the time in between.
I met up with my best friend in Cartagena to catch our flight to Quito. We had three weeks planned in Ecuador with a good friend of hers she had met on another trip. The reunion in Quito the next day was so sweet, despite the incrediby bad weather. It was raining cats and dogs, so just a quick walk around the block was enough sightseeing for us. The rest of our day we spent at the bar of the hostel catching up, getting to know eachother and playing pool. We visited Otavalo for one day, although charmed by this small local town, we only stayed to visit the market and had quickly made plans for our next destination.
A long, but scenic busride later we arrived in Esmeraldas. Apparently very dangerous, the busdriver asked us where we needed to go and told us to stay in the bus until the taxi arrived. The taxi took us to Mompiche, with a quick detour for pizza and an ATM. Mompiche was very quiet, there was not much going on. We walked along the beach, had talked with a few locals who told us the party that night was at hidden house. We got ready to party, and when we arrived we saw everyone we had met that day, we had a great time and made our way back to the hostel, drunk, with the help of our friend streetdogs, who also joined us for some pizza behind our dorm.
The next morning we got up early to catch the bus to Montañita, supposedly the party city of Ecuador. We stayed here for about ten days or so. Our time here started out great, we partied every night, met some great people, enjoyed our days hanging by the beach or the pool. A couple days into Montañita, we had decided with the family on a date to put Pixel to sleep. And I had to decide where I wanted to be that day. I had already made my peace saying my goodbyes over the phone, but I had to decide where and with whom I wanted to be. My best friend and I had decided on going back to Palomino together for a while, that way I would have her around still, I would have my guy and I would be in a town where I feel comfortable.
At that point my guy and I had decided we were together and I told him I would come back and we had booked the flight. He seemed not to believe me, he seemed puzzled. He was acting differently toward me, as if something had changed. I could not get out of my mind why he didn’t seem excited that I was coming back. I told him when I left that I would come back, but I suppose he’s heard that before. I was angry and sad, I needed to know what was going on, I was getting scared what it would be like to go back there.
While me and my bestfriend had made our way to Baños, and our friend stayed behind one more day, my boyfriend and I had resolved what was going on. I was still mad at him, and we were going to talk about it when I came back. But I could be excited about going back again. In Baños, we did all sorts of activities. We went climbing and ziplining, we went on a huge swing over the mountains, we went kanyoning and visited Pailon del Diablo. Baños was an amazing adventure before returning back to chill and sunny Palomino.
