Ecuador Epilogue

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I have been back now for several weeks. I spent my first visiting my sister in Miami, and in Orlando to see my mom and attend the wedding of my niece. My sister made me a fruit and cheese plate and a glass of wine the night I returned and I marveled at the variety of cheese selection - triple cream brie and manchego! No queso fresco, which I like, but gets boring when that is all there is! I also relished the fine glass of chardonnay. From a bottle even! One of the first things I did the next day was go to the nearest Cold Stone and get chocolate ice cream! Made with real cream! Fabulous! It was great to see my family and there was a bonus shuttle launch which we viewed from my brother’s house in Port Orange!

Now, I am back in Sacramento and back at work. I love the convenience of being able to walk to my local Trader Joe's. I really missed my friends and my dog and it is good to see them again. I love driving my Prius and not having to take a bus. I also missed salsa dancing - the style we dance out here on the west coast of the US! I used to think the Sacramento salsa scene was so small compared with, say, LA or San Francisco. But, when compared to Ecuador, it is fantastic! There are some really great dancers here!

My friends have pointed out I am quieter than usual. I do find my mind often drifting back to Ecuador and my horses in Vilcabamba. When I was there, I thought I would be bored. But now, I find myself missing the simplicity of the little town, the beautiful mountains, the clean air, the ability to walk anywhere, anytime of the day or night without fear.

I am overwhelmed by the consumer aspects of our country. The need to buy …. Stuff. And the amount of stuff there is to buy! And, people here seem to be so busy. And they get so angry over things which seem so minor to me. Like when people don’t exit a parking spot quickly enough for their convenience. Or, the car in front of them isn’t driving fast enough.

Then, there is just the administrative bureaucracy we have. Before I left, I had a new HVAC system installed. It needed to be inspected by the City so I arranged for an inspector to come out. Keep in mind, for the City of Sacramento, you need to take a day off from work to stay home and wait for the inspector. If you are not there when he arrives, they charge you $100! He found some really grave problems that he had to write up. The first - there were no fire alarms installed in the bedrooms. I told him it was an HVAC project. But, he informed me, according to code, improvements costing over $1,000 require putting fire alarms in the bedrooms. The second violation - the forms the HVAC contractor left with me had yellow highlighting! I thought this to be quite trivial. When I talked the contractor about this, the laughed and said that was the way the State sent the forms to them! All I can do is laugh about it and take off another day of work to wait for the inspector again. My tax dollars at work. However, I’m sure 3rd world countries have their quirky rules and regulations, too. But, this just seems so trivial.

I had hoped to return from this trip with some direction on what to definitively do with my life. Stay here in the States and embrace consumerism. Or pack up and try a new and different lifestyle in some other country. Unfortunately, I have no more insight into what I want to do and where I want to go. As a friend of mine so eloquently put it, “traveling wasn’t ‘life altering’ in the way I thought it would be”. It was the same with me. Perhaps I need a longer period of time in another country where I stay put, rather than travel, to make any kind of decision. Maybe I’ll get the courage up to do this some day.

Where will I end up? Only time will tell. But, my fellow vicarious travelers, I will be sure to keep you informed!

I hope you have enjoyed this journey and you are inspired to take one of your own!

Until next time ...

LuAnne

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Photos

Space Shuttle Launch
STS-117 launch as seen from my brother's backyard!

Comments

[mbeadle]

wow
Thanks for this insightful blog. :)