After spending my last day in Baños having a completely magical experience at the Luna de Volcan spa… I found myself with a pretty bad sunburn.
(It was worth it).
But now I was looking at a long travel day, with over 12 hours in the airport and two shoulder bags to lug around…. and sunburned shoulders.
And, I had to figure out change money to Colombian pesos before I got there late at night (there were no Colombian pesos available in the banks in Baños).
I’d looked at maps of the airport and it seemed it should be easy enough to find an exchange, but still… it felt like a long day ahead.
While packing up I found my friend Imelda’s homemade herbal salve, that she’d given me the night before I left, which immediately soothed my sunburn… like so many little things along my journey, the fact that she’d happened to have just made this, and had handed it to me as I was walking out her door, felt like a miracle.
I was sweeping up the airbnb when my driver Angel arrived early to take me back to Quito Airport and I greeted him like a long-lost friend.
The drive was reminiscent of the way down, feeling like much more than a month ago – but so different. I knew this place, now.
We stopped at a market to buy Angel’s wife some kind of special cheese, and for three hours I alternated between working intermittently from a phone hotspot signal, while updating Angel about my time in Baños.
Marisco Sucre International Airport.
When I got to the airport, I said good-bye to my friend Angel, promising to keep in touch.
Juggling my suitcase plus two shoulder bags, I hoped I could find my way around.
I was way early, due to checking out of my airbnb first thing in the morning, and my flight wasn’t till the evening.
Thankfully, here was a money exchange, right the entrance. I was overjoyed to see it, regardless of whatever crazy exchange rate I was getting.
(Don’t change money at airports. The exchange rate won’t be good. But if you NEED to change money, cause your last stop’s banks didn’t carry foreign currency and you’re arriving late at night in a foreign country- it’s really, really great to have).
I got my money changed and was still hours early for my flight… I spent thirty minutes in a line to find out I was in the wrong line, and learned I couldn’t check in yet.
Fortunately, Marisca Sucre International Airport has free wifi and the connection was solid… I got a vegetable wrap and a coffee from the airport kiosk and settled down to work for a while.
Finally, it was time to check in.
Grateful for angels in the form of gate agents guiding me through the self-check in pieces that I didn’t understand, I made it inside the terminal and got some dinner.
Just a Routine Procedure
At the gate, myself and one other passenger were called for a baggage inspection. Guided by a young and uber-polite security agent, we walked through a maze of corridors with security locks.
The juxtaposition of the guard’s polite sweetness with the semi- intimidating situation felt almost comical.
He kept apologizing to me.. ” it’s just a routine procedure” the guard kept explaining, along with asking about my time in Ecuador and how I’d enjoyed my stay.
We went to a room where I found my checked suitcase sitting, waiting. Now, a weathered and more stern- faced guard opened my suitcase, and began to sort through my things.
He appeared puzzled by my travel Berkey Water Filter…. rapping loudly on the metal canister in my suitcase and asking a stream of questions that I didn’t understand.
I said simply, “water. filter.”
The guard grunted and frowned, but seemed to be satisfied, packing my back back up, and it appeared I was approved to leave the country.
The Flight
On the flight, I sat next to a young guy named Kevin, who spoke only the smallest bit of English.
We mostly didn’t understand each other but I was making a little progress in my Spanish and we could get a few exchanges in. He wanted to know all about me. I was surprised to find my introvert self enjoying the cryptic conversation, and between that and dinner, the ninety minute flight was over quickly.
After finding my bag, the next piece was going through immigration. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the agent simply asked me what I was doing in Colombia, and what flight I’d arrived on.
I’d bought my onward ticket the day before, just in case it was requested…. deciding just before leaving Ecuador that my next stop after Colombia would be Buenos Aires.
While in customs, I had WhatsApp messages coming through from Elkin my driver, who was there to take me to Chivor Lake where I’d be staying. I met him easily outside the airport and he took my bags, taking me to his car.
Elkin was friendly and chatting away, and I tried to follow his Spanish.
I was pretty sure he was saying that if I needed a drink or the bathroom, now was the time… because we’d be on the road for hours, and it didn’t sound like we could stop.
(I’d soon find out why)
The Drive to Chivor
It was after 9 pm with a four hour drive ahead, and Elkin had thoughtfully set up the passenger seat with blankets, in case I wanted to sleep.
