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August 01 The past five weeksI'm about to start my 4-day long journey back home, stopping over at 4 cities in 4 continents.
I feel so tired as if the exhaustion has sipped into my bone marrow. I'm not sure which-Quito's altitude of 2800m, or the hundreds of vicious mosquito bites that have woken me up at night and have kept me awake for hours-is to be blamed.
My mind is not too clear at the moment, but somehow I feel compelled to write something about the past five weeks in Ecuador while my feet are still standing on this piece of land. Once I'm away, things are bound to be different, so are feelings and thoughts.
Many Ecuadorians asked me the question, "why Ecuador?" I have given a few versions of answers, but the truth is, it was random-I was merely looking for a Spanish-speaking South American country which is fairly safe and not too cold in July. I knew very little about the country before my trip, maybe except the fact that it has got 3500 different species of birds, which did not excite me too much as I'm not a bird-lover, or quite the opposite.
It didn't take me too long to discover how well-endowed this small country-small by the Latin American standard-is. From the east to the west spans the Amazon jungle, Mt Andes, and a long and charming coast line, not to forget Galapagos, whose amazing bio-diversity gave Darwin the inspiration for his evolution theory. I was lucky to see almost all of the different landscapes, except Galapagos which threatened to poke a huge hole in my tiny purse. I loved them all.
Looking back to the 5 weeks, the first two were intense. There was so much to see, so much to do. I had never lived in a city as high as Quito. The altitude made me exhausted despite 10 hours of sleep. I had my nose bleeding for the first time after almost 7 years. My whole body was peeling because of the dryness, no matter how much moisturiser I applied. I was looking forward to go to the jungle for a change in weather, and Anasuya laughed at me for coming up with such a bizarre solution to fix my dendruff problem. The weekend in Cotopaxi, the second highest peak in the country, was my first time visiting an active volcano. I was so proud of myself for hiking from 4500m to 4800m. I felt very ready for Tibet.
The jungle proved to be not as wild. We were staying in a very touristy lodge, not deep in the jungle. Nevertheless it involved so many first times, such as the encounter with a tapir, a night trip in the laguna, and a taste of ''lemon ants'', etc etc.
The last 3 weeks of volunteer work couldn't be described as fulfilling. On the contrary, it involved a lot of 'trying hard to pass time'. However, it kind of gave me the time I needed to let the emotion to settle down, to re-gain the peace of mind, to feel less like a tourist but more like one of the local people. It would be hard not to miss the days with humming birds zooming in and out the 'living room', and the insects and frogs sang me to sleep.
It's almost the time to go. Wish it a bright day in Atlanta tomorrow. Comments (13)
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