So I know I didn't want to figure things out so quick, but as soon as I got back things kind of fell into place. Danielle, my BFF since college, hooked me up with a job at her company. She's moving back from San Fran, so we get to work together in a month which I'm so excited about. This will actually be the 3rd time we work together, if you count our job in the mall in college which I don't think she does so I won't either.
Then my friend Laurie had a friend looking for a roommate, and she found a great apartment that I don't want to jinx quite yet but it's brand new and amazing and right smack in the middle of commuting to the city and to my family and friends in Brooklyn. It's in Bourem Hill, which I think I am spelling wrong (or so says spell check), which is close to Brooklyn Heights, Smith Street, Bococ, Trader Joe's, and the only Equinox in Bklyn! Cross your fingers for me that I get it. If so I'll be moving out for 10/15. For the 7th time since college - 8 if you count South America, which I guess I can't since I didn't actually LIVE anywhere except a dorm in Banos for a couple weeks.
Training for the 1/2 marathon is going great. I mean, I actually hate running, but I did 8 miles last week and Caryn and I are scheduled to do 9 on Friday in Park Slope. Just keep hoping that I don't get hurt again.
There's 5 weeks left til the marathon, and 4 weeks left til the Century. In between that are 2 weddings, and a trip to San Fran for work for training. Lots going on! I thought I would hate being a real person again but I don't mind it so much after all.
I decided if I get off for Christmas I'm going to try to get away somewhere - maybe somewhere in Central America since it's not nearly out of my system. Maybe Panama since that was the other spot I was looking at last Christmas, even though everyone told me it sucks there. Next year, deciding between New Zealand, Spain, Greece and Indonesia. I guess the spot will depend on who I'm going with. I'll start researching all the places so I'm prepared when the time comes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hope all my travel friends are doing great, and all my local friends, thanks for still reading :) I'll have one more batch of pictures coming if I ever develop this damn disposable camera that's been wasting away on the floor of my brother's room. Maybe this weekend at the TEAL Walk I'll finish it off and get those up here!
Lori and the Llama
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
I know everything happens for a reason, but...
Ok, so...as you all know, a whole bunch of things happened that caused me to cut my trip short. I come home, and end up getting to go to Seattle to visit an old friend that I haven't seen in 10 years - and a hurricane hits. I was rebooked THREE times today for my flight tomorrow morning, before my flight was canceled altogether.
So I've decided that for whatever reason, god is trying to tell me to be at home with my family and Foxy so we can all die together in the Category 2 hurricane that's making it's way to NY.
I'm not actually trying to be melodramatic here, but I'm actually really scared. A lot of my friends had to evacuate already, and people like my grandma, who live TWO BLOCKS from the Atlantic Ocean, refuse to leave their homes and I'm scared for them. I think in a way it's actually better if I'm here because if something does happen, well - I think it would be worse if I had made it out to Seattle, or heard about it while on my way back from Colombia. So let's cross our fingers and hope for the best...
I'm not actually trying to be melodramatic here, but I'm actually really scared. A lot of my friends had to evacuate already, and people like my grandma, who live TWO BLOCKS from the Atlantic Ocean, refuse to leave their homes and I'm scared for them. I think in a way it's actually better if I'm here because if something does happen, well - I think it would be worse if I had made it out to Seattle, or heard about it while on my way back from Colombia. So let's cross our fingers and hope for the best...
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thoughts from Brooklyn
Well I've been home just under 2 weeks now. I'm so happy to get to see my family and friends, but i really do miss being away! NY in the summer is a calamity. I hate tourists like no other, and since my non-job is performing shops in midtown, I'm always stuck there at the most inopportune times. I'm staying at my parents, which is great except for the fact that my clothes are scattered everywhere and I can't actually find anything. The train to the city is 1.5-2 hours and always has delays. And Foxy seems to think my parents' green carpet is grass, which means I'm forced to walk her way more than I ever did (which, to be fair, was never).
I got really stressed out about working right away, since I feel like I'm technically supposed to be in Colombia now therefore should get to just chill for a month. I miss not having plans ever but deciding what to so every morning. I'm trying to not make too many plans so I can still have that freedom. I got very sick as soon as I got home. The gluten issues kicked back in full force, probably because the food there had no chemicals and here everything seems to have soy, barley and malt, my 3 arch nemesises.
On the positive side, I've been doing lots of fun things. I'm training for a half marathon in SI in early
October, which gives me not only a goal, but something to occupy me during the week when people are all at work. There's no gyms in Sheepshead though so I'm forced to run outside and faint in the heat, or wait until my parents wake up at 1 pm so I can go on the treadmill in their room. I decided if I'm going to train, I want to also work on speed, so I put together this ridiculous schedule that I'm sure I won't follow but if I do, maybe will do the half at a pace of 8:30. In reality, I'm hoping I just don't end up getting 100 stress fractures again. It's been 3 days, so far so good!