We talked a bit in Spanish. Elkin complemented my accent, and I’m proud to say it wasn’t the first time I’d been told that my Spanish pronunciation was perfect… I’d heard this from locals in Baños as well.
But…. maybe being able to pronounce things correctly was leading people to think I understood more than I did?? 😂
Elkin kept talking to me….and kept talking, and talking some more.
I enjoyed the practice but didn’t understand most of it. Latinos talk fast.
I’d tell him I didn’t understand… and he’d respond with another long stream of Spanish that I still didn’t understand.
The Adventure Begins.
It was dark, so I wasn’t seeing much of Bogota, but we drove for awhile. And then, the adventure really started.
Hilly mountain roads tend to make me nervous in the best of circumstances.
These streets and hills were some next-level curves, and tiny winding roads through the Andes.
And then, we’d hit these construction areas… where a two-lane road becomes one way, and I couldn’t even figure out how it would possibly work, if we happened to meet a car from the opposite direction.
And THEN … the rain started.
Then, cue the fog… the kind where you can’t see out the window, because there’s just a flat sheet of white outside the windshield.
Meanwhile, Elkin’s driving these tiny dark curving roads that fortunately he seems to know pretty well.
I found myself saying to myself… “Rach, just don’t open your eyes anymore… just don’t do it”
It Gets Crazier
The last hour of the drive was on an unpaved road, with potholes and crazy inclines. Was his car gonna make it? It was after midnight, now. I’d never been more glad in my life that I wasn’t the one driving.
Elkin was talking to me again. He sounded more serious.
Was something happening? Did he need an answer from me? Or did he just want to talk?
Maybe was he just updating me on the drive’s progress as we drove through the crazy terrain in the dark and the rain?
A few times we pulled out our google translate apps to try to communicate… but there was no cell or data service, anymore. I had no idea what was going on.
We kept driving. Elkin kept talking, in streams of rapid Spanish.
I alternated between attempting to follow him, and closing my eyes. The 20 hours I’d been up was catching up to me.
Beneath it all, I felt excited. The pull of the unknown. Being guided by wherever I was drawn, into a completely new and unfamiliar place.
There was a magic to this… and even the strange and discombobulating and sometimes uncomfortable pieces only added to the magic.
ChivorKite
it was 1:30 in the morning when we pulled over to the side of the road, and met Juan and Martika, who’d stayed up to greet me.
We transferred my luggage to their car… Juan explaining that Elkin’s car wasn’t going further because “the road wasn’t very good, starting from here” 😂
it was a short drive, now, to Chivorkite.
I was happy to find a lovely room. The day had been a journey, and I felt in a different world.
Juan had given me the internet password first thing (he gets it).
As exhausted as I was, I felt a need to get online and check the internet connection, here in this remote and worlds-away place.
The Starlink connection was solid and fast. I was still connected to the world… and knowing that seemed to settle something in me.
I fell asleep for a few hours, waking before sunrise with all the energy still buzzing through my body, to the incredible view out the full wall of windows and my next-three-months home.
The first few days were a blend of settling in, working from the most perfect spot complete with hammocks, beanbags, fresh air, and lake & mountain views.
I hiked daily with Andrea, a real estate lawyer from Bogota. She told me that kitesurfing had changed her life, and she now spent weeks or months on end at Chivorkite.
More New Friends
The weekend arrived, with more guests, including a family from Bogota.
The daughter Elena had spent time as an exchange student in Canada… she spoke English perfectly, and translated for the rest of the family as they asked all about me.
We talked about the States. Opinions were strong. They don’t like American political leaders. But they really like American “pragmatism”. They like how things get done, immediately – especially in business.
(They told me that when it comes to business matters, Colombians like to talk things over eternally, and argue about everything. Europeans create endless complex processes and rules. Americans just do it. They admired that).
I chimed in, in Spanish whenever I could, though the breaks in the conversation were few. My new friend Betty complimented my pronunciation and declared I was “a Colombian, now.”
I was enjoying myself, thoroughly.
Does an extreme introvert turn into a people-person in a foreign country?
…the warmth and ease of these people was profound. It was similar to what I’d felt from the people in Baños
Elena was shivering from the cold. Impulsively, I got up and grabbed two of the soft blankets laying around the beanbags. I draped them around the shoulders of Elena and her younger sister, as we talked into the night.
They hugged me like family when we said good-bye.
I had no idea what to expect next… but there was some kind of magic, here.
