Vacation?

"Get me out of the jungle. NOW." That's what I was thinking to myself four days ago as we sat at the port in Mondaña waiting for a canoe to take us up the flooded Napo River. We had been there for 21 days and we were on our second straight month with our youngest group of students. Yes, that's 21 straight days of sweating, itching, and living with a bunch of 16 year olds who were just as ready for a break from us as we were ready for a break for them. I needed my vacation. 

I know what you're probably thinking... Ryan, you live in the rainforest, you have no expenses, your food is provided for you, and you spend a large majority of your time reading in a hammock and playing volleyball. Not to mention you technically only teach one hour of class a day... You are already on vacation. You make a good point. I shouldn't complain. I've got a pretty good thing going. However, I would argue that life in the jungle is not that simple. It's not for everyone. And as for the only teaching one hour a day thing, I would remind you that I live IN a school with my students. So while I am only technically teaching one hour of class I day, in reality, I am always teaching. 

Anyway, I was sitting there at the port at 9:30am on Friday and I was ready to get out. Let me remind you, if you haven't read my other posts, that this is never a simple task. Add a flooded river to that equation and getting out of Mondaña can be nearly impossible. So after sitting there for almost an hour without seeing a single canoe go by, we finally convinced one of the community members to take us up the river to Los Rios in his canoe. The normal 20 minute ride up river took about 40 minutes because of the speed of the river, but nonetheless we arrived safely in Los Rios around 11:00am. We asked when the next bus left for Tena and received the standard reply, "Ya mismo." Technically this phrase means "right now" but anyone who has traveled in Ecuador knows that it actually translates to, "Whenever the hell I want." We were pleasantly surprised when the bus left only a half hour later at 11:30am. At 3:30pm we finally arrived in Tena. Our normal three hour trip to Tena had now had us on the road for six hours. We had not eaten anything all day and like any experienced travelers we had sufficiently dehydrated ourselves to avoid having to pee for four hours on a bouncing jungle bus. So far this was not feeling like vacation.

Things, however, were starting to look up when our favorite hostel in Tena had beds available for us and our favorite cafe was serving up ice cold guayusa tea and crunchy fried yuca. Followed by a nice afternoon nap, some reading, a warm shower, and cheap tacos and beer for dinner, my mood was as good as it had been for days. We should have stayed in Tena...

The next morning we caught the 6:30am bus out of Tena to Quito. Although this ride usually takes between four and five hours, the buses are comfortable and not too crowded and the views are absolutely breathtaking as you make your way up out of the Amazon rainforest and into the Andes Mountains. Really a pretty enjoyable trip. On top of that, we didn't even need to take the bus all the way through the city when we arrived since we were meeting our friend Megan in Cumbaya, one of Quito's outlying suburbs. We could see the city up ahead of us. We were almost there. Our trip seemed as if it was too good to be true. It was. The bus stopped. There was a bridge out up ahead. The bus would have to take a detour. Almost everyone else exited the bus. This was not a good sign.

Fortunately a kind Ecuadorian woman was nice enough to take the two clueless gringos under her wing and guide us into the city. We followed her like two lost puppies as neither of us had any idea where in the hell we were. We tried to call Megan to let her know that we were having some technical difficulties and would need to find a new meeting spot. Naturally, we were also having problems with our phones. We could receive calls from her but could not make calls. Thus, any time we needed to talk to her we had to text her and then she had to call us. Finally, after three bus switches, a trolley ride, a cab ride, and about thirty calls later, we met up with Megan around 1:30pm. Luckily our cab dropped us off in front of a bread shop as we were, again, both starved and dehydrated. I got some "pan de leche" and instantly felt better. Pan de leche can cure anything. 

