Chivas!!!!

Last weekend we were officially exposed to one of the local party traditions. One of the teachers who has been here for a few years invited us and a "few" friends out for his birthday. He told us about something called a chiva that he rented out and we were all going to hang out on.

We ended up meeting at a friend's apartment in the bohemian district of Guapolo. It was a pretty low key hang out complete with fish tacos, a few drinks, and some music. At around 10:00pm, the guy whose birthday we were celebrating told us it was time to go up to get our chiva.

We had to walk a little ways up to a hotel parking lot. This happened to be the same hotel the school put us up in for our first few days in Ecuador so it was a nice little reunion and moment full of some confused and overwhelmed memories.

As we waited, more and more people joined. It was apparent that the guy we were celebrating was apparently really popular. We ended up with about 43 people. The chiva finally came, a bit late and we all piled on.

The best way to describe a chiva is that it is an open air party bus that consists of two hosts; one is a DJ and the other is handing out drinks. The whole bus is a mobile dance floor that is meant for about 25 people. Again, I repeat we had 43.

The chiva drove us all around the city from parks to cathedrals; all the while being...well, a dance party. Nothing even remotely close to this could have possibly been legal in the US.

It was a great time. The chiva dropped us back off at the hotel and we cabbed it home. It was definitely a unique experience to the area and something I won't soon forget, even if many won't remember it.