Quito, Ecuador ... and now onward!

If or the past week I have been in Quito, 

volunteer working at a quaint little Tourist café, serving a Louisiana inspired array of food. Quito is a big, busy, and pretty dangerous city, but it is also surprisingly clean and well organized: a trolly and metrobus public transportation system, city bikes available to all, foot police at every intersection, many police on horseback in all the parks, etc. It is discouraged to leave your house/hotel/hostel with anything valuable, and at every moment you want to have a hand on any belonging along -even the locals walk around with their backpacks on the front of their bodies, hugging the bag. This, along with the unwritten rule of not walking around after dark -alone or in groups-, is all due to the large number of muggings,

and robberies -most armed with at least a machete- that take place here. 

This city is also extremely fun to walk around the city observing and participating in their day to day life. Every day the streets are lined and bustling with  people selling homemade ice creams and whipped creams in cones, selling all kinds of art and jewelry, men with their little portable shoe cleaning thrones, women with grills and stoves on wheels setting baked plantains, steamed cows stomach, fried, crispy pig's skin, carts selling coconut milk as well as whole coconuts, candies, or toasted beans, women with $1 baggies loaded with avocados, pears, apples, plums, lychee, mangos, maracuya, and other fruits, people selling toilet paper, lottery tickets, door mats, seamingly all at $1, and homeless people missing limbs, or with big visible tumors, or a hole in their head, begging for food of money. There is never a dull moment during the daylit hours of the day!

I leave this morning for the Amazon Junglefor about a week, where I'll be working with a community of followers of Vedic Principles who are starting up an organic farm and nature reserve to protect part of the Amazon rainforest and the animals within. I know this experience will be unique to any I have lived so far on this trip, but how that'll look, I can't even imagine!

This pause in my movements (staying here in Quito for almost 2 weeks) has proved hugely helpful and important for me in getting my head around where I am and where I'm going...! I don't have any set plans yet beyond the next week, which is nice. But I do have a bit better of a feel of what my options are, what I'm surrounded with, and what I am in search of!

In the past week working here I met some interesting people -a built closer relationships with them than anyone in a long time-. One thing I learned during this time is that I really neeeed to stop trying to cover as much ground as possible (which Mom and I had to do because of our time limit), jumping from city to city, and as a result skimming right over the rich culture without really living it. I need to not replace quality with quantity, and  rather stay for some time in a few places, immerse myself into the community and surrounding environment.

I have been applying to a bunch of workaways throughout Colombia, as well as to some sailboat crew/deckhand jobs to sail around the Caribbean for a bit...and I guess I'll just have to wait till I come back to civilization and Internet in a week to see where my path will lead to next!

Sending love and warmth to all back home!