Update!

Well, I feel like a broken record. Not a broken record of myself, but rather of Andrea from most of the blog posts of the past two years, where she'd begin her writings with an apology for not writing more often, citing both the complexities of working and living down here as well as the hassle of finding reliable interweb. I wish I could put a new twist on it – say I haven't been in very good contact because a rampaging Howler monkey broke all of my fingers or something of the sort – but I haven't had many reasons for my lack of transmissions that haven't already been touched on by the Queen of Tabuga herself. Tabuga sucks one in (in a good way), and as a place that is a half-hour busride from both internet and phone service is one of the worst places still on a main highway from which to blog.

To further complicate blogging matters beyond simple busyness and connectivity issues, I/we have been busy with visitors and excellent travels. Andrea's brother Alex (talk about complications, let's start with names) and their family friend Katie flew into Ecuador back on the.... I have no idea when they flew in, actually. Possibly around the 4th. Anyhoo, since Alex had lived in Tabuga for 6 months previously, they didn't need to get picked up at the Quito airport like any other visitor, and Andrea and I woke up at 5:30am the day after they got into the country to receive them from the nightbus from Quito. By around 9am or so it was apparent there'd been complications of some sort, but it's tough to figure out what those might be in a place with no phones or interweb. We weren't overly worried, but worried enough to give Jason Andrea's email address and password to check her email in Pedernales that afternoon, where he was headed to do shopping for the Lalo Loor Reserve. Jason henceforth sped off on La Gran Bestia, who will be the subject of an entire blog posting listing her many attributes and sad, sad mishaps.

Jason got back and told us that Alex and Katie's plane had been held up and they had to stay the night in Miami, so it'd be another two days or so before they'd be able to arrive at Tabuga. Shit! We'd already made plans to go (with them) to Canoa, a surf town a couple hours south where Alex had worked as a pizza chef. We decided to stick to the plan, so that we could get a cell phone signal, and hopefully get in touch with Alex and Katie there.

In Jama, Andrea stopped and hit the internet just long enough to figure out that Jason had misread the original email, and her brother would be arriving the next day (he wasn't stuck in Miami after all).

Canoa, Tabuga, yada yada yada, Alex and Katie arrived and we had a couple days of shenanigans, and then packed back up to head to Quito for Andrea and Jason to get some work done and, more importantly, to attend the Ecuador vs. Argentina soccer game with 50,000 of our closest friends. And around 25 of even closer friends – Andrea had a decent-sized Quito contingent from her days working there, and Jason had helped (kind of) 10 friends from Canoa to get tickets as well. Alex and Katie and I spent the morning foraging for sandwich materials, and got together a bag of game snacks by the time that Andrea returned from a morning PC meeting. A excellent lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant later, we were ready to rock some soccer.

The weather was classic Quito, in that it was damn near 80 degrees with painfully bright sunlight as we bought our souvenir replica jerseys (10 bucks for the nicest one!) and headed into the game, 70 degrees or so as we pregamed in some of the primest general seating in the stadium, and quickly dropping down to around 50 degrees as dark stormclouds moved in right before the start of the game. The first rain came soon thereafter, and the game start was delayed twenty minutes or so as the cheering crowd absorbed the first of many onslaughts of torrential rain.




We stuck it out, even though Alex was the only one of our party smart enough to bring a raincoat, and were rewarded by a terrific game that was tied 0-0 at half but ended up 2-0 in Ecuador's favor by the end whistle (an upset for Ecuador). We soggily exited the stadium, exalting with our Ecuabrethren. And walked directly to the apartment of an American working for USAID who has the good fortune of owning an electric clothes dryer. Woohoo! Borrowed some of his shorts while we sat around drinking beers and catching up, and after the clothes were dry headed out to a local bar to celebrate more.

We were all pretty surprised when none of us had the energy to stay out in Quito for more than around 45 minutes, and how mature we were to realize this and catch a cab home to crash (home in this case being the Quito apartment of a PCV who was currently in the States).

After only one night in Quito we were already Tabuga-sick, as planned, and set off the next day for home.

We planned and pulled off a grand birthday party for Alex Crosby, who had just turned 21, which had many highlights. Alex and Katie went to Pedernales to pick up all the supplies while Andrea and I setup, and when they returned with the ingredients for 'Arroz Colorado' (Colored Rice), Alex's comadre and two other Ecuadorian women showed up to cook up all the food for the party. For the next couple hours our kitchen was commandeered by highly efficient cooks, our outside fireplace boiling a massive vat of rice while chicken and vegetables were dismembered inside. They even swept the yard and cleaned the kitchen! We gaped at the two massive pots of Arroz Colorado they'd created, and sent them home with a pot of it each and many many graciases.






Like many parties in Tabuga, this one started slow and didn't really take off in earnest until well after nightfall. We went quickly from thinking we had far, far too much food to cleaning off plates and spoons to feed the hungry neighbors that came streaming in later and later. Also streaming in was a full Ecuasoundsystem with local music -- Reggaeton -- so we were able to do the Tabuga shuffle long into the wee hours. Another American, Justin, showed up late as well with a guitar and a typed up sheet of all the songs he knew how to sing, so we alternated from crazy loud Spanish pop to acoustic around-the-firepit classic country and folk songs. It was a good mix.

There was much more to the trip, but for the sake of brevity I'll end it there.



Andrea and I bid them a sad goodbye in Pedernales a couple of days ago, and have since been gradually getting back into our Tabugan routine since then.



We got a free puppy from a neighbor, ostensibly for Justin who had said he'd been looking for one, but actually now for us as I think we've decided to keep him. He's white and the son of the biggest dog in town, and we've named him Gringito, or 'little white one', which makes sense as he's being raised by two of the three big gringos in town.

We just put in the banana plants for two 'banana circles', which take the waste water from our shower and kitchen sink, plus various compost scraps thrown in the middle, and grow amazing banana trees. We've also built a compost toilet and an outdoor shower, and a firepit and yard golf set out in the front yard to cover our necessities and activities. Oh, and planted a mahogany tree this morning!

Next up is getting the cana walls on the shower and bathroom -- both are awkwardly open-air currently, and lining out the garden (we'll have to get some village help to clear it). Oh, and we're planning on buying a piglet soon to take care of a bunch of the various garbage we create, and naming it 'Buen Provecho'.

In the meantime, of course, I'll continue lending a hand at the Lalo Loor Dry Tropical Forest Reserve, plus tinker with photography and finishing my novel.

Those are the days in the life! I'll do my best to get better...