Foxy now has a basket to sit in so she can join me on bike rides. She hates it and sits and glares at me every time we go over a bump. I love her so much and don't know why I enjoy torturing her this way.
What else. Todd threw me a welcome back party. That was really nice of him since I was def too lazy to do anything of the sort, and I've exceeded my limit of party throwing for the year!
I booked a weekend trip to Seattle to visit a friend from HS that I haven't seen in 10 years. I had a ton of miles so the flight was doable too! I want to go more places while I'm still not working!
I'm still deciding where to stay. I had 2 interviews but was very clear that I'm willing to relocate. I'm still thinking maybe Chi but I'm not sold on their winter. Philly was another option but I see 0 jobs in adv there.
What else. Ive developed severe insomnia. I stay up all night watching Entourage and Curb (nice Pinkberry plug Larry David!), and playing with Spotify trying to find new songs to entertain me while training. If I hear my 80s mix again I might cry.
I'm still a little paranoid, even though people aren't Ecuadorian (except Roland, who even though he's only half I'm scared he might rob me still. Kidding!)
I actually was scared of my own shadow the other day, and I have to call someone on my 17 min walk home from the train station because I'm scared someone is going to attack me again. It's getting a tiny bit better, but only a little.
I do miss my travel friends! Everyone in Colombia keeps telling me how great it is and it makes me sad. But I'm still convinced with the bad luck streak I was having I was going to end up kidnapped. Sarah, James and Dan did the Santa Cruz trek in Huaraz that I skipped and I so wish I could have done it with them.
Since I've been back though I've remembered just how much I love NY. I love the parks. The diversity (not including Times Square tourists. Still on the hate list). The fact that after being in SA for 4 months, my favorite Latin restaurants are Sushi Samba 7 (Brazilian, Peruvian and Japi fusion), Pio Pio (Peruvian) and Caracas (Venezuelan). Jack's does not count because even though it was in Peru it was an Aussie-run restaurant and I liked it mostly because they were the only people on the entire continent who knew how to make an egg white omelet.
On my walk home, one of the songs from Lost popped up. For some reason, I had downloaded 10 instrumental songs from Lost before I left that I listened to religiously while I was away. It put me to sleep at night, it played while I was on my marathon bus rides and it just relaxed me while I stared out the window at the amazing landscapes. I had it on when I reached whatever the top destination point when I was hiking. It became a constant for me (get it, Lost fans?) and when I was robbed, the first thing I thought was that I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep at night without listening to it. So tonight, as I was walking home, looking up at the sky and remembering that now that I'm back in the northern hemisphere, I'm no longer looking at the same sky (and getting sad while realizing this), the song came on, and instead of being sad that I'm not a little Latin free spirit hiking my way through the best continent in the world, I smiled because I realized that nothing is forever, and I'm just so lucky I got to be there at all, and so lucky to come back to a place that I love.
I got really stressed out about working right away, since I feel like I'm technically supposed to be in Colombia now therefore should get to just chill for a month. I miss not having plans ever but deciding what to so every morning. I'm trying to not make too many plans so I can still have that freedom. I got very sick as soon as I got home. The gluten issues kicked back in full force, probably because the food there had no chemicals and here everything seems to have soy, barley and malt, my 3 arch nemesises.
On the positive side, I've been doing lots of fun things. I'm training for a half marathon in SI in early
October, which gives me not only a goal, but something to occupy me during the week when people are all at work. There's no gyms in Sheepshead though so I'm forced to run outside and faint in the heat, or wait until my parents wake up at 1 pm so I can go on the treadmill in their room. I decided if I'm going to train, I want to also work on speed, so I put together this ridiculous schedule that I'm sure I won't follow but if I do, maybe will do the half at a pace of 8:30. In reality, I'm hoping I just don't end up getting 100 stress fractures again. It's been 3 days, so far so good!
Foxy now has a basket to sit in so she can join me on bike rides. She hates it and sits and glares at me every time we go over a bump. I love her so much and don't know why I enjoy torturing her this way.
What else. Todd threw me a welcome back party. That was really nice of him since I was def too lazy to do anything of the sort, and I've exceeded my limit of party throwing for the year!
I booked a weekend trip to Seattle to visit a friend from HS that I haven't seen in 10 years. I had a ton of miles so the flight was doable too! I want to go more places while I'm still not working!
I'm still deciding where to stay. I had 2 interviews but was very clear that I'm willing to relocate. I'm still thinking maybe Chi but I'm not sold on their winter. Philly was another option but I see 0 jobs in adv there.
