Trash Truck Groupy

January 28, 2012

Chuck, Nancy, Todd & Mary
at beachside Lolita's/Olon

Last week Todd and I had the honor and pleasure of meeting and spending time with Mary Beckman (from Northern California) who is visiting Ecuador for a couple of weeks. Mary writes probably the most premier and “one-stop-everything-you-want-to-know-about-Ecuador” blog/websites called “South of Zero”. Her site includes a prodigious blog roll of ex-pat (or wannabee-living-in Ecuador) scribes sharing their experiences about living and traveling  in Ecuador, as well as links to various newsletters, forums, and governmental information pages.

With her were Nancy and Chuck Watson, who write the prolific and popular blog called "Nancy and Chuck - Retirement in Ecuador".  Nancy and Chuck are world travelers who have lived in Cuenca for some time.

All were just great, interesting and fun folks and we spent last Saturday morning showing them around our area. Mary wanted to see some of our coastal areas where expats are buying.

We met at a Montanita restaurant for breakfast, and then headed north for a look-see.

Umm...now, if you wouldn't mind
stepping back a couple of feet
while I take this pic?

Of course we had to first stop at the beautiful santuario, La Blanca Estrella del Mar, that sits upon the Montanita cliff point, overlooking the ocean and picturesque 8-mile white sand beach that stretches past Olon up to around La Entrada. This is an obligatory photo opp, but taking pictures near the edge of the cliff invariably makes me just a little nervous; the cliff is eroding; services are no longer held in the church, though people are still allowed to wander and tour the sanctuary (free).

From there, we drove up to see an Olon hillside development, and then headed up to Curia to see Barb and Robert’s new beachfront digs.

After that, we returned south back to Olon, where we showed them around town, around our neighborhood of Jardines de Olon (and our house, and the house of Doug/Pam & my brother) before heading out to one of our beach side cabanas for a fresh seafood lunch. Todd and I took Mary, Nancy and Chuck to “Lolita’s” where our friend Pablo makes probably the best ceviche on the beach, and just relaxed for awhile.

We had a delightful, fun, easy-going time with them, and feel that we have made new life-long friends. We shared a few funny “war-stories” about writing blogs and got a kick when this gal passed by us wearing the shirt pictured below:

Anyway, Mary, glad we finally had the chance to meet in person; ditto to Nancy and Chuck; Todd and I genuinely look forward to spending a lot more time with you all in the future!

A week before that we hosted an adult group of five Canadians who were here to celebrate the wedding reception of their son Jordan Ward and his new Ecuadorian wife Ivonne Malavé from nearby Manglaralto.  Jordan’s parents Elaine and Barry were joined by Elaine’s sister Sandy and her husband Don, and cousin Gloria. A merry bunch of people, and we had a great time getting to know them.



The happy couple with
of course, Daisy who
can never resist a photo opp



 

Jenny, Ivonne's Mom 
 from Manglaralto

Barry and Elaine
Jordan'sparents.

Jordan and Ivonne did an amazing job coordinating the logistics of setting up the beachside tables and canopy set-up, arranging for the catering, the bar, buffet table,  D.J. and dancing areas.

I rather imagine we will see more of these types of events on our playa – a very romantic setting for a very romantic affair.

One of the greatest things about this party was to watch the large mixed crowd of gringos and Ecuadorians celebrate together, and despite some initial language barriers, by the middle of the evening, all were talking and laughing together as old friends.

Ivonne's abuelo
with her aunt?

Sandy, Gloria & Elaine



"Pleased to meet you"



And of course, our dog Daisy never misses a party. She was there for awhile, and fit right in with her blue collar, since attendees were asked to wear blue woven wrist bracelets to identify ourselves at the hosted bar.

Daniela, Todd & Antonio

Last night we attended the “Bachillerato” graduation celebración for Daniela Zamora, who is the darling daughter of Patricia and Antonio, who own our Oloncito Market (now in a brand new location – bigger, better than ever). It was held at the lovely hillside “La Finca Hostería Bella Aurora” just beyond “El Retiro”.

The Zamoras are a large and influential family in Olon, and all of them have been ever so caring to Todd and I during our four and half years of coming/being in town. We felt honored to be invited, and though we were virtually the only gringos there, felt warmly welcomed by everyone.

"Cake Table"
at Daniela's party

Most of the crowd we already know as friends of ours, since we work and play together daily. Todd and I are appreciative of the kind-hearted way these people have welcomed us into their community.

Tonight (Saturday) we’ve been invited to attend a birthday party for our local friend Sambo’s (he's a local, respected, qualified construction worker). His wife Yesinia helps me clean the house when we have guests coming.

Of course, none of these parties we’ve been going to start until after 9 or 10 PM, so Todd and I are pretty much looking forward to an early-to-bed with books and movies tomorrow night….It is the “season”, and we are getting a little worn out. I'm somewhat concerned at this point if one of us expires shortly, it will be because of "death by partying".

But the thing that has me most flummoxed right now is the trash truck schedule. For four years now, our regular guys have shown up predictably every Monday and Thursday. We could always hear them coming before they arrived in our neighborhood because of a loud, catchy tune (that’s about as hard to get off of your mind as “It’s a Small World, After All”) blaring from the truck as they make the circuit. Around a year ago, I made numerous attempts to video/record the song before I finally captured a video that I was able to upload to this blog (the video with song is posted in “Trash Revolution”). I’m pretty sure they must either think I was stalking them or am a trash truck groupy...Anyway, we have a new trash truck (and maybe crew?) now picking up trash.

The good news is that the new truck comes equipped with a compactor. The discouraging news is that no one (NO ONE, including the Olon natives) have any idea what day(s) they are scheduled to show up, as our trash is piling up, and the new tune is not nearly as catchy as the old one.