Carnival: Food, Fun, and Family

Last week was Carnival in Cuenca.  The whole town comes to a stop for four days to celebrate before the beginning of Lent.  Kids are out of school, taxi's and buses take a holiday, parties in the park and family outings.  We were invited to share a day of Carnival with friends at the family farm in the country near Deleg on Monday.



 

Looking toward Deleg and part of the farm

Part of the lunch was cooked in the wood kitchen

Summer is in full bloom.  One of the bees that makes its home in the farm bee hives

Kids of all ages playing Carnival  

Carnival, as you have probably read elsewhere is "played" by throwing water balloons and squirting foam on each other, a wet game of tag.


Mateo wet and foamed



Big brother Rubin ready to strike again



Dad on the run from Rubin and Mateo



Sitting down for a huge family lunch



First course was a soup with beans and hominy, grown on the farm, that was cooked in the wood kitchen above, fabulous!



The family enjoying lunch



There was more food than could be consumed, three salads, chicken, pork, rice and corn, hominy, fresh fruit and gelatin dessert.  I must admit we went home after lunch and slept for two hours!  It was a lovely day in the country.

The balance of Carnival we tried to stay in and stay dry.  We visited new friends who live east of town in their beautiful home on Tuesday for a BBQ lunch, Wednesday was my cooking class, I thought I had my camera to take picture of the empanadas we made but . . . then I got distracted with having fun cooking. . . next week?  Thursday was English classes and dinner at friends, and Friday was Jack's 75th Birthday.  At this point I thought I had lost my camera and rather than ruin his day by telling him it was gone, there are just no pictures of the event.  I had an open house for the birhday party Friday evening, food and cake of course...high altitude baking is turning out to be no big deal!  So many new friends came to share the big day.  We were truly blessed.

Saturday were got to know more new arrivals to Cuenca who may rent the house next door, then out to special dinner.  Had a great Skype call to "family" in Grants Pass and then turned in.

The good news is today, Sunday, I found my camera, in my LITTLE purse.  Getting blind in my old age, so pictures will be forth coming for the next weeks events.  Take care.  We had a lovely 75 degrees in the shade day today....