Host town activities: Bobbyjo may never have expected to be "big" in Ecuador, but the Grand National winner has the people of Mountbellew to thank for that. Long after the Ecuadorean athletes have left the Co Galway community, they will remember the warm hospitality - and the statue of that horse.
"And your papas (potatoes)," Victor Armendariz, the athletes' head coach, added, as 14 of his competitors prepared for a training session at Daingean regional sports ground yesterday morning.
José Cando, who is participating in the 5,000 metres and the half-marathon next week, echoed his coach's sentiment. "We are very happy with the food, lots of it!" he said.
Roses and kisses marked the arrival of the 68-strong delegation into Mountbellew on Monday night after the Special Olympic torch had passed through the town.
"They came with these enormous boxes of roses, and we were just so delighted," Ms Trish Linehan, physiotherapist and member of the Mountbellew host town committee, said. "We are going to miss them terribly when they leave."
Mountbellew was one of the first communities to bid for host town status, because it already has its own Special Olympic club for local athletes. The Mountbellew Tigers club has 20 members with intellectual disabilities, ranging in age from seven to 18. Formed two years ago with four voluntary coaches, including Ms Linehan, it is one of the first community-based initiatives of its kind.
"It came about through the integration of people with disabilities in mainstream education, and it is a wonderful development," Ms Linehan said. "The Mountbellew Tigers accompanied the local gardaí through the town on the torch run, and got a brilliant reception."
Mr Vincent Flynn, secretary of the host town committee, says that there wasn't such a crowd in the town since Galway won the all-Ireland football final in 1998, after 32 years.
Ana Bollo, who is competing in the 800-metre walk and the shot putt, finds the windswept west of Ireland climate very different from home. She lives in the Amazonian jungle, in Pastaza, and is one of a family of nine. Speaking through an interpreter, Ms Marie Heraughty, she said she was delighted to be in Co Galway. Four of the athletes have parents travelling to Dublin, but Ana's will watch the events on television in Pastaza.
Preparations for the Ecuadorean visit date back a long time in Mountbellew, and included Spanish classes organised by Cllr Jarlath McDonagh, a former senator who is adult education officer with Galway VEC.
Teachers Mr Michael Cunniffe and his wife, Ms Racarda Gonzales from Mexico, gave the tuition over eight weeks, and Ms Gonzales taught Mexican songs to the host committee. Tuition was also provided for the host town committee in Ballinasloe, which is accommodating the Dominican Republic delegation.
Several weeks ago, Mountbellew's host families programme was thrown into confusion when the Ecuadorean team asked if all the athletes could stay together. But the confusion was short-lived. The town's Franciscan Brothers Agricultural College agreed to take the visitors, while students attending a course at the college agreed to stay with the host families.