What else. Ive developed severe insomnia. I stay up all night watching Entourage and Curb (nice Pinkberry plug Larry David!), and playing with Spotify trying to find new songs to entertain me while training. If I hear my 80s mix again I might cry.
I'm still a little paranoid, even though people aren't Ecuadorian (except Roland, who even though he's only half I'm scared he might rob me still. Kidding!)
I actually was scared of my own shadow the other day, and I have to call someone on my 17 min walk home from the train station because I'm scared someone is going to attack me again. It's getting a tiny bit better, but only a little.
I do miss my travel friends! Everyone in Colombia keeps telling me how great it is and it makes me sad. But I'm still convinced with the bad luck streak I was having I was going to end up kidnapped. Sarah, James and Dan did the Santa Cruz trek in Huaraz that I skipped and I so wish I could have done it with them.
Since I've been back though I've remembered just how much I love NY. I love the parks. The diversity (not including Times Square tourists. Still on the hate list). The fact that after being in SA for 4 months, my favorite Latin restaurants are Sushi Samba 7 (Brazilian, Peruvian and Japi fusion), Pio Pio (Peruvian) and Caracas (Venezuelan). Jack's does not count because even though it was in Peru it was an Aussie-run restaurant and I liked it mostly because they were the only people on the entire continent who knew how to make an egg white omelet.
On my walk home, one of the songs from Lost popped up. For some reason, I had downloaded 10 instrumental songs from Lost before I left that I listened to religiously while I was away. It put me to sleep at night, it played while I was on my marathon bus rides and it just relaxed me while I stared out the window at the amazing landscapes. I had it on when I reached whatever the top destination point when I was hiking. It became a constant for me (get it, Lost fans?) and when I was robbed, the first thing I thought was that I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep at night without listening to it. So tonight, as I was walking home, looking up at the sky and remembering that now that I'm back in the northern hemisphere, I'm no longer looking at the same sky (and getting sad while realizing this), the song came on, and instead of being sad that I'm not a little Latin free spirit hiking my way through the best continent in the world, I smiled because I realized that nothing is forever, and I'm just so lucky I got to be there at all, and so lucky to come back to a place that I love.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Lost Girls
I realized I never officially posted the link, since I had kept my whole trip a secret for a good 5 months beforehand. So here is a link to the website I was featured on!
http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/2010/12/lost-girl-of-the-week-lori-kessler/
"The Lost Girls" is a blog written by 3 girls, all from NY, who worked in advertising and publishing and decided to all quit their jobs and take a round-the-world trip a few years back. They wrote a blog while they were on the road which got a huge following, and when they got back they turned into a book (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Girls-Friends-Continents-Unconventional/dp/0061689076/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312781028&sr=1-2).
"The Lost Girls" is a term describing both their own uncertainty about the future and an emotional state. I already knew I wanted some sort of major life change before reading this, but it totally encouraged me to be brave enough to take the leap and not worry about the consequences when I returned.
Quote from the book: "Up until then, we'd successfully hit the milestones that are supposed to give young women a sense of purpose: Moving away from Mom and Dad. Graduating from college. Getting our first jobs. Falling in love. But as we rocketed toward the next major stage (the one involving mortgages, marriages, and 2.2 children), we all wondered: were the paths that we were heading down the right ones for us - or were we simply staying the course because we thought we should?(I) was the road most frequently traveled the one that we wanted to follow?"
So true, so true.
So anyway, the girls still keep a blog now, and they feature a 'Lost Girl of the Week'. Lost Girl's are anyone who is doing something in a similar fashion, and you can submit to be a Lost Girl. I read the book, loved it, and was a Lost Girl in December! I am back in NY now so no longer 'lost', so to speak, but I love that I got to be a part of this!
http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/2010/12/lost-girl-of-the-week-lori-kessler/
"The Lost Girls" is a blog written by 3 girls, all from NY, who worked in advertising and publishing and decided to all quit their jobs and take a round-the-world trip a few years back. They wrote a blog while they were on the road which got a huge following, and when they got back they turned into a book (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Girls-Friends-Continents-Unconventional/dp/0061689076/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312781028&sr=1-2).
"The Lost Girls" is a term describing both their own uncertainty about the future and an emotional state. I already knew I wanted some sort of major life change before reading this, but it totally encouraged me to be brave enough to take the leap and not worry about the consequences when I returned.
Quote from the book: "Up until then, we'd successfully hit the milestones that are supposed to give young women a sense of purpose: Moving away from Mom and Dad. Graduating from college. Getting our first jobs. Falling in love. But as we rocketed toward the next major stage (the one involving mortgages, marriages, and 2.2 children), we all wondered: were the paths that we were heading down the right ones for us - or were we simply staying the course because we thought we should?(I) was the road most frequently traveled the one that we wanted to follow?"
