This weekend my childhood friend Anna came to Ecuador, like I mentioned in my last blog. It has been wonderful to see her and get to know her boyfriend Lorenzo and his parents. Lorenzo’s parents are Austrian and Venezuelan-German and he grew up in Ecuador before moving to Austria to do his civil service and university training in Vienna. Both Anna and Lorenzo are photographers and film makers.
On this picture Anna with the family dog.
Being with Anna makes me feel like a child. We laugh in a way that is unique and limited to people of extreme proximity, like close family members. We know each other and our families very well and we have been close friends since the age of 11 or 12. And in some ways it seems bizarre that we are now both connected to Ecuador and are both here at the same time. But life has brought us together more than once in such funny circumstances, which must mean something.
In this picture you can see what I mean when I say being with Anna makes me laugh. At this moment in time we were playing table tennis.
Lorenzo’s family lives a little outside Quito and they have created an oasis of peace for themselves. The parents bought a piece of land a while ago and built their own houses there. By now there are about three or four houses on the property, all built in a very natural style, partly constructed with material from the garden. The land they own is huge. I am not sure how many hectares, but it takes a while to walk all around it. There they have a horse, which is about 25 years old (!), a dog, cats, chicken and bees. They grow all kinds of fruit and vegetables and the whole garden is full of lush and blooming trees, shrubs and flowers.
Anna lying in a hammock in the garden.
As always, I love to hear your news too my friends!
Love
Chiara