ceiling in the dining hall and the downstairs gathering area. It looked so so nice and it was fun to help put it together!
That night we saw a free concert in Parque Carolina from this cool singer La Mala Rodriguez as part of the cities free celebrations. All the volunteers went out so it was really fun!

Sunday- I climbed a VOLCANO!! Me, Kristin, Julie, Juliana, and Andy took the TeleferiQ which is a cool gondola ride part way up a mountain. From there we hiked about 3 more hours up to the summit of Volcan Pinchincha which is over 15,000 ft high!!! There were some surprisingly difficult parts where we had to scramble up looser rocks than I have ever climbed in the past. We met up with a group of expatriates who were hiking that day also and they kind of help us as guides which was so nice and I don't know if we could have done it without them. It started raining as we went down which was a little scary on the rocks but it stopped after a short time. Then my favorite part was  when we came to a sand field (maybe volcanic ash or erosion or something...I'm not sure why it was at the top of a mountain but) and we slid/skied down it instead of hiking the same rocky path! It cut off a bunch of time and was super super fun! Needless to say that tired us all out and we went to bed early to prepare for...

Monday- A.K.A. the Center's birthday! The day started with all the volunteers preparing a pancake breakfast for all the families from both centers. I was busy chopping up fruit for the salad and then I was on dishwasher duty for the next two hours. It was great beacuase pancakes aren't a common Ecuadorian food so the families really enjoy it. Also I made a friend while washing dishes and she invited me to her house for lunch one day which I am very excited about!
Then from 8:30 am to 11:30 am the whole school had a carnival where the kids and adults could win tickets and get prizes! Us volunteers made an obstacle course, relay races, water balloon toss, and most importantly a dunk tank! Everyone had to take a turn getting soaked and it took four boys to lift the garbage can of water that they dumped on me (:
Next we had a special mass to celebrate Padre Juan and Padre Roberto's 50 years of priesthood. It was amazing because both schools were combined we filled up the entire Church area and adjacent cafeteria!
In the afternoon we all took the bus down to the La Marin school where there was a nice dinner followed by either bingo, a movie, or a DANCE (: I had so so much fun dancing with all the little kids and my adults from adult ed. It was an amazing day!
To top it all off we rented a Chiva (aka party bus) that night to celebrate the fiestas del centro y de quito. While I didn't imbibe at all because I had a skype interview this morning, I certainly did enjoy dancing! My friend Joanie and I especially enjoyed trying to get the people on the sidewalks that we would pass to copy our stellar dance moves (:

Tuesday- I plan on not leaving the house to rest up after this amazing weekend!  haha

!Viva Quito!