Presidential Palace Changing of the Guard

Today, after I made the blog posting for yesterday's adventure, we walked two blocks to the Plaza Grande for the weekly Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Presidential Palace. Clarification before I go any further... Ecuador is a democracy, not a monarchy. They call their version of the White House a palace. Also, I'm sure the guards change shifts more than once a week. That's just how often they make a ceremony out of it. When we arrived, two guards in their fancy uniforms stood on the second floor balcony of the palace entrance, "guarding" the big doors. Buckingham Palace has no competition from these guys. This was a public entrance, so they were just for show, and they talked to each other, moved around, and only stood up straight for pictures. The guy on the right has his head tilted.

Then, shortly before 11 am, the real guards started showing up and taking positions along the balcony and in the tower part of the palace.

The band came out, thru the doors, across the balcony, and onto the plaza in front of the palace.

They even had mounted guards, near the fountain of the plaza.

The band played while the guards took all their positions, then it played the Ecuadorian national anthem, and the Ecuadorian flag was raised above the palace.

The 30+ (not counting the ones on horses) uniformed guards did their crossing ceremony where they passed each other walking in different direction on the main balcony.

Another tune from the band, and then they all marched out of sight (into the palace or, for the mounted guards, around the palace). We were impressed and glad to be there to see it. Before the ceremony began, a group of school chilren was escorted into the palace. They ended up a level above the guards, on an open balcony, to watch the event. We noticed that once the ceremony started, they were joined by a man in a suit and power tie. Maybe El Presidente? I'll check the internet when we get home for a current picture of Rafael Corerra and compare it to this one:

In addition to the pagentry of the ceremony, I was impressed by the following:

This was like our icy pops, but instead of water-based, it was yogurt-based. We didn't taste the yogurt, just the creaminess of this pineapple-coconut confection. Heaven in a 15 cent plastic sleeve.

After the palace ceremony, we walked about a mile to the Mariscal Sucre district, where we found the artisan market. More shopping, then a walk back. From our balcony, we watched the local shopkeepers, street vendors, and kids play their Carnaval games with foam and water. The ones with the spray foam cans only sprayed other people who looked like they were playing, not mothers with babies or old people. It was fun to watch them chase and foam or soak each other.

It was clearly a game, and in good fun, just like our foaming two days ago at Mitad del Mundo. Only one more day left for adventure in Ecuador!