“Guapolo: A Mixed Celebration”

This past Saturday night, I joined a few friends and went to a local indigenous festival mixed with Catholic tradition. Held in the bottom of a valley a few minutes from my house, Guapolo is one of the ferias I have heard so much about—a feria is a local indigenous celebrations mixed with Catholic celebrations. Guapolo was a festival honoring the Virgin Mary.

We took a taxi as far as we could before being let out a ways before the festival. Walking down the hill into the valley, we could hear music playing from a live band and could see hundreds of people dancing and milling.

Arriving to the bottom of the valley, there were hundreds of people congregated right outside a beautifully lit white church and a stage up front. A live band was playing Ecuadorian music and people were watching, dancing, and drinking. There were people dressed in costumes, varying from clown suits (complete with papier-mâché masks), people dressed in animal type costumes (a full fur suit—like big foot), and other type of costumes.

To the left of our entrance, right next to the church, was a bonfire that was being attended to by little kids about 7-12 years of age. A pile of eucalyptus tree branches had been made and kids were throwing the branches onto the nearby fire. As we made our way to the bonfire through the throng of people, fireworks began to go off near the stage. The types of fireworks that produce golden sparks and spin around were being thrown around the crowd!

After making it safely away from the fireworks and to the bonfire, we watched as a large structure made out of wood (it looked a bit like 4 ladders put into square form) came out into the middle of the audience. A picture of the Virgin Mary was on each side and from the structure began to spew fireworks again, showering all nearby audience members with sparks!! People were cheering and dancing around the fireworks and they continued to go off for a couple minutes.

After awhile of watching the festivities, we made our way back up the mountain, stopping shortly in a bar that had live music. Although we left around 12am from the festival, I understand most people stayed, partying early into the hours of the morning (7am)!