Livin It Large In Ecuador: La Festival Mama Negra

This weekend, I traveled to Latacunga for La Festival Mama Negra. Latacunga is a small town about 2 hours south of Quito, located very close to the volcano Cotopaxi. The Mama Negra (Black Mother) festival is held each year by the indigenous people. They praise the "black mother" for protecting their city, especially from the volcano Cotopaxi, one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes. The festival and parade were nothing like anything I've ever seen before. As you would expect, there were bands playing music and many people dressed in traditional Ecuadorian clothes dancing throughout the streets. However, included in these dancers were men dressed as women. It was pretty hysterical. There were also men dressed in all white with sticks who traveled throughout the crowd "purifying" people. They would dance around you, hit you with the sticks, and chant things like "Long Live Latacunga" while another man would spit alcohol on you. Being a gringa, I definitely stuck out in the crowd and was chosen multiple times. In the eyes of "La Mama Negra", I am now as pure as can be. Like parades in the US, dancers and others walked the streets handing out candies, pins, and other small things. However, unlike the US, these people also walked around with flasks and bottles of who-knows-what type of alcohol, attempting to force shots on everyone in the crowd. You just had to keep your mouth closed and run in the opposite direction whenever you saw someone coming with a bottle.

On Saturday, after the parade ended, we left Latacunga to go to Cotopaxi. We spent the night in a beautiful hostel in the country side - after leaving the main road, we drove for about 1.5 hours on a dirt road before we got to the hostel. It was definitely worth the drive as it was absolutely gorgeous. The sunset, the mountains, the garden - everything was wonderful! On Sunday, we rented horses and went for a 3 hour ride up into the mountains. I had a wonderful time - just now I have a very sore back and legs. Upon returning to the hostel after the horse ride, we were able to relax in the jacuzzi and read by the fire. It was some much needed relaxation before returning to Quito to start another busy week of volunteering.