So true, so true.
So anyway, the girls still keep a blog now, and they feature a 'Lost Girl of the Week'. Lost Girl's are anyone who is doing something in a similar fashion, and you can submit to be a Lost Girl. I read the book, loved it, and was a Lost Girl in December! I am back in NY now so no longer 'lost', so to speak, but I love that I got to be a part of this!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
El fin de mi viaje
Last night in Ecuador. I really cant believe my trip is over! It doesn't feel like 120 days ago that I went with my family, Foxy included, to Newark with my way too heavy backpack in tow and only dreams of what lay ahead. I was terrified in the beginning. I didn't understand where the 'right' way to go was, how to get around with my poor, fragmented spanish, and how to make my money last when I spent 3x more than my budget for the first week. But I learned how to survive, how to make friends, how to be a real backpacker. I'm really proud of myself for somehow figuring out how to take buses from the southernmost tip of the continent all the way up to Ecuador {Ibarra is as far north as I got}. I know I've been trying to convince myself that I'm glad to skip Colombia, and I am even moreso after I met people today who had more horror stories about both Ecuador and Colombia, including people getting robbed in the Bogota airport, right in front of police!
I'm going to miss the amazement I felt every time I got off the bus in a new city {although I won't miss how tired I was from not sleeping due to the bumpiness of the roads on the overnight buses}. Getting to a hostel, making new friends, and wandering off to climb glaciers and set off into the jungle with them. Spending this last week in Banos with Sarah and James, I realized just how much people you meet on the road come to mean to you. Even though combined I probably only spent about 2 weeks with them, I felt like I knew them for years and was so upset to leave this morning. I now have friends around the world, people like Cassie & Kenzie who I spent nearly 3 months with! There were people I spent just a day with but won't forget them just the same, it's such a different kind of friendship you build with people that are all in the same situation as you.
I put together a few little details that I found interesting from things I've done over the last 4 months.
Travel time: 503 hours. This # includes any ride that took more than 1 hour each way. Most of these hours were spent on buses, followed by boats, and planes. Hours spent trekking are not included, however if they were we'd probably have another 100 or so on here in total.
Books read: 29.5. Favorites - Love is a Mix Tape, and the Hunger Games Series.
Countries visited: 7. Some I was in for almost 2 months {Argentina}, others for only 5 hours {Brazil}.
Cities visited: 50. Mas o menos
Entry/exit stamps into Chile: 8. Times actually in Chile intentionally: 2.
Attempted robberies: 3
Successful robberies: 1
Favorite cities: Buenos Aires (despite robbery attempts) & Cuzco
Favorite foods: dulce de leche, alfajores & empanadas
Least favorite place: Ecuador. Full of muggists, rapists and serial killers. Never again!
Top 5, in no particular order: Walking on the glacier in El Calafate. Iguazu falls. Galapagos Islands. Death road bike ride. Salar de Uyuni.
Now that I'm back in NY, I don't feel like I was ever gone. It's weird, I thought it would take me a while to adjust to being back in civilization, but not the case. The trains still have delays, Times Square is still full of tourists, and I still felt the need to go shopping the second I stepped foot back in the city. I will never forget this amazing adventure, and luckily this blog will help preserve my memories.
Hasta lluego!
I'm going to miss the amazement I felt every time I got off the bus in a new city {although I won't miss how tired I was from not sleeping due to the bumpiness of the roads on the overnight buses}. Getting to a hostel, making new friends, and wandering off to climb glaciers and set off into the jungle with them. Spending this last week in Banos with Sarah and James, I realized just how much people you meet on the road come to mean to you. Even though combined I probably only spent about 2 weeks with them, I felt like I knew them for years and was so upset to leave this morning. I now have friends around the world, people like Cassie & Kenzie who I spent nearly 3 months with! There were people I spent just a day with but won't forget them just the same, it's such a different kind of friendship you build with people that are all in the same situation as you.
I put together a few little details that I found interesting from things I've done over the last 4 months.
Travel time: 503 hours. This # includes any ride that took more than 1 hour each way. Most of these hours were spent on buses, followed by boats, and planes. Hours spent trekking are not included, however if they were we'd probably have another 100 or so on here in total.
Books read: 29.5. Favorites - Love is a Mix Tape, and the Hunger Games Series.
Countries visited: 7. Some I was in for almost 2 months {Argentina}, others for only 5 hours {Brazil}.
Cities visited: 50. Mas o menos
Entry/exit stamps into Chile: 8. Times actually in Chile intentionally: 2.
