After six weeks

After six weeks, I felt like Montañita was home. After six weeks, I could no longer wake up without my mom knocking on my door. I started to expect breakfast with fresh squeezed juice and coffee. I began to think that men really were incompetent in the kitchen. After six weeks my stomach realized that the butter, grease, and sugar diet was not going to stop. My skin got used to the salt water every afternoon and sometimes cold showers afterwards. My brain was thinking in Spanish more and more.

After six weeks, I had made many close friends, between profesoras, a couple foreigners, and my family. And after six weeks, it was surprisingly difficult to leave. I took all of the profesoras out for lunch on my last day, and they all promised me that I could practice my Spanish on Facebook when I got back to Los Estados Unidos. But to leave my family was the most difficult. Statements like "you should change your travel plans to stay in Montañita longer" or "when you come back, find our family, and you are always welcome to stay in our house (for free)" made it hard to say goodbye. The time eventually came, and after hugs and tears, my mom Belhika did her last motherly thing. She waited on the street with me, flagged down a local bus, helped me put my bag inside, hugged me goodbye, and put me on the bus. Next time I find myself in Ecuador, I will see my family again.

Fortunately, my close friend Tyler had come to Montañita two days before to begin our adventure in Ecuador. So off we were, two young "adults" with all of the clothes on our back and no plans. The next two weeks proved to be quite an adventure. Ten different places in the first 10 nights, a bullfight, over 19,300 feet in elevation, volcanos, camping, biking, bird watching, kayaking, go-carting, waterfalls, and plenty of local bus rides kept us entertained over the next several weeks. Read the next posts for the highlights of the trip. I apologize for the mast posting all at once, so take your time over the next couple of weeks to read them one at a time. I won´t have time to write again for a couple more weeks after this.