Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Thing I Hate About Travel

Travel can be pretty awesome and exciting most of the time and I love it! but there is that one thing I hate about travel. During my travels I have met so many interesting people and I have made friends from unlikely places and interacted with people I never would have imagined coming across, with that being said, the one thing I hate about travel is meeting really great people only to end up saying goodbye without the certainty of ever seeing them again.

I have mentioned several times in this blog that I hate saying goodbye, there is just something I find so depressing about saying goodbye especially to people I have developed a relationship with and some sort of attachment. To be honest with you, these past two weeks I have been feeling a bit out of it. I have been moody, sad and emotional because my stay in Ecuador is almost coming to an end and I will have to say goodbye to some great people.

The most important people have been the family that I have been living with in Ecuador, seriously I got lucky when I met them through airbnb and they have become like my second family. My initial plan had been to stay in Quito for maybe two weeks or a month then move to another city in Ecuador. When I met this family I instantly clicked with them and decided to base my main stay in Quito while traveling to surrounding cities without packing up everything to move around. What they have done for me can not be described in words and I hope that they know how grateful I am to have met them.

Here we are, my former roommate who went back to the states and the wonderful Ecuadorian family we were both lucky to have.


I will miss my very lovely and dear friend Elena who became my closest girlfriend in Ecuador. The first time I met her I knew we would get along great, she had this air of confidence about her and was so full of life. Her energy was amazing and we did end up becoming really good friends and we got close pretty fast. This girl came through for me on so many occasions and I am so grateful for her friendship plus I am glad I was there for her when she really needed a friend as well. I will miss her and our crazy conversations, sob! sob!


I will miss my friends that I met at the Dominican restaurant I go to for lunch almost everyday. When I became a frequent customer at the restaurant, the ladies who work there befriended me and soon we were hanging out and having plenty of girl talks and talks about life in general. They were always watching my back telling me which Dominican dudes to avoid and this made for funny conversations sometimes because they know everyone's dirt! Those ladies have been so sweet to me and it sucks that our paths may never cross again but thanks to whatsapp we will continue to keep in touch.

This is one of the ladies.


Speaking of the Dominican restaurant, I really did meet some interesting people there but I have to say that I will terribly miss that one particular person I met at the restaurant who made my last few weeks in Ecuador very memorable and always managed to put a huge smile on my face all the time. Ya'll remember the Dominican from this post right?


I will miss my favorite Spanish teacher of all time. He always made me look forward to class everyday because he was such a fun teacher and had a good teaching technique that made learning a new language fun and easier. He was also a good resource when it came to learning about Ecuadorian history and culture in general.


That's it folks, there are many things I will miss about Ecuador but what I will miss the most are the people I met in this country. The thing I hate about traveling is saying goodbye to amazing people but you know what? the fact that I met these people in the first place is in itself a good experience because at the end of the day I am glad that I got to know them and shared memorable times with them. It's now time to move on and experience new adventures, can anyone guess where I am heading to next?

Random Thoughts of The Day:

Two weeks ago my host family traveled out of town for a wedding and they entrusted their house to me for like three days. I was so touched that they trusted me enough to leave their house under my care, I swear I watched that house like a hawk even though I knew nothing was going to happen. I was a bit paranoid and kept thinking "OMG! if anything happens to this house while they are gone the saddest thing would be to lose their trust." You know how paranoid you get when someone entrusts you with something very important and you don't want to disappoint them?

I noticed that while traveling relationships and friendships develop very quickly on the road and become really intense because you know you have limited time with the people you meet so you try to make the little time you have together really count. This doesn't apply to just anyone by the way, there are people I have met and decided that knowing them for a day or a few hours was more than enough while there are those that I have met who really earned a soft spot in my heart, those are the ones I focus on and will always remember.

I was talking to some of my girlfriends here in Ecuador and they were all telling me that they love African men (they are all dating Nigerian men and there seems to be quite a number of Nigerian men here in Quito). Anyway, these girls are mostly from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador and they all happen to be black or part black but identify as black. They were saying that they are fascinated by the African culture and to them meeting an African is like developing a missing link so by dating an African guy they wish to learn more about Africa and experience a culture that they know their ancestors once had but they themselves don't know anything about. I thought their take on it was interesting.

Of course I always chime in and remind them that Africa is a huge continent with many different countries and cultures so a person from one particular country isn't a reflection of the whole continent. Plus not every African you meet will provide you the cultural enlightenment you have been seeking, I hate to be a party pooper but I have to keep it real.

On my last day in Cuenca I had a really bad headache which might have been attributed to the high altitude at Ingapirca ruins. I changed my day's plan to go hiking and ended up hanging out with this really sweet guy from Venezuela that I met at the hostel. He showed me a great deal of the city and we spent the whole day just walking around as he pointed out places of interest. I got to learn more about the current situation in Venezuela and I really appreciated his company. Unfortunately I never got a chance to say a proper goodbye but I wish him luck in his new endeavor and I hope he gets re-united with his family really soon.











2 comments:

  1. I used to hate goodbyes as well until I realized that people come into our lives for a reason or a season some stay forever some we have to let go after they have fulfilled their purpose in out lives and that made it better. Besides with social media and skype these days you are just a click away from your friends:) And these brothers of ours wako kila mahali as in wacha nifunge mdomo lol Ecuador of all the places wanatafuta nini huko and not even visiting but living there? I have an idea but wacha ninyamaze tu lol! It's fascinating the amount of black people that are in South America and once again they are hardly portrayed in the media it's almost like they hardly exist to me it looks like you were visiting long lost family. I am really looking forward to South America now wacha nitengeze pesa kwanza can't wait to visit all the places and meet the wonderful people over there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Lydz! thanks for stopping by the blog:) for sure social media does help tremendously with communication so that's one consolation. Wachana na hawa ndugu zetu, wengine wao wanatenda maajabu hapa lakini wacha nisiseme mengi lol as for black people it really depends on which cities you go to but yes they do exist but unfortunately racism and discrimination plays a huge role as to why you hardly see them in the media.

      Delete