Cuenca "Kids" Parade

On December 24th, the whole city of Cuenca and outskirts comes together for this awesome parade. It's called Pasa del Nino and it's basically to celebrate Jesus's birth. The parade lasts 8 hours, but needless to say, we definitely didn't stay that long. After a while, all the angels/3 kings/Mary and Josephs/flamenco dancers/bullfighters/sultans/Santas started to look alike. And yes, of course there were flamenco dancers, bull fighters/toreros, and Santas at the birth of Jesus. The Ecuadorians wouldn't just make that sort of thing up.

Practicing her flamenco/beauty queen wave

I'm not sure if he was unhappy to be wearing this costume
or didn't want his picture taken wearing this costume.

Proper Spanish lady

His dad had the remote for this car and was walking in front.

Sleigh full of Santas and a dead chicken.

A close-up of the bejeweled dead chicken

A boy and his chicken

If she was alone, I probably would have brought her back to Quito with us -
she was just too cute!

My favorite costume - this puppy dressed up as a little indigenous girl
complete with skirt, blouse, AND hat. I hope he got some treats out of this arrangement.

You know how in the US, parades usually have rope lines that you should stay behind. Well, this parade wasn't really like that. The ropes were mere suggestions and often were just held in place by the people walking by. There were several parts of the parade when there were no ropes and we decided that must have been the secret Ecuadorian signal to let chaos reign. Anyone and their mother joined the parade at that point.

Decorated horse

Action shot: indigenous women dancing.
The ikat shawls they are wearing are common in the region
and made in the towns nearby.

Stroller decorations - I'm guessing their baby "Jesus" was sleeping inside.

There were lots of cute kids in costumes and some were even riding horses or donkeys. The animals were decorated with fabric, candies and/or fruit (even some with pineapples hanging off of their saddles!). We saw a few horses that looked like they were ready to kick off the pineapples and papayas that were swinging against their underbellies. With all the chaos during the parade and pineapples swinging around, I figured someone was going to get a kick from a horse, but it never happened.... at least not in the stretch we were in.

Colorful women

Traditional costumes for the guys

More color!