Nos vemos de nuevo

Well it hasn't even been a year since I left Ecuador and I am already making my way back. Once again, I did a terrible job blogging when I lived there last year, and unfortunately by now it's too late to go back and fill in the missing spaces, so let's just take it back to that very last day...

I sat in the Catamayo airport with Juan and Fernanda very aware of the clock ticking above my head. It wasn't supposed to end like this, but after a series of work visa complications and general shadiness, I had to call it quits and flee back to the US despite having actually secured a job in Loja. I wanted so badly to stay, but the reality of the situation became clear and I thought it better to return to Latin America under less desperate circumstances instead of being manipulated and not even have a work visa. Not to mention the additional pressure of the pending student loan payments--being an adult is complicated. They tell you to follow your dreams and passion, but also you have to be responsible for yourself...

So there I was and finally my flight was announced. We bid each other adieu, me with tears the size of tropical storm raindrops. I had absolutely no idea (nor confidence) of when I would return to Latin America in general, much less my little home in Loja tucked away in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. I cried for an hour, for two hours, for a week, for a month...and as the sun disappeared over the Ecuadorian horizon, so did I.

What felt like a grueling several hours later, I found myself in the Spokane airport wondering why on earth I left paradise to come back to this crummy reality. Who cares about the loans when I could die tomorrow? I felt like I belonged nowhere and had absolutely no direction, nor any leads to even propel me forward. 

Little by little, I came back to myself, though my heart was still very much broken. Until I got my first paycheck from Clearwater...and in addition to using it to pay off some of those cumbersome loans, I splurged on a plane ticket back to Ecuador. 

It's a traveler's dilemma: do I return to somewhere I know and love or do I venture to somewhere new? I pondered if I should instead go to Japan or India or heck why not Latvia..but still felt that I needed to go back to Ecuador and be with my friends and family in Loja. It didn't matter if I even did anything noteworthy during the trip--rather I just wanted to see them, speak Spanish, eat some amazing food and breathe in a little bit of that Andes air. 

It's been a long 3 months waiting for the calendar to say July 24th, but finally it's here and I get to go home for vacation.