The adventure wasn't over though. Now the three of us still needed to meet up with our fourth friend, Stephanie, at the bus station to catch the 2:00pm bus to Mindo. We arrived without too much problem to the main bus terminal and went to buy our tickets. Little did we know that when the internet bus schedule says the bus leaves at 2:00pm it actually means 4:00pm. The woman at the ticket window insures us that there are no other buses. We will wait. We can't get ahold of Stephanie anyway. Maybe her flight was delayed? At 1:50pm we receive a call from her saying that she has gone to the other bus station because she didn't think we would wait until 4:00pm. She has a ticket for the bus that leaves at 2:00pm. We ask a taxi driver how quick he can get us there. He says 15 or 20 minutes depending on traffic. Megan explains to him that our bus leaves in 10 minutes and he needs to drive "como loco." He tells us he will drive like his mother-in-law is following him. We arrive in 8 minutes... Only to find out that the bus could not wait for us. Miraculously we wanted to be on the only bus in the history of Ecuador, and probably South America for that matter, that left EARLIER than scheduled. Fantastic. Luckily there was another bus leaving in 20 minutes so we bought our second set of tickets and loaded our things. 

Two hours later we arrived in Mindo at a nice little hostel with private rooms and breakfast included. Well worth the steep $15 price per night. It was now about 5:00pm on Saturday. About 32 hours since we left from Yachana. I wad exhausted and needed to rest and that is precisely what I did for two days. We took a few short hikes, did some amateur bird watching and found a flock of parrots perched in a tree, drank good coffee in the morning, and thoroughly enjoyed two different local chocolate shops that made the best brownies I have ever had. Other than that I spent most of my time lounging in a hammock and reading a book. I was finally feeling like I was on vacation. Again, we should have stuck with a good thing once we had found it but decided to press on to Quito. This was a vacation after all and we would hate to sit still for too long. 

Monday morning we got up early for a walk and a good breakfast in Mindo before heading out. Amanda had been a little sick all weekend but was beginning to feel better. Unfortunately Stephanie had now come down with the flu also and decided that the worst thing she could do was ride on a bus through the mountains for two hours. Upon finding out that the flu, or some kind of sickness, was spreading, Megan and I went on an immediate preventative excursion. We refused to be sick. We choked down some "sangre de drago" (yes, that translates to "dragon's blood") which is supposed to cure everything under the sun, loaded up on vitamins and pepto tablets, drank plenty of fruit juice, ate plenty of veggies, and finished off with another brownie for good measure. 

Monday afternoon around 4:00pm, Megan, Amanda, and I made it back to Quito, all in relatively good health. Amanda and I said our goodbyes to Megan and headed to our hostel. Oh by the way, the nice hostel that we had planned to stay in for the week was all booked up when we checked the day before so we had to settle for one night in a cheap hostel in the Mariscal district of Quito where tourists come for cheap alcohol and wild dance clubs. Not exactly a place to just chill out. I would love to tell you all that our current vacation nightmare ended there and we got a great night of rest and everyone lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, I have one last story to tell...

Around 2:30am Tuesday morning, three of our drunk and stumbling roommates entered the room where Amanda and I and the other functioning member of society in our room had been sleeping peacefully since about 9:00pm. We were awakened by these three stooges as they attempted to climb into their beds. This is part of staying in a hostel. We were all experienced travelers and were well aware of that. So, we tolerated it and were even slightly entertained by it...until the puking began. Yes, two of the three goons that had woken us up began to vomit in and around their beds. That is where we drew the line. We got up and left the room to go sleep in some chairs downstairs. The very nice owner of the hostel was very apologetic and made up some beds for us on the floor in a common room on the main floor. Again we began to sleep peacefully for about an hour until the owner came in and woke us again and insisted that we move to another room that he had prepared for us. Finally around 5:00am I got to sleep and put together a record two hours of consecutive hostel rest. 

I woke up around 7:00am. I was still exhausted. My throat and lips were dry from the arid mountain air in Quito. My eyes hurt both from lack of sleep and the pollution in the city. I began to think back over the events of the last three days. I remembered sitting at the port waiting for our canoe on Friday feeling ready to leave. I couldn't remember why we decided to come to Quito. What part of Quito screamed relaxing vacation week to us after all? All I could think at that moment was, "Get me to the jungle. NOW."