Bluegrass Birthdays and Volcanos

---

So i'll start this one out by letting everyone know i'm nowhere near the volcano that erupted earlier today. The volcano is in Banos, where i was 2 weeks ago, and is the 2nd time it's erupted in just over a month. There is tons of destruction and this time around i believe there were some fatalities. Banos is abot 3 hours south of where I am, so I'm clear of any destruction.

Last weekend we threw a birthday bash for me, 24 years old seems really really old. Seems like just the other day i was graduating from East. After all the food was served to the tourists, we started the grill and cooked ungodly amounts of meat. Steak, chicken, hot dog type things, chorizo, and plenty more. A large cake was accompanied w/ all the meat. It's tradition in Ecuador to smash the cake in the face of the birthday boy/girl so i was tasting delicious chocolate cake in my beard for days to come.
THe best part of the party however, with hats off to Josh Konz for the idea, was the bluegrass bash. I made a playlist on my ipod with all sorts of music on it. Electronic, salsa, hippie, whatever the case may be, but also about every 5 songs or so I threw in a bluegrass song. All the people on the farm have never heard of bluegrass nor do they know how to dance to it, so I did a little preview of exactly how to dance to the good stuff. Now the rule behind the bluegrass songs was this. You either dance or you drink. Everyone opted to drink before so we all could boogie down. Watching everyone attempt to groove to the bluegrass tunes was one of the funniest things i have witnessed in a long time. However, everyone made the attempt and actually really had a fun time. We all laughed, boozed, and boogied til the early hours of the morn. It was definitely an original birthday party and was sad that I couldn't share it with friends and family, but having an ecuadorian bash is just another thing i'll never forget.

---

Photos

big BBQ
Thats a lotta o meat

cake in the face
it was damn good cake

Dancin may sheens
gettin funky

Comments

[Rachel]

Hey Bryan, looking good! Your party sounds like it was a blast. Hope all is well : )

[Joe R]

Lonely
Hey Bryan, If you get lonely just remember that Bagoon is out there, somewhere wishing you the best.