Every year Vilcabamba celebrates the anniversary of its creation. It has nothing to do with the Independence of Ecuador like we thought last year. This is the schedule of events for this week.
We missed the election of Miss Vilcabamba and the rooster fight. Darn.
The school "13 de Abril" is transformed into a fair.
This is Angelina's classroom.
An this is Louis's!
The stage is getting set up for the band from Quito, K-TLEYA, the number one band in Ecuador.
They played merengue and other upbeat South American music. Nice.
This was an enjoyable show. The sound was good too.
On Sunday morning, they held a mass celebrating the 152 years of existence of Vilcabamba. Our friend Maria spoke at the microphone.
Angelina is part of the choir of Vilcabamba. They sang many songs that morning. We will add movies of the choir in our YOUTUBE account (type "christelleday" with the quotation marks in youtube.com) at the end of June.
You do not have to wear conservative clothing in the church like it is usually the case in Latin America. Spaghetti tops and short skirts allowed. Here Miss Vilcabamba is delivering flowers.
The arts and crafts fair was all around the plaza.
This lady was selling roasted "cuy", or Guinea pig, a treat here in Ecuador.
This is peach liquor.
"American sugar"
We ate some of this good goat stew (seco de chivo), a traditional Ecuadorian dish.
It comes with white rice, steamed yucca root and salad. Very yummy.
Angelina's choir teacher ended up sitting accross from us with his family. We had a great time visiting with them!
We came accross our neighbours Vice, Gisella and their son Carlos.
A local band played some Ecuadorian music for the dancers.
We will add a movie of this dance in youtube.
Empanadas, or cheese pockets.
Chocolate-dipped fruit.
We met Rosa and her daughter Michele. We like them a lot, like other Vilcabambans. Very nice people.
The elders got to have some fun too!
There were 4 soccer games in the afternoon: kids, women and men.
By the way, the soccer team of Guayaquil, Ecuador, is called "Barcelona".
People came from all over for this fiesta.
The next day was the drum and majorette rehearsal for the school. Louis is in the last row, wearing a red tee-shirt. The rehearsal was intense.
Louis insisted that he wanted to be a "tambor" for the march.
Angelina, on the right of this picture, insisted to be a "bastonera" or majorette.
Louis is in the back row. He enjoyed all of it this year at school.
Louis had this costume tailor-made but he did not know he needed a hat also! He wants to keep this outfit to remember this special day.
Angelina and her two friends from the choir. Very nice girls.
Each class of the school "13 de Abril" marched in order. Here is Pepe, Louis's classmate and friend. Pepe is the son of Maria, the storekeeper.
Angelina is the third on the right. She took the march seriously.
The boy on the right is Miguel, another classmate of Louis's. Miguel is a bright student, Together with Pepe, they are a fun trio and the only three boys in the class. They do homework together then they go play almost every day.
This is Jeferson.
Here is Pepe again, at the front.
The Saraguro girls of the school marched wearing their traditional uniform. The one on the left is Angie. She holds her mum's store when she is not around. She can count.
Here are Louis's girl classmates. 12 girls and 3 boys, hard on the boys indeed.
On the left is Louis's teacher, Alemania. She grew up in Vilcabamba, went to the school 13 de Abril as a little girl and has been a teacher there her whole adult life. She is a very experienced teacher.
This is the competition, Juan Montalvo, the other elementary school in downtown Vilcabamba. They also have some high school students.
All the costumes for this day were tailor-made. The seamstresses have been working day and night until the very morning of the march.
This is the school La Calandria, an alternative school in Vilcabamba.
It looks like every "barrio" (neighbourhood) in Vilcabamba has its own school, even for just a few students. We do not know how many schools there are locally. We heard that the government has been putting a lot of effort into maintaining small schools so that all kids have an opportunity to attend, even in remote areas. The school in San Torum, about 10 miles fom Vilcabamba, has only 6 elementary students! They sure have their own "No child left behind" here in Ecuador. Every year school budgets increase and the level of education has been going up drastically over the last 3 years. Ecuador is catching up fast. Last year, the school 13 de Abril only had a few computers for computer lab. This year, the computer room is filled up with computers. Next year it sounds like they will have an appointed English teacher too.
Yamburara is a neighbourhood of Vilcabamba.
One high school from Loja came to advertise their school. They wan the first prize.
Their performance was perfect.
The band was also perfect.
This is the finish line. The whole town was attending. Everything else was at a standstill. Every year it is a big event here in Vilcabamba.
Things sounded and looked a little military at the end.
The Liceo de Loja.
La Calandria
13 de Abril.
Everything was well scheduled and organized.
On the right is Michele, our baby sitter until she got too busy to babysit anymore. She is preparing a hard test to get into the math and physics university in Loja. Things are getting tough here too. She has to go to class in Loja in addition to the high school here. She wants to become an engineer. Best of luck Michele!
It's over. It looks like all these young people enjoyed it.
Overall, this week of fiesta was lively and happy throughout the town.
We were not able to get pictures of all the organizations that marched.
This is Pepe and Louis.
