Wine Club, Ecuadorian Style

This is my third ladies wine club, and each place I have been it has taken on a slightly different form. In the UK, we did a lot more tastings and I think all the ladies learnt and continue to learn loads, in Basel we learnt but also the format was a bit more relaxed and here it has become more about drinking wine, food, fun and dancing. To be fair access to wines outside of South America is limited and very expensive which makes extensive tastings difficult. Even South American wines are limited and expensive. But no complaints here, I love wine, food and dancing, so this suits me just fine.

 A toast to Jodi and her first night out since River.

 So great to have her and slightly annoying how fantastic she looks for just giving birth ;)!

Enjoying a pre-dancing drink

And then it began, a little salsa, meringue and some free form dancing, quite the sight! It was a lot of fun and also a good way to burn all the calories from the delicious food and wine.

Lola Fun

Lola really is the best dog ever, full of personality (sometimes a little snobby), she is funny (when she is not jumping out windows or balconies that is), and I really just love having her as a companion. An afternoon in the park with her is the best way to spend a sunny day.

 Luis and Lola

 Lola runs like a two year old!

I could not play with them, as I had to finish my Spanish 'novel', or probably better description is children picture book with a few words.

She is model like really. There is only one thing that tops Lola in the park and that is Lola at the beach, lucky her we are headed that way Thursday!!

Zinc's Free Birthday Brunch, Quito

So I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree, my father who use to write a blog (waiting for some updates!), wrote loads about deals he found eating out, well here is one of my great finds. Yesterday I celebrated the end of birth week with my free birthday brunch at Zinc, this means for the two of us it was only 25 dollars for everything and boy did we take advantage of that!

All fresh juices, coffees, hot and cold food, even if we both had to pay it would have been delicious. But I must admit it tasted even better that it was free!

Comparisons

I am always and forever comparing things, which is not always useful and actually I think becomes annoying. When I moved from England to Switzerland, or Barbados to England or Canada to Barbados, I always remembered and talked about what was better in the previous country. In fact, the best thing would be if I could make my own country with all the fabulous parts of all the places I have been and force all the people I love to live there (although not likely I would have to force anyone as it would be pretty amazing). But until I can create an island with hot mountains, beaches, salsa dancing, lakes, vineyards, and me as Prime Minister (as I would apply to be in the commonwealth) I should probably ease up on the comparisons.
Yesterday was our schools International Fair and I could not help but remember it was my favourite favourite day of the year in Basel. So I guess from the start this fair had a lot to live up too. But once I stopped looking at what Basel did better it was actually quite enjoyable.

 There were loads of performances, dancers, singers..

 There, of course was massive amounts of food (much the same in Basel), mainly South American countries, but Britain, Canada and some Asian countries were represented.

I was in charge of the dunk tank for a couple hours. Mr. Muenker here made a snarky comment about Barbados so in the tank he went.

The fair was huge, loads of stalls, games, raffles and things to see but what I did miss and what this fair lacked was the margaritas from Mexico, the Swedish shooter singing group, the Canadian Ceasers, the French bubbles, this fair was dry (luckily I had a bottle of wine waiting at home).

One Month One Novel

Go Nicola Go!
My very talented sister is currently recovering from heart surgery and came up with the idea to write a novel during this time. I have thoroughly enjoyed following her blog, reading about all the gold star days and the not so gold star days. I have felt like I am part of the journey!
She is now entering the last week of the month and I want to give her an extra huge shout out, keep it up, you can do it, almost there!!!
www.onemonthonenovel.blogspot.co.uk

Relegated to Party Planner #2

I love planning parties, I like to think I am pretty good at them but it looks like I have some competition. Luis through me, hands down, the best birthday party I have ever had. Massive amounts of food, bubbles, huge cake, balloons, people and to really put my parties to shame a Mariachi band surprised me.  The preparations started early in the day, it was a family event, making four huge veggie lasagnas and salads.

Our first guests, wearing Amanda pins, love it!

Getting the party started

Doing the salsa

My lovely big chocolate, not fancy, no fruit, just the way I like it cake.

And so lucky, really the first night in a while without thunder

The band, it was properly amazing.  I was really spoiled rotten by this man, I do not know how he will ever top this but he has a year to figure it out!

Baby Brunch

I adore my patio, but especially as a breakfast spot. I honestly think I could charge money to have breakfast up there (obviously not a breakfast I cooked but a breakfast). But of course I would never charge as I love having people over!

All set up...

... for my beautiful neighbours with adorable River. These days you gotta be up early doing things before the afternoon thunder roles in I have to go in the closet with Lola.

Base Jumping Lola

Three days of huge thunder storms and clearly Lola had enough, the closet was not helping, under the bed did not cut it nor the shower, and no one home was definitely the final straw. She saw a crack in the living room window and saw her escape, she somehow managed to get up through that, on to that tiny balcony, squeezed through the bars and tumbled, what for her must be five floors, to Jodi and Dylan's patio. I think she quickly realised that she was no better off as now was just scared and wet so went pawing on Jodi's door, who kindly let her in.
                         

