Nowhere Else

Five days in Ecuador, how could it be so few? I’m just here, completely, nowhere else; so it seems longer. A brand new place takes all of me up, makes full use of me. I feel enriched from meeting many Ecuadorians. Tour guides Mafy and Yamil and Mario, hostel workers Jorgen and Diego, Marianí on the Malecon, Maria the restaurant owner who sat down at my table to tell me how she loved New York City, everyone warm and genuine and so kindly helpful.

I have seen a group of perhaps 50 roseate spoonbills, perched pink in green treetops while I paddleboarded by. I have heard frigatebird young calling for food on an island where 8000 nest, and seen the males with bright red gular pouches on their throats right next to me on the observation platform. I have seen river dolphins in the estuary lift their smiling faces alongside the boat. I have ground cacao beans into chocolate and seen the process from tree nursery to harvest to production. I have eaten starfruit and guayaba just plucked, by me! from the trees at the fruit farm, and a mango type called Eduardo that sent me to heaven. I have learned that bananas (16 varieties, and 60% of world imports come from Ecuador) start out growing downwards from inside an incredible purple blossom and then like acrobats flip slowly upwards.

I have traveled by van from Guayaquil on the coast to Cuenca, for a long time in fog and then, suddenly, in sun slanting on Andean peaks and strange fantastic outcroppings. I have been lifted up into the Andes, their presence so instantly strong that  I cried for joy and gratitude.

Now in Cuenca, a city blessed with four rivers, I am happy to hear the Tomebamba rush by my hostel window. Tomorrow I leave for Gaia Sagrada, a retreat center nearby, where, for the next nine days,  I look forward to becoming even more alive with transformation.