Made the decision to switch hostels yesterday when I checked out another one I had considered. It seemed much better and for only a dollar or two more. Packed my stuff--again--and have been quite proud lately that the backpack is much easier for me to handle now as I seemed to have gained some strength. Unfortunately, the stairs are slick, my shoes didn´t have traction, and I fell down a few stairs this morning (that´s what I get for being proud). My right leg went forward, my left leg bent under me, and of course as I was falling and feeling a stretch in the knee, all I could think was please let my knee be alright. OK, well the knee is alright. The left foot, however, isn´t. I´ve iced it and taken OTC painkillers. Neither the foot nor the toe are broken, but the joint where the big toe joins the foot is quite swollen and doesn´t bend too easily. Trying to decide if a trip to the hospital is necessary, and I´m thinking no at this point. Think it´s just a bad sprain.
Of course when I arrived at the hostel, further bad luck. I can´t stay two nights in a dorm bed for $6.50; I´d have to move to a private room tomorrow for $15 a night. Instead, I emailed the language school and asked to be picked up a day early. I´ve just received confirmation for that, so tomorrow I will be making a 2-hour journey in a taxi (paid for by the school, or my tuition rather) to Otavalo. I will be arriving on a Saturday, which is a huge market day, so I can only imagine the craziness that will greet me there. The driver will drop me off at my new home for 2 weeks, an Ecuadorian family. I am anxious to get there and find out what life is like here in Ecuador as compared to Costa Rica. This family definitely has big shoes to fill.
Today has consisted of the move to the new hostel, hobbling down the street to take breakfast, which I couldn´t enjoy because the painkillers hadn´t yet taken effect, lying on the couch in the hostel icing the foot, and then hobbling to the Internet cafe because Skype doesn´t appear to work in the hostel. My day, however, was made better when I was able to reach Diego on the phone, who as coincidence would have it is going to the hospital for an injury he sustained while at work this morning. What to make of that coincidence I really don´t know.
Feeling a big sentimental today, perhaps because of an email that I received yesterday. While I was in Bocas del Toro, Panama back in August, I met a Californian named Jazz. We were staying in the same room at the hostel and as coincidence would have it, we had both booked on to the same diving tour the next day. We had a great day diving and at the beach and then she was kind enough to make the call to Silencio for me to find out more about the project since she is fluent in Spanish, having lived three years in Guatemala. I emailed her a couple of days ago to express my gratitude for that phone call since Silencio worked out so well for me, as well as for leaving behind a great dress in the hostel that I have made good use of. I received an email back from her yesterday that meant a lot.
First I should say that when traveling you cross paths with many people. There are some with whom even exchanging email seems superfluous, and they fall out of your life as quickly as they fell into it. There are others with whom you find an instant connection (sometimes just by the nature of being fellow travelers) and with whom you exchange email; sometimes you contact them, sometimes you hook up on facebook, and other times the email address languishes in your travelogue for years to come. There are others with whom you find an instant connection and who then find a permanent place in your life. I´ve had many of the first and second, only a few of the third, among them Cat and Geoff, with whom I keep in regular touch with.
Up until I sent that email I thought Jazz would be simply another person who I enjoyed spending time with but whom I might never talk to again. Her email back to me, though, came as a surprise and left me thinking that she could end up being one of those people that you want to look up again. If I remember correctly, she´s only 21. For most 38 year olds, a friendship with a 21-year-old would seem odd, but then considering I have a whole circle of friends who haven´t yet seen 30, it´s not really odd for me. And then there´s the fact that she doesn´t seem 21 at all; after all, she´s been living in Guatemala for 3 years which has given her wisdom beyond her years. And then there´s also the fact that traveling has a way of wiping out age because we´re all in this together, doing the same things regardless of our age.
So why did the email mean so much? Because apparently I had more of an impact on her than I realized. For me, this trip seems completely normal. Even when friends at home tell me they wish they had the guts that I do, it doesn´t really register with me that I´m doing something out of the ordinary, maybe because so many people I encounter while traveling are doing quite the same thing. But I guess the reality is that not many people my age are able to do what I´ve done. She kind of drove that point home for me, and I copy part of her email here as the best way to illustrate this. She writes, ¨I just want to say it was really cool to see into my future a little. I dont mean that like you're old or something--please don't take it that way, cuz I totally don't mean that. But you are about 10 years ahead of me, have been through a little more of life, and have this great positive attitude that a lot of people lose real young for some reason. And there you are, adventurous, traveling the world by yourself still, like I hope to do. And I found that really encouraging.¨ I´m thankful that I was able to show her that she can still have whatever she wants when she reaches my age. And thankful that I just realized she thinks I´m only about 10 years ahead of her!
I´ll spend the rest of the day simply killing time here in Quito, probably making phone calls to people I haven´t talked to in a while, even some I haven´t spoken with since June who I miss and want to catch up. I might as well spend the day on the Internet. After all, it´s not as if I can really walk anywhere with this foot!
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