Que Viva Quito!

I wrote this monday but had trouble loading it......

Fiestas de Quito

This weekend there were many festivities going on in Quito. It's the the celebration of when Quito (where we live, and the capital of Ecuador) was founded.

We were able to have a bit of fun with this because the Spanish department of our school put together some traditionals activities for the kids to enjoy.

This first was a Chiva ride. A Chiva bus is essentially a party bus. Traditionally, they would have live bands that sat on the top and then people would crowd in on both the top and bottom and dance the night away driving around town. Today they still have traditional Chivas, but the modern ones are adorned with discos lights, huge speakers, and a DJ! Each grade, from middle school to high school, had their ride in a Chiva. Clinton and I rode with the 9th graders who had their share of shaking the bus from all the dancing!

They were handed whistles as they got on the bus, the dj yelled “viva Quito” and everyone yelled back “viva”

this isn't the video I wanted to show...for some reason the other one wouldn't load. But this still gives a brief view of the music on the bus

After driving around town, we got back to school and watched a short program that presented the origins of the holiday and traditions.

It's so fun to be a part of such culture! We also had today off from school for this holiday, so we were able to get a little relaxation in as well.

Ceiling of the Chiva