Blood, Taxis and Ziploc Bags

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No matter how early the planning starts, the last days before an extended trip turn me into a headless chicken with Woody Allen-level anxiety. As I struggle to find mosquito repellent, suspend my Verizon service, calculate the number of Ziploc bags needed to hold middle-age medication and determine how much cash in my pocket will get me robbed at Guayaquil airport, I managed to fit in an impromptu minor surgery this morning. At the risk of passing on too much information, let's just say that the nice young doctor with the pink streaks in her hair was not skilled with a blade and even less skilled at calculating the opposing pressures of pumped blood and dermabond. Wet sticky warning came during the ride home and by the time I made it to the shower, the situation could be safely described as a modern remake of Carrie, but with more laughing and less prom dresses.

It was an oddly welcome distraction. Soon I'll be off to Ecuador for three months, my home base of Cuenca cradled in the Southern Andes, and side trips to Galapagos, the Amazon and the Northern Andes (home to volcanoes a plenty and an imaginary line dividing the globe) planned. I'm excited, plain and simple. There's hiking a plenty, countless beasts to gawk at and lots of quiet time for reading and writing. And the whole tragic history of how the famous Panama Jack hats are actually Ecuadorian. Mostly, despite all the plans mentioned, I enjoy going into this trip without any specific goals. Much will happen, but the success of the trip feels dependent on none of them. But right now, everything is dependent on deciding whether to bring a beard trimmer or not.

Thursday is departure day and likely to be the worst day of the trip. A long day of flying kicks off at 9am at Bradley International in Hartford, quickly hops to LaGuardia, shuffles over to Charlotte, bounces down to Miami and ends in Guayaquil at 10:10pm. Guayaquil is known for their kidnap cabs, where the local cabbies help you with your luggage and then have their buddies pull the cab over in a dark alley, rob you and then drive you to an ATM so they can rob you some more. Once they're gone the cabbie probably asks for a tip. The US Embassy has posted notification that employees are not allowed to take taxis in Guayaquil due to the dangers. I have agreed to pay a ridiculous fee to the hostel I'm staying to send a car for me but for the first night in a country where I don't speak the language...it's worth it. Even if the kidnap stories probably constitute 1/1000 of actual cab rides from the airport. No need to get things off to a bad start. Cause the next day I arrive in Cuenca and the fun begins. With eight Ziploc bags. Definitely eight.

So goodbye to the land of bikes attacked by ice. Glad I moved back east during the worst snow season in decades. Shockingly to most of you reading this, that's not sarcasm.

By the way, my mother gave me Adventure Guy and wants me to treat him like the garden gnome in Amelie.

Next entry from down south. Not in Spanish. Not yet.

Bonus: If interested, I decided that the necessary book total for four months without any real media entertainment (except for the iPod) was 27. Titles and authors below. Bets on how many I finished also welcome. Thank flying spaghetti monster for the iPad.

Atonement - McEwan
The Warriors - Yorick
The World is Flat - Friedman
Ender's Game - Card
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Tower
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - Mitchell
The Tell-Tale Brain - Ramachandran
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Clarke
Room - Donoghue
Glasshouse - Strross
Your Are Not a Gadget - Lanier
The Ask - Lipsyte
Makers - Doctorow
The Book of Basketball - Simmons
They Live - Lethem
How to live in a Science Fiction Universe - Yu
Water for Elephants - Gruen
Freakonomics - Levitt and Dubner
Tinkers - Harding
The Hunger Games; Mockingjay; Catching Fire - Collins
The Happiness Project - Rubin
Zombie, Spaceship, Wasteland - Oswalt
Sherlock Holmes - Doyle
Letters from Earth; Roughing It - Twain

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Photos

Bikes vs Ice
See ya in Spring little guy!

Adventure Guy
This gringo's invading Ecuador.

Comments

[HollyGo]

I bet you will read all of them.