Attempted robberies: 3
Successful robberies: 1
Favorite cities: Buenos Aires (despite robbery attempts) & Cuzco
Favorite foods: dulce de leche, alfajores & empanadas
Least favorite place: Ecuador. Full of muggists, rapists and serial killers. Never again!
Top 5, in no particular order: Walking on the glacier in El Calafate. Iguazu falls. Galapagos Islands. Death road bike ride. Salar de Uyuni.
Now that I'm back in NY, I don't feel like I was ever gone. It's weird, I thought it would take me a while to adjust to being back in civilization, but not the case. The trains still have delays, Times Square is still full of tourists, and I still felt the need to go shopping the second I stepped foot back in the city. I will never forget this amazing adventure, and luckily this blog will help preserve my memories.
Hasta lluego!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Baños, la ultima parada (the last stop)
Well, it´s been quite a journey. After planning this adventure for nearly 2 years, it´s about to come to an end. I set off out of Newark on April 3, and will be coming back to JFK on August 1st. 4 months. I can´t believe how fast it went by. I am both happy and sad that I´m missing Colombia, but I´m sure another day, on a different trip, I´ll make it there. The places I want to go are easily doable on a 3 week trip in the future, when I´m with a friend.
Baños was the perfect town to end my trip in. It´s this little town 3 hours from Quito, 1 hour from the Amazon, surrounded by volcanoes, lush greenery and a ton of action sports.
My first day here I went to the travel agency to find out about the different activities I could do, assuming at 3:30 pm it was too late to do anything my first day. Not the case. They said, ¨you can do the bridge jump right now if you want¨, to which I said ¨sure!¨, not even knowing what the lady was talking about. This crazy, drunken Ecuadorian guide pulls up in a 4x4 and tells me to get in. We drive to the San Francisco bridge, which is the tallest bridge you can jump off of in Baños. This dude is swerving all over the road and I´m convinced he´s going to forget to connect my harness and I´m going to tumble to my death. Yet still I continue because, well, I´ve had enough trouble in Ecuador so may as well see if my luck is changing!
He puts me in the harness, tells me to stand on the platform, which has two footprints with half the foot only because the other half dangles over the edge. He tells me onthe count of 3 to put my arms out like Superman and jump. Of course I protest, because unlike the times I´ve bungee jumped in Mexico, I saw where I was going to land, and from this place all I saw was rocks and water below. He promised I would swinglike a pendulum and there was a man at the bottom that would bring me back in. My legs were shaking like crazy and I don´t know how it happened, but when he counted to 3 something made my legs move and off I went. It was a crazy rush and I loved all 3 seconds of it! The town is filled with thermal springs and spas offering every massage under the sun for $20, more than Peru´s $6 running cost but still way less than NYC! I got a massage my first day, which helped me relax after my hellish days in Quito.
The second day here I went canyoning in the morning. Canyoning is kind of like rock climbing in a waterfall. But by climbing, I mean slipping, because the rocks are wet and you can´t actually grip them, so you slip and slide your way down while the guide (the same drunk guy Alex) pulls you down. At the bottom you have to jump backwards into ice water, which was just lovely. There are 4 waterfalls in all, and one of them you have to slide down, which was somehow more scary than being pulled down by the harness. When I got back from the canyoning I set off for a 3 hour hike. There is so much to do here I couldn´t sit still at all. I somehow ended up back at the massage place. Hope I don´t make a daily habit of this! I met 2 really nice girls from the US at dinner that night, and made plans to take a 80km bike ride to the jungle town, Puyo, with one of them the next day.
So on day 3 I set off on one of the most beautiful rides I´ve ever been on. Everything was in the jungle so giant green plants, beautiful flowers and countless cascadas (waterfalls). One was called something like the Devil´s Mouth, and the waterfall was so powerful that as it hit the water the roar it made was deafening. We got soaked at that one too because it all splashed up onto the viewing platform. We stopped at km 66 for lunch because we both were about to faint. It was this little shack on the side of the road that said ´trucha´, which means trout, and we assumed they had food so that was where we went. We asked for our choices, and they told us ´trout or tilapia´. So we got one of each, but really what they served us was plate after plate of all sorts of different things - salad, plantains, rice- so much food that I was glad when it started raining and I didn´t have to get back onto my bike! The 2 daughters of the man who owned the fish shack were so cute, they were 7 & 16 and they helped us flag down a bus from the side of the road to throw our bikes on to return to town. Such a fun day, and good training since I´m doing a Century ride in NJ in the end of September!
