THANKSGIVING WITH THE BOWEN’S
About a year ago I began corresponding with Brittany Bowen on JP and Amelia’s chat group for expats and would be expats to Ecuador. Over that year I learned she and her husband Blake and 4 kids had moved to here in September of 2021, and were having a house built (it is finished now). At one point she mentioned they had 5000 coffee plants. We continued to occasionally correspond and I was able to learn bits and pieces from her about this country and the area of Vilcabamba. It was nice to have someone “on the ground” here who would have accurate information I could depend on.
So when our plans finally materialized I wrote to her, relaying we’d be coming and depending on her for a few important bits of information, and she was happy to supply them. When we arrived in Quito I shot off a quick note to her relaying we were in the country, and that we’d be taking the afternoon flight to Catamayo the next day. She replied saying her father-in-law Rich was going to be on the same flight. Coincidence? So when we arrived at the gate, I saw a gringo by himself and asked him if he was Rich. He said, “You must be Bill.” So we had a nice chat. As he had been to his son’s house before, he explained that the airport we’d be flying into involved a steep descent so as to give us a heads up. And he was not kidding! We were zigzagging between hillsides at a low altitude and finally landed. We taxied to the end of the runway where there was plenty of concrete so as to make our U-turn and then headed back to the arrival/departure building. We exited the plane on one of those portable/mobile stairways, went in to get our luggage, and outside we met the Bowen family.
Brittany invited us over for Thanksgiving saying a few others would be there as well. It was great to finally meet someone who you’ve corresponded with for a year. But since the landlord we rent from is very resourceful we have not needed much info from her, but every little bit helps.
It turned out that, since the local Ecuadorians were all working Thursday, we’d be having the big meal on the following Saturday so we could all enjoy it together. So when the big day arrived, we took the bus to the next town San Pedro. We waited at the small store for another couple and also for the taxi to take us up the mountain. Now that was a trip! Steep and windy, a few miles up. Their place is built on a mountainside and has wonderful views of the valleys below.
I TOOK THIS PICTURE ACROSS THE VALLEY FROM THE BOWEN’S. THEIR HOUSE IS THE ONE IN THE FIELD TOP CENTER.
One of the local families who were invited happened to be the builder of the Bowen’s house, whose name was Jorge. He spoke very good English, and after I mentioned we were going to be going over to Zamora for birding around the first of the year, he explained he used to be a nature guide for Podocarpus Nat Park at that eastern entrance. So he was able to give me some useful info for our trip.
There were over 35-40 people there, and of those 13 were Americans and 2 were Canadians, and the rest locals from the vicinity. Of the locals only Jorge spoke English, so we were not able to communicate much with the rest. We did make friends with the expats.
It was nice to have such an occasion. There was one large turkey and all the trimmings which fed the group very well. One of the Bowen boys mentioned something about lots of leftovers for a while. As it turns out, the Bowens have some 15,000 coffee plants on their property, and another 10,000 on an adjacent property whose owners are from Tennessee. Eventually they will be going into the coffee business, as you’d expect.
So here are a few shots of the occasion and their place:
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