Don Pancho

The holiday season was wonderful in Olon, though the combo of Christmas music and palm trees was strange. It’s regularly sunny here now, and the sunset views from our apartment are…well…kinda obnoxious, given the current weather in DC, Boston and Canada.

This month featured two amazing Hanukkah parties, which is a shock given that there are, like, three other Jews around here. We had latkes and a gift exchange with a ragtag group of tribe members at our friend, Robyn’s, house, and then we hosted a party for Talia’s school friends and their families. The party was made epic by the number of bottles of wine consumed as well as sufganiyot driven THREE hours from Guayaquil, as arranged by the Israeli co-owner of Talia’s school. It was a Hanukkah miracle. We loved sharing the holiday with a few Jews and the warm, wonderful families of Ayni Green School.

Let’s see…what else? On Christmas Eve, a friend from Talia’s school invited us for a feast, which was great. On Christmas morning, we had Kyla’s famous baked French toast and then spent the day at the beach. Santa brought Talia a pina colada in a pineapple, which she loved even when she found out that half the kids in her class got 4-wheelers for the holiday. The “parking lot” (patch of dirt) outside of her school is now packed with 6 year olds parallel parking their quads. Talia is not getting a four-wheeler, but she it is likely that she will get carted around by the “you-were-a-toddler-a-minute-ago”set, for sure. Mom—please do not Google “four wheeler.” You don’t want to know.

New Years was also a lot of fun…eventually. From Addie and Christian, we knew of the South American tradition of burning little piñatas (año viejos), making wishes with grapes and running around with yellow underwear and suitcases. We were game to participate, even though we usually like to chill at home on NYE.

Figuring we’d need to keep Talia up to at least catch the beginning of the festivities, we went out to dinner at 7. I thought we’d be able to hit a few bonfires on the beach on our walk home, put Talia to bed, and then relax and head to bed at 12:01, as per our usual routine

We were surprised that we saw ZERO people on our walk home via the beach at 9pm. Talia was dying to put her little año viejo in a fire, so we let her stay up until 10, thinking that the beach would soon fill with bonfires and party-goers. At 11, with no one in site, we decided to burn the thing ourselves. We headed to the beach with our año viejo and a lighter. Know what?! Those things are soaked in flame retardants. We tried to burn it for a half hour and the dude was immortal. We even smashed him with a rock so we could light him from the inside. It was brutal and unsuccessful.

At 11:30, we took an exhausted and disappointed Talia inside to get ready for bed. At 11:50, she was just about to pass out when, suddenly, all of Olon streamed onto the beach, lit enormous bonfires and set off 9385738374 fireworks. The parties started at 11:50pm and lasted to 6am. Talia was psyched and kyla and I barely survived. Overall, it was memorable, though we may never catch up on sleep as our neighbors continue to set off leftover fireworks each night. See the video for our view of the fireworks from our roof deck.

Talia went back to school after New Years, and was glad to see her friends and teachers. She loves school, particularly the bus rides, the vegetable garden, her little posse of friends and the long recesses. We get many hilarious notes from her teachers, but the video of Talia and a friend inspecting a (dead, but that detail isn’t entirely comforting) tarantula was not good for my heart. I put a screenshot in the photos with this posting. Sorry mom. Sorry Lauren W.

Other stuff to report:

—there are still stray cows on the beach.

—Some days, Talia runs right from the school bus into the ocean in her clothes. I love, love, love when this happens. Most days, she wants to go up to the apartment, have a snack and relax after school, but I enjoy when she comes home with beach-energy.

—In addition to the beach, Talia loves snorkeling in the pool. Sometimes she floats for an hour, just humming to herself through the snorkel—content in her own little sensory deprivation chamber. I’m glad she loves this activity, but I wish it were easier to confirm she’s alive when floating facedown in the pool.

Overall, we are all enjoying the better weather (with a bit of guilt since it’s freezing in the northeast).Read more