Day 4 started off with a ´steam health bath´. I didn´t know what it was, but they offered it for $3.50 in my hostel. So at 7:30 in the morning I went into the spa and they made me sit in this little wodden box in my bathing suit, filled with steam, for 5 minutes at a time. After 5 minutes just when I felt like I was going to faint, I had to get out and towel myself off with ice water. This was repeated 4 more times, and after the last time I got sprayed down with ice cold water. It is supposed to be detoxing, so why not. I felt good after, grabbed breakfast and then set off for white water rafting. I´ve been rafting a few times before, and I´ve enjoyed it almost every time (favorite was the time in New Paltz when we drank our way down the rapids, least favorite was with my parents when it was less than Level 1 and I napped the whole time because it was SO boring!) This one was crazy. The rapids were amazing. The group I was with was all from a non-profit agency from the states that work setting up volunteers to work in indigenous communities in Latin America, and a guy from Canada who thought I was his neighbor due to the Lulu gear (I still love getting recognized for my Lulu!) I was laughing the whole way down the rapids, had the time of my life, and found out about a ton more things to do while I´m here.
When I got back, I went to the hot springs with 2 new friends from my hostel, Sam from Aus and Jose from Portgual. Two guys sharing a room with me in my all-female dorm. That´s South America for you, you never get what´s advertised! The town Baños is named after the natural thermal baths all around the town, the ones we went to were filled with locals and the water was so murky that although it was natural, I probably acquired 15 different diseases from sitting in it. After the springs we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and while we were sitting there, there was a big commotion across the street. A drunk man (un barracho) decided he didn´t like his meal at the Swiss fondue place (what a local was doing at the fondue place is beyond me since I only see them at the small local joints with no menus, or picking up the street food), and he decided he didn´t want to pay and also wanted to pick a fight with the waiter. That made for an amusing experience, as people kept coming to drag him away and 5 minutes later he was back screaming outside the restaurant again. So apparently the rule in Ecuador is if you don´t like your food you don´t pay, and if you like my bag you steal it.
Day 6, I really started to feel settled in here. I haven´t spent more than 5 days straight anywhere, which never really gives you enough time to get settled in and learn enough about your surroundings. But this town is really small, and easy to learn, and since I´ll be here another week I´m really trying to adjust and know it in and out before heading back to NY. I started my spanish lessons this morning, which I can already tell I´m going to love. My teacher, Yvonne, picked me up at the hostel and said for the first 30 minutes we would walk around having a conversation in spanish so she could evaluate how much I knew and where to begin. She said that my vocabulary was pretty good, but I can only speak in present tense and have no idea how to conjugate, which I even remember from HS I always had trouble with. I decided on a week long course with 4 hours a day, and in only one day I felt like I learned a ton. It´s a different method from Rosetta Stone, which I still swear by, but this is different because it´s one-on-one, I can ask questions when I´m confused, and learn things that are applicable to the situation rather than just what Rosetta thinks I might need to know. For example, we had a conversation about government and elections, and the corruption in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia. A much more detailed and interesting conversation than I´ve been accustomed to having due to my limited vocabulary. I´ll have homework to do each night (except tomorrow when I got to the jungle), and it will definitely keep me busy my last week. The more I´m here the more I wish I was going to Colombia to practice my spanish and finish the trip, but I still don´t regret my decision to come home because I´m still convinced something bad would have happened if I´d stayed. Yvonne showed me the secret for lunch (almorzar), which is to buy maiz (corn) from the stands, which they cover in tomatoes, onion, and aji sauce. For 50 cents, you have a delicious, quasi-nutricious lunch. I also learned that when you go in to get any kind of spa procedure, they charge you less if you don´t ask how much beforehand. If you ask how much they know you´re a tourist and they double the price. But I went for a pedicure and just sat down and didn´t say a word, and in the end they charged me $5 - half the price I was quoted when I asked yesterday. So I´m definitely learning the ropes here, and am so excited to continue my lessons next week!
The jungle unfortunately wasn´t much to write about. We went to a monkey park at the beginning of the day, which was great because there were monkeys crawling all over us, but after that the rest of the day was spent hiking in mud and taking the worl´d worst canoe ride. They put me on a Spanish tour, so I only understood fragments of what he was telling us. Luckily my friend Jose was there to translate, but not enough for me to actually understand half of what the guide was saying.
My friends Sarah & James came on Sunday, and I´m so happy to be spending my last week with them. Every day I have spanish lessons from 9-12, and then we get lunch and explore Baños. We went on a hike one day, found a hookah bar, and are having a farewell party on Friday with Sarah´s homemade Caprihanas that she learned how to make in Brazil. Since it´s raining the whole week, we decided to spend our afternoons pampering ourselves at the spa. They have all sorts of weird detox and mud treatments we´re going to experiment with because, for $7, why not!!
