We spent today exploring Ambato, seeing the city prepare for the big parades of the next two days.  We started up by having a taxi take us to “that big Ecuador flag up on the hill.”  We discovered that it is the “parque de la familia” and is an educational park intended to attract family, particularly those with kids. Along with the huge flag on the very top of the hill, and the sweeping panorama of Ambato below, the park is broken into two portions — the ‘active’ and the ‘passive.’  Being more mature and a bit tired, we ended up only visiting the passive side… 🙂  The active side apparently (from the park map) includes a motocross track, as well as other sports activity areas.  The passive side included acres of orchards where visitors were invited to pick their own fruit (of dozens of varieties), plus numerous garden plots with different vegetables, and then a petting zoo with a dozen species of animals for the children to learn about.  All in all, it seemed an excellent use of city land for educating city kids about farms and animals they would otherwise not have a chance to see.

We then returned to the city square area, Parque Montalvo, which was alive with activity.  The poor shoe shiner (shown above left) didn’t have much business, as most people were dressed in casual party clothes. We were particularly impressed by the large number of on-the-spot portrait artists, both realistic and impressionist around the park, and the quality of their 5 minute sketches.

Before long the main square filled up with dancers and actors in exotic costumes.  The next day we discovered these were all people and costumes for the parades on Sunday and Monday.  Each group performed their country’s traditional dances as well as posed for the cameras. And, the winning and runner up regional queens also welcomed the crowds.

The main square (Parque Mantalvo) had several art galleries around it.  To be honest, I am a bit hard to please when viewing paintings, and think much of the “modern art” is nothing but a con pulled on museums with too much money.  That was not the case here though.  We saw gallery after gallery of excellent art.  I don’t want all of it on my wall at home, but I have to admit that there is talent in the painting, and each artist did an excellent version of what they were attempting.  As Evelyn will be the first to say, I don’t give praise like that often…

The main square was also surrounded by street artists showing their wares.  Again, I was massively impressed with the work shown there.  In most street art shows, I find one or two good artists and a lot of artists who are still learning and may (or may not) be good someday.  Not here.  Though it was not a judged show, every single piece I saw was fantastic in execution.  I tried to buy a couple of pieces, but the vendor would not budge on price and that took a lot of the fun out of the purchase, so I only came home with photographs… 🙂