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| A six inch layer of rice topped with fish fillets, shrimp, clams and assorted vegetables and decorations |
Thursday night while Randy, Fonda, Todd and I were enjoying a few beers on the patio, we heard quite a commotion going on in town. Fonda and I went to investigate and stumbled onto a bus parade making its way through town after dark. I counted at least 17 Citiup buses driving around our side streets honking their horns, accompanied by several police cars intermittently sounding their sirens. Most of the buses were empty, but a few had passengers. Fonda and I got quite a kick out of it, and also a giggle wondering if the passengers were just as confused as we were about why they ended up in a bus parade detour through Olon at 8:00 at night.
Then yesterday I noticed that our little town of Olon was taking great pains to get spiffed up. When I asked Anna at Cyber Olon about it, she told me that the weekend festivities were sponsored by the local tourism bureau to promote our coastal towns and that some sort of celebration was scheduled in our soccer field this weekend. Not long after that, I noticed local cleanup crews of men and women at the beach and soccer field wearing attractive “Limpienza de la Playa” logoed tee-shirts (I suppose there were at least 30 on the beach crew I saw).
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| The dancers waiting their turn |
Later in the day, Fonda and I ran some errands in Montanita. I sure do enjoy my time with her….both she and Randy are down to earth people with a great sense of humor. We cruised Olon on our way home to scout out the activity. According to Fonda, who got it from Oswaldo, we understood there may be food booths set up on the soccer fields sometime this weekend.
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| Voila! Compliments of Olon |
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| Valdivia´s food entrants |
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| Various artisan booths |
And sure enough, today in the soccer field a number of food and artisan stands were set up for a “Feria de Turismo” (Tourism Fair). Each of the neighboring coastal towns (Montanita, Valdivia, La Entrada, Manglaralto, Dos Mangos, etc) had booths selling or displaying artwork, jewelry, artifacts, food, and information about their pueblo. A number of area artisans also had set up tents to display their wares. Local dancers from each village entertained the crowd in front of what appeared to be a judges’ stand. A long banquet table was set up in the middle of the field; six local towns entered plates of “comida típica” (typical food representing their area) for judging. Olon’s entry into the food contest was under a separate tent – a huge 12x5 foot dish of rice and assorted seafood and vegetables that was later served free along with samples of a sponsor’s soy sauce and baseball caps. All in all, it was a great event and Todd and I think the folks in charge of promoting tourism along our area of the coast have a wise vision and are doing a bang up job.
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| Each town brought a dish to be judged |
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| The Judge |
We only have a couple of more days in our house before our next guests arrive – the Millers from Illinois, followed by Diane and Armand from Louisiana (they also live part of the year in Argentina). Todd and I are looking forward to spending the next three weeks at Casa del Sol, a hostel just north of Montanita. The proprietors, TJ and Whitney, and Jeff are friends of ours.
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| Daisy, The notorious crab catcher: NOT PREGNANT |
It seems we dodged a bullet with Daisy, who fortunately is not pregnant –though we are pretty peeved with Dr. Wilmer (pronounced "Veel-mir"), whose sterilization procedure apparently amounted to nothing more than tying her tubes.
On the other hand, my youngest daughter Kacie called this weekend with the blessed news that she and her husband Pedro are expecting in early May (their first), and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Pedro is from Brazil, and Kacie speaks Spanish, French, and Portuguese fluently, so I imagine this child will have a head start on becoming a world citizen....I really hope they squeeze English in there somewhere so I can talk to the kid......
My baby is having a baby.
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| Pedro & Kacie The Parents to Be |
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