crazy carnaval

as beth and i returned from quito on the last day of carnaval, we thought we had escaped the dreaded egg-smashing, flour tossing, water drenching carnaval activities. i mean, hey, we had the carnaval-free streets mapped out to a T. we were carnaval-avoider experts! so, that night, we went to a local hamburger joint with lindy and were happily enjoying our hamburguesas and watching some crazy guys drenching people with water and flour on the nearby corner. we noticed a guy we knew and were telling him not to get us because we were eating. we thought food would keep us clean, but we were badly mistaken. the guy returned with handful of flour and put them in our hair. it was on. so, we all decided to get him back. we went to the local store to buy some eggs to smash on him. however, he was on a bike..so it was more difficult. as we were walking back to our houses to load up on eggs, flour, and shaving cream, i saw him with 2 eggs....and the next thing i knew they were smashed in my hair. notice the picture below.
so...it was on. once you are dirty, you are in...because now it doesent matter how many eggs get smashed on you. i loaded my purse with 6 eggs, a whole bag of flour, and a bottle of shaving cream. beth and lindy were loaded with flour and eggs as well. we walked and searched the streets for marlone (the flour sprinkling, egg smashing guy) but we didnt find him! but now, we were loaded and we werent going home until we got someone. so we roamed the dark streets looking for our victim :) we didnt find anyone yet...until we saw some young boys with huge buckets filled with water...but since i was loaded i wanted to get them...so i faced them with my flour and eggs....and they drenched me with 2 buckets of water...and my egg that i threw against one of their backs did not break. (egg smashing tip: you have to do it against their head for it to break) so...we were still on a mission! we met up with rachel and ivan..who both did not want to get destroyed by our ammunition. but now ivan could help us...since he is friends with the guys we wanted to get. we went to marlone's house and hid on the side of his house. ivan called him out to "talk" while we were waiting with eggs, flour, and cream. the plan worked! we ran out and i held him down while we COVERED him with eggs smashed in his hair, flour all over his clothes and head...topped off with some shaving cream. the best part of this sabatoge was that he had JUST TAKEN A SHOWER!!! so he was all clean...not anymore!! thats what you get when you mess with gringas :)

now, we had to get Pato...our other friend who is always joking around with us and goes to our wed. night bible study. so we went back to our house to load up and ivan called pato to ask him to come over and watch a movie and eat some desserts. he said he needed to take a shower and he would be over in 15 minutes. perfect! enough time for us to devise a plan. we decided that rachel would meet him at the gate, like she normally would...and we would hide along the sidewalk behind the trees. when he walked up, we would attack. i would hold him down and we would get him really good. so...we waited and waited. ivan was kinda nervous because he was tricking ivan for us :)

he finally arrived...and now was our chance. we jumped out...it was perfect. he had just showered and gotten all cleaned up....but he was a good sport about the whole thing. he said we did the best job at getting him (which is all i cared about ...if we were going to do it...we had to be the best :))
we got the other guy better, but we still got pato pretty good. beth has some action shots i can add later...but these pictures still give you a good effect. enjoy!