Moving2Ecuador

I am naive enough to believe that the new year offers us a chance to do better, to change ourselves, our lives, our perspective. So I am always excited about the evening prior to midnight. I must arrange an event, there must be good food and wine and conversation for the new year ritual. So we began preparing early in the day. The menu included cheese fondue and meat fondue and chocolate fondue. Eric was sent to the store three times to ensure that we had all the ingredients necessary. There was good wine and champagne, four fondue pots, fondue skewers, lots of fruit and vegetables, bread, meat, oil etc. We were ready! One Legged Seagull Monica and Thierry, my sister and brother-in-law, and their children Edouard and Lorna, arrived early in the afternoon after a ten day sailing trip through the Caribbean. They are staying at the Don Cesar, the pink palace hotel a short walk away. We exchanged stories and Christmas presents sitting on the back porch with the view of the sand dunes and ...

Sun Going Down Another perfect day in paradise, but warmer and sunnier and a wonderful day for a boatride and a fruitless attempt at fishing. Eric's grandfather, Gil, and his wife Mary invited us out on their small but powerful motorboat, and Eric, Maya and I along with my father, joined them. I love being on the water; every year my birthday gift is sailing for the day. I cannot imagine a place I would rather be on my birthday but on a sailing vessel. Every other time out on a boat is a bonus. I am unsettled by the incredible wealth I see all around me. Perhaps I am sensitive to it because of the months in Ecuador, where despite living very simply and often at barely a subsistence level, we are so much better off than most, with so many choices and possibilities. In the United States, people have so much, in comparison to the average Eucadorian. I am not so aware of our limitations when I am in Ecuador, but visiting southern Florida forces me to be more cognizant of our place in ...

Living on the sea is a special experience. Waking up to watch the sun rise over the waves is a surprise each morning, and watching the fiery sunset each evening is spectacular. We are staying at the very beautiful home of my inlaws, and until the last couple of days I have been focusing on appreciating the marvelous kitchen, but with less pressure ( which I put on myself) to arrange for meals, I am enjoying my surroundings and paying more attention. This is important because the home we are staying in is for sale, and it is unlikely we will ever be able to celebrate Christmas as a family here again. Every morning and afternoon and evening is our last, and I am also not sure we will be able to arrange for my parents to travel such a distance again. My father will be 90 in February, and since travel to Ecuador is impossible for him, and any travel at all is stressful, this is an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate a unique time in a gorgeous place. I have been pushing to arrange for a wa...

It was a cold and windy and bright and sunny day, and the plan was to take a long walk along the beach, but the family ate breakfast/brunch and read and talked and played on the computer and waited for the wind to die and the temperature to rise. I kept reading my book, Maya played on her new computer from Santa, Tara watched a television show on her Macbook, Eric worked on his computer, Dad read the paper and Sherlock Holmes, my mother read or talked or sat. I kept saying we would be off for our walk, but then I would see the trees bent over in the wind and read some more. Finally around 3 PM, Maya and Tara and I braved the elements for a stroll. Surprisingly there were wind surfers and kite boarders in the water, which had whitecaps and looked cold and forbidding. Eric had said first thing this morning that it was a perfect windsurfing day, and all the wet suited boarders agreed. Maya dared Tara to take off all her clothes and plunge into the water. Maya agreed to give Tara 15 dollar...

Despite little wind, cold and some rain, it was a sailing day today. Eric's brother Marc showed up while we were eating breakfast, announcing that he had a boat and we had a six hour sail planned. We gobbled up our French toast and strawberries and grabbed as many jackets and warm clothing we could find and met Marc at the dock and off we went. We passed under several bridges to get out to the gulf, looked for dolphins playing off the boat, sailed up the coast and back into the bay. Eric and Marc sailed, while Tara, Maya and I played cards and read down below. It was a two or three person boat and there was little room or patience for us on deck, so we hid and kept busy. Eric and Marc are good sailors, having sailed all their childhood, and Marc has been obsessed with boats for some time. He is a miracle survivor of 70+% burns on his body after surviving an explosion on his boat over two years ago. He is covered with cloned skin and is a marvelous example of modern medicine. He spe...

Our day began early. I was desperate to get out of the kitchen, and most of the Richters and Fortunes decided to go to Busch Gardens, the local amusement park/zoo. I left my parents behind, to enjoy the house to themselves, in fact they were not yet up when we left around 10 AM. Busch Gardens is about 45 minutes away in Tampa, and I expected it to be packed with people the day after Christmas, but the crowds were not overwhelming. The shock of the day was the price of admission. At $75 a ticket for all those over 9 years of age, the total for the ten of us was well beyond our monthly rent! How is it possible for families to pay for such an outing? Yet there were thousands of visitors to the park, speaking all sorts of languages; many tourists from other countries, but even more local residents. I was hyperventilating when I saw the price, and I had to work to calm myself and focus on enjoying the experience. I could not help but think about our lives in Quito and how impoverished the m...

I wondered what Quiteños were doing today. They would have gotten together as families for a big meal last night, and being the last night of the novena, they would have gone to church to have their little baby Jesus' blessed. I am sure midnight mass would have been on the agenda. I believe everything goes back to normal after that, until New Years, when they create huge puppets and consequently burn them. I wanted very much to be in Quito for Año Nuevo, but we will create our own 'muñecas' for our celebration here. Our holiday celebration includes three meals of importance; Christmas Eve dinner, and Christmas Day breakfast and dinner. My family opens presents on the 24th and Eric's does it on the 25th, so we planned a few presents on the eve and more in the morning. Fish is served Christmas Eve and there are all sorts of choices for Christmas Day, but turkey was the chosen meal this year, so I had an opportunity to cook a 25 pound turkey with all the trimmings, in a r...