Saturday afternoon I´ll head back to Quito, where I will not leave my hostel until 4:00 Sunday morning when I go straight in a cab to the airport and start my journey home. The best part is that Todd graciously offered to throw me a welcome back party, which I´m really looking forward to. I can´t believe it´s been 4 months since I´ve seen my friends (minus Caryn & Mike, Melissa, & Marlene & Alex). Almost home!
Baños was the perfect town to end my trip in. It´s this little town 3 hours from Quito, 1 hour from the Amazon, surrounded by volcanoes, lush greenery and a ton of action sports.
My first day here I went to the travel agency to find out about the different activities I could do, assuming at 3:30 pm it was too late to do anything my first day. Not the case. They said, ¨you can do the bridge jump right now if you want¨, to which I said ¨sure!¨, not even knowing what the lady was talking about. This crazy, drunken Ecuadorian guide pulls up in a 4x4 and tells me to get in. We drive to the San Francisco bridge, which is the tallest bridge you can jump off of in Baños. This dude is swerving all over the road and I´m convinced he´s going to forget to connect my harness and I´m going to tumble to my death. Yet still I continue because, well, I´ve had enough trouble in Ecuador so may as well see if my luck is changing!
He puts me in the harness, tells me to stand on the platform, which has two footprints with half the foot only because the other half dangles over the edge. He tells me onthe count of 3 to put my arms out like Superman and jump. Of course I protest, because unlike the times I´ve bungee jumped in Mexico, I saw where I was going to land, and from this place all I saw was rocks and water below. He promised I would swinglike a pendulum and there was a man at the bottom that would bring me back in. My legs were shaking like crazy and I don´t know how it happened, but when he counted to 3 something made my legs move and off I went. It was a crazy rush and I loved all 3 seconds of it! The town is filled with thermal springs and spas offering every massage under the sun for $20, more than Peru´s $6 running cost but still way less than NYC! I got a massage my first day, which helped me relax after my hellish days in Quito.
The second day here I went canyoning in the morning. Canyoning is kind of like rock climbing in a waterfall. But by climbing, I mean slipping, because the rocks are wet and you can´t actually grip them, so you slip and slide your way down while the guide (the same drunk guy Alex) pulls you down. At the bottom you have to jump backwards into ice water, which was just lovely. There are 4 waterfalls in all, and one of them you have to slide down, which was somehow more scary than being pulled down by the harness. When I got back from the canyoning I set off for a 3 hour hike. There is so much to do here I couldn´t sit still at all. I somehow ended up back at the massage place. Hope I don´t make a daily habit of this! I met 2 really nice girls from the US at dinner that night, and made plans to take a 80km bike ride to the jungle town, Puyo, with one of them the next day.
So on day 3 I set off on one of the most beautiful rides I´ve ever been on. Everything was in the jungle so giant green plants, beautiful flowers and countless cascadas (waterfalls). One was called something like the Devil´s Mouth, and the waterfall was so powerful that as it hit the water the roar it made was deafening. We got soaked at that one too because it all splashed up onto the viewing platform. We stopped at km 66 for lunch because we both were about to faint. It was this little shack on the side of the road that said ´trucha´, which means trout, and we assumed they had food so that was where we went. We asked for our choices, and they told us ´trout or tilapia´. So we got one of each, but really what they served us was plate after plate of all sorts of different things - salad, plantains, rice- so much food that I was glad when it started raining and I didn´t have to get back onto my bike! The 2 daughters of the man who owned the fish shack were so cute, they were 7 & 16 and they helped us flag down a bus from the side of the road to throw our bikes on to return to town. Such a fun day, and good training since I´m doing a Century ride in NJ in the end of September!
Day 4 started off with a ´steam health bath´. I didn´t know what it was, but they offered it for $3.50 in my hostel. So at 7:30 in the morning I went into the spa and they made me sit in this little wodden box in my bathing suit, filled with steam, for 5 minutes at a time. After 5 minutes just when I felt like I was going to faint, I had to get out and towel myself off with ice water. This was repeated 4 more times, and after the last time I got sprayed down with ice cold water. It is supposed to be detoxing, so why not. I felt good after, grabbed breakfast and then set off for white water rafting. I´ve been rafting a few times before, and I´ve enjoyed it almost every time (favorite was the time in New Paltz when we drank our way down the rapids, least favorite was with my parents when it was less than Level 1 and I napped the whole time because it was SO boring!) This one was crazy. The rapids were amazing. The group I was with was all from a non-profit agency from the states that work setting up volunteers to work in indigenous communities in Latin America, and a guy from Canada who thought I was his neighbor due to the Lulu gear (I still love getting recognized for my Lulu!) I was laughing the whole way down the rapids, had the time of my life, and found out about a ton more things to do while I´m here.
