January 1, 2012
DAY 45
A thought for the first day of 2012: In the spaces between all the
words is where we can find truth. I know my life is filled with contradictions, I have good intent but many times my old reflexive patterns that have been set up from childhood and teenage years creep in. There seems to be a very large mountain I still need to climb if I really want to become truly authentic and live from my soul. To be in a space of no fears and allow my soul to be expressed fully through me will still take time. In life there always needs to be some sort of balance, a time for reflection and soul growth and a time to let loose and laugh. I still have difficulty at times fully letting loose due to my philosophical nature. I ended up going to sleep about 4 am and was awake several times until I finally got up at 7 am. After taking a shower and gathering all my stuff I checked out of my room and sat in the little community hut in the hostal waiting for everyone else to get out of bed. I was not sure if Furio, Inga and I were going to go on our planned trip to explore some of the waterfalls and more mountainous areas today. Everyone had a bit to drink and I assumed would be sleeping in late but as luck would have it, Inga was up by 9:30 and we were on our way by 10:30. The scenery in this area is quite specatacular which is why it makes it such a hot tourist destination. There is a very large volcanoe that apparently has a snow cap on it. That is when it is not active, it has frequent major eruptions, two in 2010 and one in April of 2011. During this excursion I met two Belgians who did not speak any Spanish, they were there visiting a friend who did speak Spanish but they were out exploring this area without an interpretor.
After visiting the waterfalls, Furio, Inga and myself had lunch in town. Afterwards Inga and I had manged to find Cafe Arome and made a dash straight for it. I really like good coffee and good chocolate and this place did not let me down! If I was staying for any length of time I would stop there every day.
All good things must come to an end, at least that is a saying I heard once. But it seems that a good thing ends and then there are more good things just waiting to happen. It is this good time in Banos that needed to end for me so I can move on. I made my way to the bus station and could not find anyone to speak English. It appeared that the bus to Ambato was at the last spot and it was already full. I asked all the buses but most were going to Quito and people were able to get on easily and there were a lot going there. Whenever I asked someone about Ambato they would say a word that I don't remember and point to the road beyond the last bus parking spot. I was quite conifused, was there a seperate bus that picks people up over on the road? Anyway, I waited and in the area there were a lot of people there. Finally another bus pulls up and I ask "Ambato" and the man said yes and also said that same word again pointing toward the road. I looked up on the bus windsheild and it said Ambato on it so I knew this must be the bus. He also was yelling out the price as being one dollar to people starting to get on. That is the correct price and it confirmed it. I got in the crowd boarding and as I was getting on the man said somethign else to me and I siad "no hablo espanol" and boarded. After I got on I went toward the back and got a window seat, it was at that point when I realized the crowd of people there was actually a very long line giong out toward the road and wrapping around the building. The people there have been standing in line waiting for their turn to board the bus and each bus only holds about 40 people. What everyone had been telling me all along was to get int eh back of the line because that was the line for the Ambato bus. Through my ignorance and not understanding the language I saved myself a long wait in line. On the other end it was diffiuclt getting a taxi because everyone was trying to get a taxi. I ended up walking up the road in front of everyone else so that I would be able to flag a taxi first. Every taxi driving by was full of people and then at last I flagged one down and handed him the business card I grabbed from the hotel before I left. That is a habit I have gotten in to because it makes it easy to find my way back if needed because I don't need to try to speak, just show the card. He was not the typical taxi driver I had seen, he was older and listened to their version of what I would call soft music. He did not try to overcharge me and was very pleasant so I gave him a tip.
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