Potluck

Yester morning I looked out my window and saw Julio (my landlord) out back "picking" avocados.  I know I've told you it's a very tall tree and none of the avocados are close enough to the ground to pick but Julio has a couple of very long poles with a hook on the end of them and he reaches up into the tree and pulls down ones that are ready to be picked.  I need to remember that pole when I go out and there aren't any that have fallen out of the tree on their own.

At any rate, his grandson, Daniel, was out there with him and I was able to get photos of both of them.  Daniel even posed for me.

First, here's Julio up on the wall.  I didn't get to my camera before he was getting ready to get down but I think it's still pretty darned impressive--or foolish, take your pick.

And here's Daniel.  Isn't he just about the cutest little kid?  First he posed for me and then I got a quick shot of the life of Riley.

Now we get to the potluck part of the post.  There's a church here in Cotacachi that has English services and on the first Sunday of the month, they also have a pot luck after the service.  This was my first potluck there and I had a fabulous time.
I took advantage of having made my zucchini relish and I took a pasta salad.  Alas, the pasta didn't behave at all like I'm used to so it got gummy and it pretty well disintegrated but it still tasted good (or at least that's what everyone said) so it was a success.  Fortunately, there are some very good cooks there and we had plenty of food and it was all great.


There are such lovely people who go to that church and I'm hopeful I'll make a friend or two there.  In fact, I had one person say she really enjoyed talking to me.  She's in the 8th grade so that was a double compliment as far as I was concerned.

A couple of times during the service it rained but each time it stopped for a while.  Then, just as we were getting all settled in and eating our delicious lunch, it started in and, instead of quitting, it just kept getting worse and worse.  One of the people there who had a car offered to drive me and a few other people home (thank goodness).  I had my umbrella but that wasn't going to do any good with a rain like that.

After we ate, we gathered around and chatted for a while and then It finally let up enough to get to the car without getting drenched and I got home dry as can be.  I'm told the rainy season generally ends sometime between mid-May and the beginning of June.  It will be interesting to see what it's like here during the dry season.