Oh Olon

We’ve spent the last few weeks in Olon and surrounding areas, and we’re getting comfortable in this quirky little town. I wish Kyla and I spoke more Spanish, so that we could access the local community more effectively, but, even in our weird little expat world, we’re learning a lot. Recent weeks have featured:

-Parties! Despite excellent training by Addie and Cristhian and my general tendency to be late for everything, I’m not late *enough* for anything in Ecuador. We showed up a half hour late for a birthday party and we beat the rest of the expats by about an hour and Ecuadorians by 2 hours. The birthday party included Mirabel and Isabel hype ladies, a DJ, strobe lights, a fog machine, organized games and gifts for all of the kids. I’m SO GLAD that Talia won’t celebrate her birthday in Ecuador. I would fail miserably.

-Halloween! Halloween isn’t really a thing in Ecuador, but Talia’s school went all out for the kids. There are not enough Pinterest sites in the world that would make me good at crafting, but I did my best (and Kyla baked Halloween treats, which were a hit).

-Telas! Talia loves fabric acrobatics and she had a Halloween-themed recital this week. She had a great time! Not sure how transferable this interest is to life in DC, but she’s enjoying it.

-Stray Cows! I’m constantly adjusting my route along the beach into town to avoid stay cows (and their poop). The strays are for real around here: cows, dogs, roosters and even horses run loose,

-Bread festival! We went down the coast a bit to visit a local bread festival, featuring local bakeries and various bread sculptures. We went towards the end of the day, and the bread sculptures were looking….ragged. Had fun and carb loaded.

-School! Talia loves, loves, loves school, and the kids are super sweet. School was cancelled due to excessive mud one day last week and her teacher came by for a house call with two other kids.

Surfing! Both Talia and Kyla are taking surf classes now. I’ll join when it’s warmer (it’s still winter here—not cold, but not the type of weather that gets me in the water). Talia’s school teacher is also her surf instructor.

Food! We go to the fish market every few days, but we haven’t branched out to the meat-on-hook or lobsters-in-a wheel-barrel guys. After years of instacart, it’s been interesting to get fresh fish, vegetables, fruit and homemade bread every day.

Logistics! Our day-to-day requires way more logistical planning here than in DC. I’m in charge of gathering (i.e. grocery shopping at the various stalls around town) and external relations (i.e. using google translate to navigate various exchanges via whatsap) and Kyla is the “advance team” and handles all travel logistics. We have to move out of our apartment in December, which is proving to be a logistical pain….but I think we’re just going to move into another unit in our current spot. It’s not very adventurous, but it’s easy and frees Kyla up to plan our various travel adventures.

Next spot is Cotacachi! Amazon and Cuenca are on deck after that.Read more