A memory of February 17th

The day started off just like any other day . We wake up early to take care of the cows at about 6 am giving them water, milking them, tending to manure. Later we had breakfast, everyone together talking laughing joked and we had a visitor my extended host cousin. The day continued just like any other day, (except for the fact that it was carnival so maybe a bit slower) My host sisters went on to wash their clothes, åÊmy host mom went to check on her crops and tend to åÊother cows. While I went to cut grass for the guinea pigs. My host brother was bored and I guess like usual I missed a couple of conversations.Near the end of lunch my host sister told me to get ready because we were leaving.Turns out we were going on åÊimpromptu trip to the coast which I was not expecting at all. åÊthought we were going to center of tarqui at first m then maybe cuenca? but then we turned left so I thought maybe just Cumbe but we drove past and then I thought maybe Giron? åÊTurns out our direction was Santa Isabel, beautiful drive everything about itåÊåÊwe stopped got coke and cookies coconut cookiesåÊkept on driving until cocha with host sisters narcissa, sonia, hugo åÊand Manucho and the kids Mayra and keving- we were swimming in this rioåÊimpressive how many people were there, turned right down were cars were going and coming in through this twisty road paid for parking and there we wereåÊtrying to figure out why this day was so memorable to me other than the fact that A. it was one of those long car rides with awesome people ,åÊwe had empanadas in the car but it didn’t stop there, they decided they wanted to visit my extended host cousins family that lived 30 minutes away from the rio , who lived on an hacienda ” el monte ” banana/ plantain where I assume my host dad’s brother has worked for good amount of his life.then we went off again ran into other family members on the way and since it was raining we went and dropped them off again t the hacienda ( cacao trees somewhere mention them they are beautiful) but then we kept driving on until we arrived at what appeared to be the playground of a school, with an indoor soccer/basketball field up front, a kitchen and two rooms, immediately they gave us tea, soda, sat us outside. We played soccer formed two teams since we must have been about 20 people on that school playground.They fed us dinner rice and chicken ( they fried me an egg since I don’t eat meat) åÊand in this room in front of the tv while having dinner we talked laughed then it was time to leave and we went on the road again made a few stop one stop to get fruit we got a bunch of fruit ( zapote, watermelon, sugarcanes, bananas ( which we already had a ton of) while we ate some in the car and left some for the house also stopped to look at people drilling in a mine, we continued on made another stop to get some more snacks potato chips and juice/soda/ seltzer water As I nostalgically remember that day, I am not sure what made it so important and memorable to me other than the fact that I got to visit a new place with my host family this day