The Founding Of Quito Festival

Chiva Bus At The Middle Of The World

One thing you have to understand when you arrive in Quito is the altitude. High up in the Andes Mountains, Quito is about 2850m above sea level. If you fly in here from the level of the sea (0m) then for your first few days you really feel it. It´s different for everyone. It makes generally no difference of your age, physical health, if your a smoker or not, each person reacts differently to having less oxygen flowing through their body. I didn´t suffer too badly. I had a headache for a day and getting up stairs was hard work, but the effects soon go. When we took the cable car up Pinchincha Volcano, it drops you off at 4600m. Here you feel the effects even more as the higher you go the less oxgen there is. Some people really struggled at this height, but again I didn´t feel the effects too strongly. However, it´s when you do any form of physical activity or exercise that you really feel the strain. I found this out during the Founding Of Quito Festival.

In late November Quito celebrates its biggest party of the year. The annual event of the founding of the city by the Spanish is actually on the 6th December, however the festivities start much earlier. In late November, Quito chooses a Queen, and the evenings are dominated by colourful Chivas (open topped buses) which maneuver through the narrow streets of the town packed with dancing revelers. A few nights before the 6th, our hostel rented a Chiva bus for all the backpackers. The bus was brightly coloured, made mostly of wood and has an odd open-topped compartment. Here a hired band plays festive local music. The backpackers then get as drunk as possible (generally on this sweet, hot Ecuadorian drink called canelazo, which is made from cane alcohol and sugar or cinnamon) and then grip onto the bus at any spot available as the vehicle rides through the city. In an alcholic mess, you blow your whistle at locals and toursits alike, who equally blow their whistles back at you. Local Ecuadorians would also hire out their own band and Chiva buses and often you would end up on their bus in a drunken accident, but party just as hard nevertheless. At one point a few of us got onto the top of the bus where the band was playing. It didn´t occur to me why they were all seated but I soon found out. Chiva buses are quite tall and around the streets of Quito, the power cables hang quite low. It therefore occured that during the night, whilst speeding around on this open-topped bus and dancing, standing up on the top - I did manage to get completely taken out by one of these cables. I hit the deck quicker than an over-dramatic footballer and stumbled up with a very bruised ear. The party continued through the night.

Throughout the festive season, bull-fights are also held regularly. The Spanish tradition of teasing a bull around a ring before slaughtering it in front of a crowd of people has never really appealed to me. Some people who went to the event said either that they really enjoyed it and it was a great experience, or they literally had to leave after 15 minutes because of the horror of the whole thing. I think one day I will attend a real bull-fight and probably here in Quito, but not this time round. Actually a huge group of us did go to a bullfight, but it was a kids show. They do exactly the same thing as the real event except they don´t kill the bulls. In fact we didn´t know this at the time. The only reason we went was because the matadors were in fact midgets and we all thought it would be an interesting experience. How many times in your life can you say - "see ya, im off to see a bullfight with midgets".

It was held in a packed stadium at the Plaza de Toro. The problem with being a midget and a matador is that you can´t run very fast or in large enough circles. As such, they were pretty useless and I got many a photo with a bull´s horn piercing a midgets rear end. They then got about 14 midgets out on the arena, but some goals out and started playing a football match. Then, after 5 minutes of this weird midget football game, yes youv´e guessed it - they unleashed a bull, who proceeded to chase them all around the pitch while they played. I can quite positively say that I have never seen any thing like it before and will unlikely see anything like it again. The whole thing was just bizarre.

Momentum of the festival builds towards the 6th December, with huge parties in the street and live music from local bands and DJ´s playing in many of the cities big outdoor plazas. The whole experience was immense.

At work the parties were out in full swing too. We had a huge meal and played football on the University pitch. All 50 of us, men and women, played in a fun but very unserious game. The University also held a football 5-A-Side tournament. Each department has a team and battles it out for the trophy of University Football Champions. The tournament had actually been going for a few weeks, with the final being played just before the founding of Quito day. When I got asked to play, the Instituto Geofisico had already made it to the semi finals. I played in that game, setting up to goals and helping to take our team to the final. It was here that I really noticed the altitude. If you live at low altitude with lungs like mine, then your red blood cells haven´t built up enough to get the lowered levels of oxygen around your body, at least they haven´t built up enough within a few weeks. I guess after living here for a year I will come back home running marathons, but at this moment in time, playing in the 5-A-Side football tournament final was hard work.

The game was none like I had ever played before. It´s on a concrete pitch, with a ball made of some sort of volcanic rock. It was small, hard and didn´t bounce. Around the edge was about 150 people watching. There was also a band playing music on the side during the game and about 3m from the pitch, spectators were setting off fireworks. I then had to play in this final, in the intense equatorial heat and no oxygen in my lungs. I did manage to score the first goal, a sweet inside of the foot shot into the top corner that would have made Steele Senior proud. I´v never played ina game with so many spectators, nor fireworks going off around me but it was fun. It was shortly after I put my team 1-0 up, that I started to feel dizzy, nearly fainted and then substituted myself off. I can´t explain the feeling. It´s not like getting tired at home - its like your breathing intensely and nothings going in - a very odd feeling. I did manage to get back on the field again but our team lost the final 5-2 in the end. A good effort though.

And with that my first Founding of Quito Day festivities were over. I had riden around Quito on an opened top bus, partying till the early hours and getting taken out by a power cable. Id seen a bullfight with midgets and played in a football final, with fireworks and bands on the touchline, scoring one goal before almost passing out. It was fun. I thought about it after - I can´t think of any festival in england or anywhere in the world for that matter - where probably any one of those things could be experienced. I´ll remember it for a while, I´m sure of that.

With the weekend approaching, a few of us decided to make a day trip north of Quito. It would take us to the site that this country is actually named after.............The Equator.