Cabezas Anniversary #3: Wet and Worldly

Javier and I celebrated the completion of year 3 in our marriage history last week.  As we've started discussing our return home, I've been sometimes thinking about whether or not I'll keep up with the blog back in the US.  Our lives certainly won't involve as much travel or eventful sagas.  But I also love that I've blogged about all three of our anniversaries so far and the idea of keeping up that kind of documentary sounds good to me.  Anyway, here is a blog for anniversary #3 no matter what.  Per usual, we spent the day in a cloud of lit candles, rose buds, and sparkling champagne.  Actually, that's not quite true...

One of our big goals for this year was to attend an event (preferably a soccer game) in the Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa right here in Quito, so when Javier realized that Ecuador would host two World Cup qualifier games we new we had our chance.  What I we learned later was that one of the home games fell slap, dab on October 13th.  No problem, we were still in and excited to celebrate our anniversary with a mere 40,000 screaming Ecuadorian fans.

With our $7 fake jersey's purchased and permission to leave early from school to make the event on time, we were more than ready.  Nothing could stop us!  Not even the rain. And rain.  And rain.  Considering it hasn't rained in Quito since Javier and I got back from the summer, it felt like the heavens were making up for all that drought time in the 2-3 hour stretch of the soccer game.  Just waiting in line to get into the stadium made us soaked to the bone!

Shockingly, someone abandoned this hat in the downpour, but our hero saved it from a puddle!

Esperanza, (other) Javier, and Tiffany were some school friends we would be sharing our big number 3 with!
We are all drenched....

Huge surprise: these $2 ponchos were not as waterproof as we had hoped....Javier took off his 'hood' sometime shortly after we sat down.  I look like I'm enjoying it, don't I?  Have I mentioned that the combination of rain and altitude is a frigid one?

The rain slowed enough for me to take some quick pics of our seats and the stadium.  It was much smaller than we had pictured (but that means no bad seats, right?) 

And not super tall (no nose bleeds here!)

This is the crew that stayed for the whole game: Esperanza, Dani (her wife), and our devoted taxi driver, Zenon.

After Ecuador's surprise victory over Argentina (@ Argentina and with a 2 goal difference!!!) we thought they had an easy win at home against Bolivia, but the game was tied 0-0 well into the second half.  Thankfully Ecuador finally scored in the 81st minute and then was awarded a penalty kick a few minutes later (95th minute) to win the game 2-0.  It's amazing how a victory can help you forget the soaking, freezing rain!

Okay, it may not have been our most romantic anniversary, but it was a wonderful one cause I spent it with this guy (hat included).  Besides, it seems more and more that it's the combination of these little (sometimes miserable) adventures that make up the sum of our marriage.  Which is great by me!