Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Quelcome Back Quito

Today is Wednesday and currently I am back in Quito, Ecuador enjoying a warm coffee near Plaza Fauch which is nestled within the tourist friendly neighborhoods of Miraflores. I spent three weeks in Quito nearly six months ago when enrolled in a Spanish Language School named Simon Bolivar and during this second stint of time I am staying in the same hostel as before, Vibes Backpackers, to see some close friends who are still working/living there.

This particular city is known for providing its citizens with an unpredictably diverse menu of daily changes in climate and at the moment there is an inviting taste of familiarity. Early phases of the morning were greeted with light rain showers followed by refreshing bursts of piercing sunlight, and currently a horde of dark grey clouds are beginning to consume the Ecuadorian capital's skyline like an invading act of nature.

I arrived in Quito yesterday afternoon to conclude a series of lengthy bus rides that originated in Chiclayo, Peru. After spending a little over a week visiting a very close friend in the northern Peruvian coastal city I hopped a bus to Tumbes on Monday afternoon then proceeded to cross the border into Ecuador at about three in the morning. The journey into Ecuador was extremely smooth despite the fact that it was extremely early and everyone was half-asleep. The gateway towards Quito was accomplished with a second bus from the massive port city of Guayaquil. Within minutes of exiting one bus I hastily boarded a second and finally 24 hours after departing Chiclayo my final destination was reached. This length of time might seem pretty harsh but in South America any bus trip that sits at less than 10 hours between locations feels like a warm Sunday morning brunch.

Quito is my second to last stop during this journey in South America and in three days I will return to the city where the foundations of the adventure took place:Bogota, Colombia. Returning to these locations feels very surreal because the person I was when I first arrived is definitely not who I am today. For one I now have a lot more experience in dealing with the various nuances of South American travel and additionally I have learned a great about myself plus about aspects of life in general. Living once again in Vibes feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone because the hostel is filled with entirely different faces and nearly every traveller in the facility is at the start of their Latin American adventure whereas I am on the cusp of returning home. Listening to people ask questions about various locations and express sensations of uncertainty towards future planning makes me feel like a weathered veteran waiting to finish a tour of duty while living in the barracks of freshly enlisted recruits.

It's exciting to see these people because it brings back memories of how life was only a short while ago and also because entirely new worlds are about to be opened for them and they don't even know it yet. It's also refreshing because I know in my heart it's time to come home, to see loved ones, to matriculate into the lifestyle that now feels like speedy flashes of once forgotten memories. Cheers to you newly arrived wanderers and treasure seekers, I've had my fun in this wonderfully enriching continent and now it's rightly time to pass you the torch :) Good night and good luck!

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