#131 Going North

My visa is about to expire and in the next couple of days I will have to leave Ecuador, I am not ready yet to go back to Canada, so I decided I am going to Mexico for a while. Why Mexico? I was thinking where to go and thought going north would be the best, looking at the map I realized if I want to take the bus I will have to go to Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, 3 countries I’ve already visited besides going from Colombia to Peru is not possible by bus. Since it’s the winter season south of the equator I thought it will be warm going north this time of year. Also Mexico is close to the US and therefore I can take a bus from Mexico for few dollars and the trip will take only 12 hours which is about the same time it will take between Quebec and Toronto. Who knows I might change my mind once I get there.

I’ve really enjoyed the time I spent here and the beauty and the joy of the Latin culture was an unforgettable experience. But as always it’s time for the traveler to go home, but not yet 🙂 It’s not that I don’t like to go back to Canada but it’s more about some of what I expect to encounter once I go back. I think anytime we go on vacation we don’t feel like going back, it’s like a beautiful dream that you don’t want it to end. The things that makes m dislike going back to society is that, I will be surrounded by material things, and impatience of society and the ongoing unhappiness and negative talk that you tend to hear all the time. It’s like I’ve been out of the system, and now I feel I am going back in, I hope I won’t be sucked into the negativity and bad influence of the society once I settled in.
I learned a lot on this trip, not only about life but also about myself and the things that make me happy. Although I’ve been on what could be considered as a long vacation, but I didn’t get lazy, I still wake up most of the days around 6AM, and I never get bored I always find things to do.
I know most people won’t be comfortable doing what I do and I don’t expect anyone to accept my lifestyle, but I like being spontaneous and I don’t believe I have to wait until my retirement to enjoy life. Life was meant to be lived.
It will be nice as I am heading north towards the summer and warmer temperature. It’s been raining a lot these days in Ecuador, it’s the winter season south of the equator not necessarily cold but it rains a lot every day. I still got the chance to visit few places around the city of Cuenca, I visited a place that has some historical ruins from the Inca civilization who used to control most of South America before the Spanish conquest.
There are some traditions that I like a lot in Latin America, over the weekend it was mother’s day and during the night I heard loud music coming from the neighbors, next day when I asked, I was told it’s celebration for mother’s day. Usually, the males in the family will get up at 1AM and will start singing for their moms and then they will give gifts to her at 5AM. Not everyone does that, but many do, I thought that’s nice and different than other places.