Hopped on a quick bus ride back south to check out the famous Mama Negra festival in a somewhat sad looking town. Despite our initial fears, the festival turned out to be a great party! Perched on the pavement with hardly any other gringos in sight, we watched one of the strangest parades we have ever seen!

Highlights included men dressed as women brandishing whips who attacked the crowd, men carrying huge pig carcasses on their backs with bottles of booze and bags of bread hanging off it which made it so heavy they were staggering along the street and needed little stools to rest on, and men on horseback posing as the Black Madonna clutching black dolls!

Tim got targeted a few times by the people in stripey masks who waved antlers all up and down his body as they danced round him before spitting a fine spray of alcohol down his back.....this is some kind of blessing, apparently!

But the best thing about the parade, apart from the dancing and music, was the great custom of feeding the crowd shots of creamy juice and sups of some kind of alcoholic juice as they marched along!

So had a fab couple of days and managed to meet up with two mates from Riobamba for some beer and parade watching and a celebratory slap up dinner at Pollo Jimmy's before heading back to town.....