Interregnum STOPS 2 and 3 | On the move

It’s 5:53 of July 7th. I still don’t know why I decided to do this, but as of know – not even within the first 10 days of my leave, I am super happy. It takes a while to update my thoughts here, though, due to the poor connection, so I write offline and refine my thoughts once I have a stable internet connection. I came to Ecuador almost by chance, it was not supposed to be part of my original itinerary – all started with the Archaeological dig and then expanded. It was a short time, which is the only regret I can have.

I met wonderful local and international people, I created connection, that connection that usually we tend to lose in our day-to-day lives. I felt connected to people, I felt connected to the nature, which is a big deal as today we do not have time for connections: we have time to accrue wealth and to show off such wealth to the world, that’s it.

The beauty of connections, as said earlier, is that they come and go. Most likely none of the people met here will become a close friend (is even the concept of close friendship exists), but walking a piece of the life path together, with no expectations from each other, is what makes angels smile.

Judith mentioned yesterday that probably we will be punished, as we are enjoying life too much. With time, I’ve started learning that there should not be any shames in being selfish: you are taking care of yourself, which is the most important thing you should do in life.

I am seated in my bed, in the dark. Sun is not out yet. The roosters are crowing and I am feeling a big pain on my left foot, caused by the beach-cleaning activity yesterday.

I am relaxed, I would say happy. Wind makes feel its presence outside. Breakfast is still in 1h and I have time to re-organize my thoughts before starting packing for STOP #3.

Yesterday I also thought about work: sometimes it will click and as I learnt in meditation, I let that thought going away gently. It seems I have been away for months, but actually it’s only 7 working days. SEVEN. Wow.

Traveling during corona is not the most pleasant activity: I often need to spend time in organizing the logistics, which is painful, but it’s also the beauty of traveling.

I didn’t find the “rich” love of my life neither in Ecuador: this is not the goal of this trip, but just a joke I made with my manager: I won’t go back to work if I found love. What if love is just within ourselves?

Lost across the world

I realized this morning that I lost my beautiful rain jacket bought in Catania. It was too big – Large size – as I lost more weight but I loved it. Honestly I had to use it only in Ecuador as technically it was Fall there, even though September is not planned yet. On the positive note, I have more room in my backpack. I forgot my jacket on El Mirador, while watching the sunset yesterday night. Most likely it was found by some locals and I am making some people happy. I was pretty upset with myself, though, but again, why being angry or upset at something you cannot control anymore?! I did my best, I went back twice to check, even with some other volunteers, but nothing. God bless my rain jacket. I lost my Juventus-life bracelet in Philly as well, probably at Olga’s condo. In 2 only stops, I lost 2 things, hopefully I won’t loose an item in each stop, otherwise I may be broke by the end of this trip. The bracelet reminded me my brother, as he supports Juventus a lot. I got one for both of us as a souvenir from one of my trips – I don’t recall which one. I believe he never wore his, or probably he lost it already. I saved mine till now: RIP Juve-like bracelet.

I spent this morning focusing on health and logistics. On the Health side, I did my Vivoo urine test to check the current status of my health, however it failed due to poor internet connection. It’s a new technology that analyzes your urine and provides nutrition and lifestyle advice, unique to your body in just seconds. Still on the health front, I did my own CUE PCR test, with the machine my company provided to me: it’s so amazing! And yes, the first test failed – due apparently to the cartridge – but the second one went through and the result was NEGATIVE: WoooHooo.

After this I went back to town to spend my last US dollars on postcards and a Galapagos bracelet – I needed to replace my Juventus-like bracelet, right?!

And still some second for the last pic in San Cristóbal.

Speaking about logistics, once come back from town, I spent some time to print some additional documents, just to be on the safe side and not showing everything from my phone: and thanks god I did it. The flight from Galapagos to Ecuador mainland was pretty fast and smooth. I met also Romina – a girl I had met before – that works as Lounge hostess in San Cristóbal airport. I would always thank Chase for the benefits Sapphire credit card provided to me with Priority Pass.

Once arrived in Guayaquil, I literally spent 1h at the KLM counter (not queueing, at the counter) for documents check. They checked EVERYTHING, and since I do not want to exaggerate this is the list:

• Italian passport with Ecuador entry stamp
• Irish passport with Israel student visa
• US Permanent Resident card
• Certificate of Volunteering in Galapagos
• Galapagos Card
• Payment receipt of the Archaeologic dig course
• Certificate of enrollment in the Archaeologic course
• Dormitory Enrollment
• PCR test (I took an additional one, on top on the CUE one)
• Insurance health coverage in Israel and amount covered

The only thing the didn’t ask for was a vaccination card. It took me literally one hour, I felt miserable, but everything they asked I had it ready, so the little bit of planning in the morning was not a bad idea after all.

I didn’t have time at all to spend in the airport, but I had just 10 mins to get a late amazing lunch at the VIP Lounge (thanks Chase, again)!

Now I seat on the plane, directed to Amsterdam first and Tel Aviv later. There is no WiFi on the plane, so 11h of relaxation, hence I can keep writing the blog offline and publish everything together once landed in Amsterdam.