The house is now on total lock down, thinking of barring up the windows and caging in the patios, little Lola is quickly using up her lives, I can take no more chances!!

Luckily, she has had some reprieve as we have a woken to a beautiful sunny day. We have already enjoyed a lovely walk through the park and are both hoping no thunder clouds roll in this afternoon (as it will take a while to Lola thunder proof the flat).

Poor Lola Cola

Have you ever seen a sadder face? I mean honestly, poor girl, spent the whole night trying to crawl under shelves, under beds, into closets. She has always been terrified of thunder storms, but it is ridiculous here, not sure if it is because we are almost 3000 meters high but it does feels like the end of the world.

She was happiest in the closet, but only when I was right outside. I eventually, after several hours, coaxed her into the bed. I am hoping, but not as much as she is, that this is not the beginning of some huge thunderstorm season (for those who love watching thunderstorms it is pretty amazing to be fair).

Football Madness

Last night I went to my second football match in Quito, this time Barcelona (not the real one) and another Quito team. Luis is a huge Barcelona fan so our gringo group sat in this notoriously rowdy, potentially dangerous section. It was way better than the neutral section, lots of singing, chanting and like a lot of places here where I am meant to feel unsafe, I did not.

As we knew that after the game we would not be able to leave for some time to avoid fights between fans, we tried to sneak out two minutes early.  But we were to late and were already blockaded off, and in this one minute when we tried to leave, we missed the only goal. Quito scored (Luis was a little thankful he missed this moment).


But being trapped was the best part of my evening (I was able to calm everyone down, as I am well trained on being held against my will, after the 'time' I served in Moscow a few years ago ;)), it was good fun watching the police gracefully dodge the wee filled bottles being tossed at them (which of course I do not encourage at all).

Block Party

I love themed parties, something a little different, out of the ordinary. Yesterday a teacher, Rebecca, hosted a block party (that ended up on her patio as drinking not permitted in streets on Sunday), with games, volcano and jungle juice.  She had a fabulous patio for a party. 

Basel Peeps

I have spent the last two days basically sleeping, catching up from when the Romanians were here. The flat feels ridiculously empty and I am missing girly chats and reminiscing about old times and recent Galapogas times. I am very aware I am so tremendously lucky and would not trade my life for the world. But as I sit and munch all the Basel goodies sent to me from my Basel friends, I cannot help feel a bit sad about all my loved ones, both friends and family, scattered all over and so far away.

Luckily they sent a ridiculous amount of Swiss chocolate which is helping (with the missing people but defo not the hips!). Love you Basel peeps and thanks so much.

Time Flies

I cannot believe how fast the last two weeks have gone by. It seems like only moments ago that I met Maria and Andreea at the dock in Isabella and this morning they are getting ready to go. It has been amazing to have them here, lots of catching up, laughs and adventures. I am going to miss these two so much.

I am so glad they also got to see a lot of Quito while I was work. 

 For their last night the neighbours and Mark came around for dinner.  We had such a lovely time and I will be so sad tonight with an empty house again (well except for the usual suspects, Lola and Luis).

Mindo Activities

Well a whole night sleep and I have finally stopped shaking and some what forgotten the horrendous drive (always bad but this time a million times worse due to a road closure). So now I can remember fondly what a great time we had and all the fun things that we did. Again, I need to say how amazing the place was and our first night we enjoyed a fantastic meal and then a girly gossip.
We spent the day exploring, we went to the butterfly place, did zip lining and then went to the water falls.  I even saw a Tucan, which was very exciting for me.

We finished our one night cloud Forrest get away, with a beautiful lunch and now I am back at school while they climb mountains in the sunshine.

El Monte, Mindo

Is by far the nicest place I have ever stayed and I would say worth the death trap drive there. Honestly, the drive there and back is the scariest any of is have ever had. Trucks passing trucks on blind corners, ridiculous speeding on the windiest mountain roads, it is fair to say all of us are surprised to be able to tell the tale.

It was amazingly beautiful and I can highly recommend it to anyone. Ridiculously good price, amazing scenery, friendly staff and great service.

Tortuga Bay, Santa Cruz

What a beautiful beach and reminded me so much of Barbados, well except that baby black tip sharks were swimming over my feet, marine iguanas bobbing in the water and blue footed boobies flying about. I had a magical morning and then afternoon there, followed by a big night on the town.

I have had an amazing holiday and been so lucky to do and see so much (a big thanks to Luis, our tour guide). It really truly is a place beyound words, a must see. It is so wonderful to see animals comfortable and happy in their own environments. I am desperately in love with sea lions and penguins now.

The Volcanoes, Isabella

Yesterday we went on a tour of the volcanoes and although they are beautiful, I think there is loads you need to before doing it. We were warned loads of being cold and probably wet, well it was baking hot, so loads of crispy people
today. It was a long five hour hike, for me that was great, but it was up and down and saw loads of struggling people. The scenery was magical, but if I ran the park I would have treks for different levels and brief people better. Oh and amazingly, I was not one of the burned peoples.

We then had night on the town for our last night in Isabella. There was no electricity and very little water left on the island but we made do, they still had booze!