I spent Holy Week (well the weekend at least) in Quito in order to see the famous Good Friday procession. It was quite interesting. Men and women dress in purple robes, as jesus, and as roman soldiers and process though the streets of the historic center. Some men were walking with chains, some with crosses, some with wooden and beams, and some even had cactuses on there backs. It's very traditional to carry whips as well and hit themselves as they process. For these people, this pain is a form of punishment for their sins. They experience some of the pain that Jesus suffered as he was put to death. Many of the people don't wear shoes and I could tell that the heat from the black pavement was pretty painful.
I went with Molly's host family to the procession and they are very stereotypical Ecuadorians in the sense that we were late getting to the procession and then we slowly, very slowly, walked around to find a better view of the procession. It was an experience. We then had the typical semana santa soup. It contains almost every grain/hearty vegetable you can think of. For me, it's quite intense and I can rarely finish a bowl. We then walked through a park where I shot a gun at a wall and won some free candy! Molly wasn't as lucky. Then we headed back to our houses and somehow didn't end up paying for our bus!
I spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the last bit of my spring break!
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