Happy Happy Birthday

I have a history of ignoring my birthday. Not because I disdain getting older but because I have been traumatized by the music and I am usually working. So I celebrate on other days, when my birthday does´t compete with summer camps and vacations etc... But I am warming to the whole idea of being immune from logistical chaos, petty attitudes and instead, being loved just for being here. (For those on facebook thanks for the rush of love).
The morning consisted of seeing 400 different types of orchids.

To explain what happens next you should know that I am living in a bar.

The "bar" is more of a cafe that stays up late, plays loud music and serves a variety of beer and cocktails. So I guess that would qualify it as a bar/cafe. It is a tourist joint that attracts a lot of Ecuadorians. I live with Jane and Camila pictured below and Tom runs as our side kick. They represent the Motherland. England.

We met on a bus and decided to live in the "bar" together. As traveling goes, good friends come and go fast and hard. You develop a certain quick love and trust and become a micro family for anywhere between a meal to several weeks. You check in on each other, e-mail for about a week after you separate, call years later when you visit their various countries.

I thought my day would be your run of the mill, see a bunch of flowers and go to spanish class kind of birthday. But my traveling fam came through with a big cake and insisted on steak restaurant (actually they insisted that I choose the restaurant and I chose steak). The big cake gave me up to the owner of the restaurant who rushed over a bottle of wine and a cocktail. The steak place was Ecuadorian/Argentinian fare and as Argentinian meals go we waited for an hour or so to get some really really delicious steak. Then I invited everyone in the restaurant, which included some German/Swiss girls and the staff for cake.

So a bunch of strangers became my party and we got down in our various languages trying to do the intercontinental dinner party thang.

The footnote to this picture is that Aerosmith was bumpin´ in the back ground