The Highs and Lows of Travelling

Ah, yes, the highs and lows of travelling. Perhaps that's why we enjoy travelling so much... Life is so easy most of the time. Days are filled with decisions like... should I read my book for a while or go for a beer and watch the sunset? Get up early for a hike or stay out on the town salsa dancing? The most stressful thing is usually being a little sleepy from the night bus and stumbling into the daylight in a new town to look for your new hostel. Yet you live for the moment so intensely because there is always the possibility looming that you will be chained to a toilet with the ´both ends disease´, or held at gun point when robbers board your night bus, or have an accident trying one of the various ´adventure sports´, like ´bike the world's most dangerous road´! (no waivers to sign here!) or, my personal favorite: die in a horrible bus crash as our oh so safe drivers overtake on blind curves. None of these things have happened to me so far, thank goodness. I am happy and healthy and thoroughly enjoying myself. I did, however, have my entire backpack stolen from underneath the bus I was on. Quite upsetting at the time. Anyone who knows all my trip planning details knows that I was kind of an anal packer. Determined to be the perfect ´light-packer´ I really did do quite well in my preparation. Too well, in fact. It was perfect. I had read lots of internet lists and blogs about how to be the perfect light packer - everything essential and nothing extra. The pants I had were the perfect pants - you could trek in them, yet wear them out on the town; the jacket the perfect jacket - warm, yet light and condensable. I almost had to laugh - Oh, Allison, you did so well! And all for naught! For the first couple of days all I did was think of all the items that couldn't be replaced... my Galapagos pictures and the back-ups, my lovely journal given by friends in Seattle with sweet messages written in it, the 2 bags of coffee I bought in Columbia from the coffee plantation I stayed on... Alas. It's just stuff. It was a good learning experience for me in a lot of ways. Definitely forces you to be more flexible. And not to be too attached to material things. The first two weeks I only bought things as I needed them. Bikini and flip flops when at the beach, trekking pants when I was in the mountains. I travelled with only a plastic bag at first and then upgraded to a small duffel bag. What was amazing was that the people at the bus station who usually hound you trying to get you on their bus ´Quito, Quito, Quito¨... didn't bother me at all!What is a backpacker without her backpack?

So, these are the before and after pictures. Here is me pre-theft, relaxing in Baños, exited to be on my own for the first time really since my trip started. This is the view off my back porch overlooking the garden and the waterfall. I had just had a massage and was looking forward to a nice dinner.

And here is me shortly after with the new reward sign I made, with help from my Aussie friend Andrew. (For you spanish speakers, yes, I know there is a typo which I painstaking went around fixing on all the signs :)

After Baños I headed to Vilcabamba for more R and R and stayed at the lovely Ichzcaluma hostel. A resort with dorm rooms for backpackers. Here is the view from the restaurant. Had another massage, and facial and Reiki! And went on a beautiful hike in the great rolling hills with some new American friends, followed by a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Ahh... things are looking up again!