This past weekend we had our second set of visitors (we are falling behind in our posts and will be posting as much as possible in the next week) of the holiday season, Lauren and Ethan. We felt that we should show them both a good time and a little bit of Ecuador at the same time. Since they came during Fiestas de Quito we thought to do something traditional. We quickly thought what is more traditional and more fitting for Lauren then a Chiva. Now for those of you who don’t know what a chiva is, it is a bus with seats and space for a band to play on the roof. The band that plays on top is a banda de pueblo. A banda de pueblo is a traditional band but for a chiva it has to be condensed because of space, it consists of a saxophone, trumpet, cymbals, drum, and a clarinet. They play traditional music as we drive around town drinking Canelazo, yelling, blowing whistles and bobbing up and down/dancing. So we set up the Chiva for the night Lauren and Ethan got here, knowing that we didn’t have much time with them and that nothing cures altitude sickness like drinking and staying up late at night.

Ethan and Lauren in front of a Chiva, which we thought was ours at first but turned out to be someone elses Chiva.

Me with Jeff’s (a coworker) grandma who was visiting.