Change of Plans

As some of you may know, I had originally planned to do one month of volunteering on the coast after my time in the Galápagos. Well, that plan has changed. I had heard some poor reviews of the project I was supposed to do in the coast, and I knew that part of my work--taking stock of dead sharks at the fishing docks each morning--would not be pleasant, so I had to make a change. I had my flight back to the mainland of Ecuador on the 24th of February, that same morning I made the spontaneous decision that I wanted to spend my last month in Ecuador in a place I knew, with people I love.

So after landing in Guayaquil, I caught a taxi to the bus terminal, and managed to make a giant scene out in front of the terminal when I had a shouting match with the taxi driver because he tried to rip me off. So after thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of a crowd of stunned onlookers, I heaved my backpack over my shoulder and trudged into the monumental Terminal Terrestre. This is by far the biggest bus station in Ecuador, and perhaps one of the largest in the world. It not only runs buses to every destination in Ecuador and South America, but it doubles as a shopping mall. There are about 300 different bus companies to choose from when buying your ticket, so I bumbled around looking very confused for a while, before a nice ticket hawker with a gold tooth ushered me up to a booth and essentially bought my ticket for me.

I ended up getting on the bus with no issues, when about halfway through my journey I started wondering if the bus was actually going to Baños. It turns out my spider sense was right, and the last stop was in fact Ambato. Luckily for me, Ecuadorians assume tourists with blond hair are all idiots. So while the bus was parked at a gas station in Ambato the conductor asked me if I was going to Baños, then quickly rushed me off the bus, handed me my backpack, pointed to another bus parked a block away, and told me to run. Everything worked out fine in the end, and after another shouting match with the fee collector on the new bus, trying to explain to him that I already paid for passage to Baños in Guayaquil (he told me "not my problem" and I ended up having to pay the 80 cents), I arrived safe and sound in Baños.

Tony Bennet may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I left mine in the Amazon. So later today, that is where I will be headed, and for the next month I will simply try to relax and let myself go where the wind takes me.