The coast, retirees, and plans!

After about 4 weeks with out a blog entry, I sit in some dingy Internet cafe in Ecuador, fully equipped with florescent lighting and noisy ceiling fans, and try my best to figure out how best pick up where ever I left off. I am in Bahia de Caraquez, a big coastal town about 4 hours north of Guayaquil. Although famous for its citizen's commitment of an environmental ethic, this town does not shout a particularly hippy vibe as you might expect of such a place. Rather it comes off as a quite little port town proud of its self and turning quickly into an international vacation and retiree destination. In fact, Ive met more retired Americans here than I have since leaving home, which might have something to do with the fact that the cheapest hostel in town happens to be owned by a retired Australian women who has lots of retired friends. But I was strangely surprised to meet 2 American couples and a number of retired single men who chose Ecuador, of all places, to spend a good chunk of their pension on. So just remember, when you are thinking of places to retire, don't write Ecuador off so easily...

Anyway, I do have quite a bit of catching up to do. I have experienced a lot over the last few weeks, from bidding volunteering in Salasaca goodbye to zip lining in a cloud forest to purchasing my return ticket home, which I suppose is a great place to start.

I finally bit the bullet and changed my air plane ticket home. My original ticket was for September 4, two Sundays ago. But I felt unprepared and under traveled, and simply craving more time to explore this continent. Also mixed into the equation is the fact that Elise, my sister, is living in Mendoza, Argentina and my parents are planning a trip to visit here in the middle of October. This was reason enough to move my ticket to return home October 23, leaving from Santiago, Chile.

So as of this moment I will be taking a bus from Guayaquil, Ecuador, destined for Lima, Peru on Saturday or Sunday, hopefully ending up there Monday. I hope to visit some friends I had met down there before catching another bus for Santiago. I will then cross my third international boarder into Argentina to do some exploring down there.

Expect more interesting posts soon!