Belated Birthday Celebration

Our adoptive family, The Romero's had to put Domenica's birthday celebration on hold because of the earthquake. Her real birthday is April 20th, but we celebrated yesterday, with a large turn out.

This was at the end of photos, and she was ready for cake! Our fishermen friend Fernando, and his sister Vivianna, Domenica's mother, you've seen before what a ham Domenica is, today was no different. The spread was quite impressive, as in true Ecuadorean style we were told 3pm, but showed up at 4 and the festivities were only getting started. 

Our little friends, The Urchins were there, and at first were shy...but later

They couldn't stay away! For being so bad, they sure are cute! The older one we learned is David, still can't understand the little ones name, starts with an M...he is the real demon, David can be really good and helpful when the little one isn't around.

We were fed tuna sandwiches, then popcorn, then jello, Domenica's dad is Police Captain, and when he got off duty, he came home with beers. The kids played some games, then a piñata of sorts was brought out, and the kids went crazy for candy and confetti.

The confetti was the hit for the rest of the party! Dinner was served (in styrofoam to go boxes) and the ladies started leaving, most taking their dinners with them. We stayed, shared some beers with the immediate family, ate our dinner and took our piece of cake home. Such a party! I'd say there were twenty mothers with at least one child each, some had three, maybe five men, we saw three nursing mothers and a couple of dogs. Of course our ladies, Lola, Melissa and Vivianna were mostly in the kitchen, poor things, but as always the food was delicious and the hospitality overflowing!

Sweet girls wanted to know what country I was from, and my name. Glad we were invited and went, we were invited Friday for the party on Saturday, so I had to hightail it into gear and make a present. I decided on a small patchwork purse, but forgot to take a picture, maybe Vi will post on Facebook, or I can ask...so stay tuned, the adventure continues!

Tuesday, Carnivale finale

Tuesday morning we woke to beautiful blue skies but everything needed to dry out. We swept the rain water from the patio and planned on a quiet day on the outdoor couch, the touristas were still getting some beach time but we knew by late afternoon they would be getting packed to go home. Mike suggested a walk, and so around 11 we donned sunscreen and headed out. As we were returning, our friends at the restaurant wanted us to come, Ramon and Rafael had already started drinking, so we joined them, as we ordered lunch.

This is Captain Fernando, in the stripes, his nephew Patricio (Ramon's son) and Rafael in blue.

Here we have Ramon, Mike and I, Rafael, captain Fernando's sister Viviana in black, their mom Lola and aunt Gloria from the Oriente on the end. They have definatly accepted us into their family, and we love it. Such good people!

As the afternoon wore on, the clouds came back and the touristas left. We continued to sit and drink, talk, laugh and eat. The ladies are such maestros in the kitchen, over the course of the weekend festivities we had shrimp ceviche, shrimp viche, breaded shrimp, breaded fish and now langostinos!

We were so full, could hardly eat another bite, but it was so good, and they are so pleased to share. The ladies finally got the kitchen cleaned up and the real party could begin...we chipped in for more beer and got the music started.

I'm a bad influence and got all the ladies to drink, they worked so hard this weekend, they needed to unwind too! We got a really big speaker plugged into our house, and danced for awhile, then had a foam fight, and it was time to call it a night. A perfect end to a not so great Carnivale, the afternoon and evening was the highlight, good times with good friends...

So, stay tuned...the adventure continues!