When I got back, I went to the hot springs with 2 new friends from my hostel, Sam from Aus and Jose from Portgual. Two guys sharing a room with me in my all-female dorm. That´s South America for you, you never get what´s advertised! The town Baños is named after the natural thermal baths all around the town, the ones we went to were filled with locals and the water was so murky that although it was natural, I probably acquired 15 different diseases from sitting in it. After the springs we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and while we were sitting there, there was a big commotion across the street. A drunk man (un barracho) decided he didn´t like his meal at the Swiss fondue place (what a local was doing at the fondue place is beyond me since I only see them at the small local joints with no menus, or picking up the street food), and he decided he didn´t want to pay and also wanted to pick a fight with the waiter. That made for an amusing experience, as people kept coming to drag him away and 5 minutes later he was back screaming outside the restaurant again. So apparently the rule in Ecuador is if you don´t like your food you don´t pay, and if you like my bag you steal it.
Day 6, I really started to feel settled in here. I haven´t spent more than 5 days straight anywhere, which never really gives you enough time to get settled in and learn enough about your surroundings. But this town is really small, and easy to learn, and since I´ll be here another week I´m really trying to adjust and know it in and out before heading back to NY. I started my spanish lessons this morning, which I can already tell I´m going to love. My teacher, Yvonne, picked me up at the hostel and said for the first 30 minutes we would walk around having a conversation in spanish so she could evaluate how much I knew and where to begin. She said that my vocabulary was pretty good, but I can only speak in present tense and have no idea how to conjugate, which I even remember from HS I always had trouble with. I decided on a week long course with 4 hours a day, and in only one day I felt like I learned a ton. It´s a different method from Rosetta Stone, which I still swear by, but this is different because it´s one-on-one, I can ask questions when I´m confused, and learn things that are applicable to the situation rather than just what Rosetta thinks I might need to know. For example, we had a conversation about government and elections, and the corruption in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia. A much more detailed and interesting conversation than I´ve been accustomed to having due to my limited vocabulary. I´ll have homework to do each night (except tomorrow when I got to the jungle), and it will definitely keep me busy my last week. The more I´m here the more I wish I was going to Colombia to practice my spanish and finish the trip, but I still don´t regret my decision to come home because I´m still convinced something bad would have happened if I´d stayed. Yvonne showed me the secret for lunch (almorzar), which is to buy maiz (corn) from the stands, which they cover in tomatoes, onion, and aji sauce. For 50 cents, you have a delicious, quasi-nutricious lunch. I also learned that when you go in to get any kind of spa procedure, they charge you less if you don´t ask how much beforehand. If you ask how much they know you´re a tourist and they double the price. But I went for a pedicure and just sat down and didn´t say a word, and in the end they charged me $5 - half the price I was quoted when I asked yesterday. So I´m definitely learning the ropes here, and am so excited to continue my lessons next week!
The jungle unfortunately wasn´t much to write about. We went to a monkey park at the beginning of the day, which was great because there were monkeys crawling all over us, but after that the rest of the day was spent hiking in mud and taking the worl´d worst canoe ride. They put me on a Spanish tour, so I only understood fragments of what he was telling us. Luckily my friend Jose was there to translate, but not enough for me to actually understand half of what the guide was saying.
My friends Sarah & James came on Sunday, and I´m so happy to be spending my last week with them. Every day I have spanish lessons from 9-12, and then we get lunch and explore Baños. We went on a hike one day, found a hookah bar, and are having a farewell party on Friday with Sarah´s homemade Caprihanas that she learned how to make in Brazil. Since it´s raining the whole week, we decided to spend our afternoons pampering ourselves at the spa. They have all sorts of weird detox and mud treatments we´re going to experiment with because, for $7, why not!!
Saturday afternoon I´ll head back to Quito, where I will not leave my hostel until 4:00 Sunday morning when I go straight in a cab to the airport and start my journey home. The best part is that Todd graciously offered to throw me a welcome back party, which I´m really looking forward to. I can´t believe it´s been 4 months since I´ve seen my friends (minus Caryn & Mike, Melissa, & Marlene & Alex). Almost home!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Made it out alive
Just wanted to let everyone know I made it out of Quito safe and sound. I´m in Baños, I absolutely love it here. I bungee jumped off a bridge 15 minutes after I checked in, got a massage and scheduled a ton of fun activities to keep me busy for the next 2 weeks, including canyoning, rafting, a jungle trip that includes a monkey park, climbing Cotopaxi, and a ton of day hikes, mountain bike rides and cheap massages.
Now I can finish this trip on a good note!
Now I can finish this trip on a good note!
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