So after a shuttle bus from the hostel to the bus station, waiting around, another bus to the airport, getting stopped and forced to buy a ticket on the spot out of Ecuador so I could get on my flight, buying a flight last minute at 5AM, slightly buzzed, waiting online again for what seemed like an eternity and getting through finally, and then another 13 or so hours of travel on 3 connecting flights, I finally arrived in one piece, amazingly with my bag...in Ecuador!
The first day in Cuenca I didn't do too much, as I was recovering from the 36 hours withought sleep and far too much travel. I got up for breakfast which turned out to be instant coffee, a huge portion of eggs and a ham and cheese sandwhich. If you know me you'll know how dissapointing that was. Around noon, when I finally felt slightly human again, I met a girl in the hostel who had been volunteering and traveling in Ecuador for 2 months. We decided to get lunch together and after wandering aimlessly looking for a place to eat and me pointing at pretty much every restaurant we saw and her rejecting every single one, we finally ended up at a vegan restaurant. And she's not even vegetarian. She ran into a friend there so we ended up eating with her as well. We ordered, and after a lot of confusion about what was actually available on the menu and a lot of back and forth ordering and reordering certain things, we finally had our orders securely placed. Then we watched as others around us recieved their meals and listened to our stomachs grumbling with growing hunger but all to no avail. About an hour after ordering, one dish made it out. Not mine, of course. The two of us watched her eat like vultures. Then our drinks finally showed up. And then my meal finally came, and it turned out to be so small that it could barely have passed for an appetizer. Or maybe I was just famished by that point. So we ended up going to get more food after all of that since we were clearly still hungry.
That night Jen arrived, after no sleep as well. So we went to bed early and woke to good conversations over many exquisite meals. This turned out to be the general routine. There is a lot of Mexican food in Ecuador which excited me because I forgot how much I missed avocado...specifically guacamole. So I got a healthy dose of the soft green goodness everyday. And Jen got me onto her pinapple obsession, so we had loads of pinapple juice with most meals as well. And of course, ice cream. Yes, I'm back to the daily ice cream breaks.
In Baños we hired a cab to take us on a tour of the waterfalls for 3 hours, for $20. Got some sketchy massages. And ate. In Quito we booked a last minute cruise to the Galapagos. And ate. And shopped some more, because apparently my hopes of being a minimalist, lightweight traveler, have slowely diminished with every market I encounter. My 40L bag is becoming the magical bag that fits way too many clothes than is good for it. It's like a clown car, seriously. I'm doing laundry less and less as a result, which is a perk I suppose. We got our authentic "Panama" hats, which are actually Ecuadorian hats. They somehow became mass produced in Panama, and became known as the Panama hat. But in fact they are from Ecuador...a little fun fact! And I thought it was very necessary to have an unplayable mini yukelele. Priorities! So yeah, life is good.
