Story Time

“We wander for distraction, we travel for fulfillment.” -Hilaire Belloc    

     Well, my time in Bahia finally came to a close and I said my goodbyes to the life I had established in that town.  One last meal at my favorite empanada stand, one last swim in the ocean, and one last night drinking beer around the table chatting about whatever the wind blew our way.  Yeah, the last month had been good to me, but as with everything, it had to end.  The girls came out to Bahia for my final two nights and it was good to see their smiling faces and catch up on the last month of our lives.
     I was able to persuade them to make our next stop Puerto Lopez, my second favorite town on the coast.  Here we are, staying in the same hostel I was in a little over a month ago, and life is just as sweet.  Of all the new things I’ve experienced on this trip, the new people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, I don’t think I will find much that I enjoy as much as sitting and watching the sun stain the sky pink while it sinks into the ocean.
     I don’t think we have the next step of this journey planned yet, or maybe the girls have that figured out already, I don’t know.  What I do know is that we have ten days to get ourselves out of Ecuador and into Peru (our visa expires March 17th).
     Temporarily stationary, I find my mind wandering back on the last three months of my life.  The lessons I could only learn from this trip, and the self discovery you go through without even intending on it.  I was talking to my mom a few weeks back, when I was still volunteering at the hostel, and I told her that the fulfillment one gets from traveling is broken down into three parts: 5% self discovery, 15% new culture, and 80% the people you meet.  As a peer helper in high school we were taught to appreciate the saying “How can you judge someone if you haven’t heard their story?”  So true I have found those words.  Everyone has a story, not everyone’s story sticks with you as time passes.
     I look back at my story, making mental cliff notes for the next person who asks, and I have to say it’s pretty much perfect.  Not in the arrogant way of my whole life has been cars and money and whatever I want I get, not in the way that my story is better than yours, not even in the way of when I tell my story to people they will envy it, but in the way that whatever it was that lead up to this point in my life, it was plenty good enough for me to still have a smile on my face.  Perfect.  If I’m the main character then I have had one hell of a supporting cast up to this point.  It’s had ups and downs, twists and turns, just like anything you would read by Dickens, Twain, or Shakespeare.  How can anything be so bad if you still slap that smile on your face.  I have no idea what the future will hold, for any of us, I’ll just try and enjoy the ride.  Sooner or later the sun sets on everything only to rise again.  Sooner or later the plot will thicken.

Carrying A Smile

“When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched. Why? Because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say, ‘The whole world is mine.’  But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned the lesson. We can take nothing with us.”  -Albert Lewis

     Let’s see, where to begin?  If you stay anywhere too long, whether you think you like it or hate it, no matter if you meant to end up there or if you thought you were just passing through, that place begins to feel normal.  It begins to feel like home. You’re world has shape again.  I already have my favorite hangouts, eateries, beaches, and most importantly… I’ve met plenty of people around town.  It’s nice walking around town and receiving a friendly “buenos dias” from someone you met the previous day.
     Work at the hostel isn’t really work at all.  I keep the lobby tidy, show people to their rooms, but generally I hangout with tenants and talk about where we have been, where we want to go, and our lives back home.  Travelers share whatever helpful info they have about previous destinations and most people are generally on the edge of their seat when I explain what my month in the jungle was like as well as my Ayahuasca experience.
     The hostel is ran by an Australian woman named Susie.  She came out here 6 years ago after the passing of her husband and bought a large house to transform it into a hostel.  Very recently she built a house not far from town.  It sits on a cliff with the most amazing views of the ocean.  I can’t give you a square footage or anything but I will tell you that is a very nice house.  It cost a grand total of $25,000 to build and she has to pay a whopping $4 a year in taxes.
     I know I have mentioned how cheap everything is down here but I will give you a rundown of what I spend on what.  The other day I bought a liter of coca cola and a bottle of pretty decent rum.  My total was $8.48.  On the corner about 40 yards from the hostel they sell burgers.  Pretty decent burgers at that, not just for South American standards.  The price of one of these gems is $1.  For lunch there are a few places I go.  They have a set menu so you don’t exactly choose what you get but they tell you before hand.  Typically it is some sort of meat, a side salad, a banana, a huge scoop of rice, a delicious bowl of soup, and a cup of juice for $2.  A gallon of water is $1 and a 32 oz beer is $1.25.
     Life is simple here.  I have been living with 5 t-shirts for about 2 months.  Each day I see the line between ‘want’ and ‘need’ a little more clearly.  I see people here with barely anything except a smile on their face and I think back to all the people with cars, jobs, family, and more food than they need and those are the people who think happiness comes in a prescription pill.  I do think that every person needs something slightly different to find happiness but I also know that whatever it is that we need, its not much.  I get my fix each morning as I walk to the beach and pass a gymnasium where they are holding a PE class.  The sound of the basketball hitting the floor over and over is my theme song.  I walk down to the shore, wearing the same shirt I had on the day before, knowing that I have to return to the hostel in just one hour for work, and I smile.  No money in my pocket, no car to drive around in, nothing.  Yet each morning I find my tranquility in that 3 block stroll.


PS A very happy birthday to Katie Parucha!!!