Why Ecuador in March?

Ecuador is a small South American country on the Equator (hence the name) where both my mother and father were born. I was born in NYC where my parents migrated too. They actually met in NY and not in Ecuador. My dad was from the big city (Guayaquil) and my mom from the fishing town (Manta). My sister and I were both born in NY where I spent my entire life until I met Papa Peep. (more on that some other time)

OK back to my original story! So Ecuador is partly above and partly below the Equator. Quito is where the actual divide happens. Since Quito is located high in the Andes Mountains it has much cooler weather than Guayaquil. The summer is very mild but the winter can get very cold. Remember the seasons are flipped below the Equator. When we are enjoying cold weather they are enjoying warm weather and vice versa. Think Australia at Christmas time...they are at the beach and we in the US or above the Equator are digging ourselves out of snow.

Now in Guayaquil the weather is always hot. The winters are dry but hot and the summers are wet and hotter. March is cold in most parts of the US. Even Atlanta had cold weather in March.

Guayaquil in March is wet, and hotter than I have ever known a place to be. It rains in spurts but so hard that the streets flood almost immediately. The rain brings some relief from the heat but then the mosquitoes are rampant. So if the heat won't get you the mosquitoes will. It really is a miserable time. I do not recommend Ecuador in their summertime.

Knowing all this, you ask me why was I in Ecuador in March? Because my aunt was getting married. There was no way I was going to miss that. She is the youngest of my grandmother's 10 children. She is actually younger than I am. My mother is my grandmother's 2nd child but the oldest girl. While my mother was already a mother of 2, my grandmother became the mother of 10 children. Amazing!!!! I ask her all the time how she managed that many children. She still doesn't know.

Here is a picture of the beautiful bride.

Here are the bride's siblings....my aunts and uncles minus my mother and two uncles (one of them, the oldest child, passed away a few years ago. The other and my mother could not attend.)


Maybe tomorrow I will tell you all about the wedding.......