Sleepless in Quito/Quiet in Quito

Friday night was the beginning of Carnival which is a huge celebration for Latin American predominately Catholic countries. This is a four day weekend when everyone leaves Quito to go to the coast or other smaller towns. It reminds me of being one of the only people left in town during the Fourth of July while everyone else is at their cabins (we called them cottages in Wisconsin). The only thing going on in the city is people spraying each other with this foamy spray stuff (espuma de carnival) that smells like Bazooka bubble gum and leaves an oily film on your clothes and hair. Max and Jane wanted NO part of that. They actually had a wonderful esumpa battle with everyone covered from head to toe in foam and smelling like stale bubble gum.

So where does the sleepless part come in?? Friday night the fancy hotel across the street from us had a party with live music. They (like most residents of densely populated cities) make full use of their roof space and have a beautiful garden/terrace area; perfect for parties. Our buildings are 30 yards apart door to door so when we went to bed with our French door/windows facing the party, we felt like we were there with the band kicking off our Carnival holiday except we were in our pajamas. There is also a sad dog that lives next to the party hotel and barks continuously. The poor animal has about a 4x4 area to live in and I have never seen it walked so of course it barks all night. There is also the continuous traffic down our little street. I cannot figure out where all the cars without mufflers, diesel fueled buses with air brakes, motorcycles, and other motorized vehicles are going in the wee hours. Mostly around our apartment in the historic district there are churches everywhere and small restaurants and shops along the cobble stone streets. Sooo I guess everyone is going to church? Because our beautiful French doors of our bedroom face the street we also have the privilege of feeling like there are cars next to our heads. The last cause on occasional sleeplessness is the kids are now sharing a bedroom which they have never done. Needless to say they sometimes have trouble settling down and going to sleep. They think it is like a slumber party; I have dubbed it the lunatic asylum (no offense to anyone connected to mental health issues). Every other night we have an hour long process of threats, consequences blah, blah, blah during the lunatic asylum until either the kids or the parents succumb to exhaustion. On Friday all four of these factors kicked in: party and barking dog across the street, lunatic asylum and loud motorized vehicles which led to a maniacally good laugh.

Wonderings: Was my brother able to purchase a snow shovel in snow-socked D.C., or is he still shoveling his walk with a hockey stick? Has the Birkebeiner happened and how did people do? What did people do over President’s Day weekend? Book Across the Bay? How are we doing in the Winter Olympics? (Ecuador has no participants so there is not much coverage here). Did we get any snow days out of all the snow I keep hearing about?