An Update on our MUCOV Travels (go on, read it)

47 days in Ecuador and going on 48

Here we are in the city of Loja and already thinking of the six hour bus ride we have to be on tomorrow morning on our way to Machala, El Oro. During these past six weeks, we went from Quito to Esmeraldas, down the Pacific Coast stopping in random places and eventually ending up in Ecuador´s President´s hometown: Guayaquil. After many buses, major sun intake, and lots of dehydration, we went to the capital city of Quito to pick up the new member of our team: our HD Camera (GIA) . GIA traveled from Florida to Colombia, stopping in Bogota and going to Medellin, getting lost in the airport, and finally making it to our hands. And we thought that simply getting it was the challenge until we started to skim through the manual… Thankfully, we are womyn and we know how to multi-task, that is, read electronics manuals besides our other 3 books, create a project from scratch, live it, travel, and still find a couple of hours to type this down.

It is Tuesday, or any other day, not very different than Monday, Wednesday, Sunday, or a Friday of the last month and half since we left Colombia. It is almost midnight and we have been trying to work on this blogging thing (we just went from not carrying about too much about bloggers to highly admiring the time and dedication put into this maintenance). And my…oh my, try sorting out the blog template with a slow ass internet while paying 80cents per hour (we already owe $3.00) and having the owner sitting on his desk giving us the, ¨I want to close my shop before tomorrow starts¨ look. Have you ever gotten one of those? Not fun.

We did not think we would be staying in Ecuador for this long but between falling in love with Ecuadorians, the breathtaking scenes, and crossing paths with all the womyn we have met, it is clear that leaving any earlier would be a crime against MUCOV. It is hard not to convince ourselves that we have actually conspired upon our own entrapment.

Yesterday we interviewed a young nun ( our search for a nun has been a live comedy and one you must ask about in the future), who shared with us her experiences and motivations but kept secret most of her sins. Today we rode (more like skydived) into the life of a mother and daughter who shared Herstories; ones of violence, strength, surgeries, death, infidelity, religion, and solidarity. Leonor and Karina left us with a lifelong feeling of great respect and admiration for all they have endured, but most importantly, for the love they radiated.

At 2pm, after a three our interview, riding in two taxis with our backpacks, a full bag of electronics, and some elongated smiles we had just started our day…

In short, Ecuador has been a combination of our determination to randomly defy cultural and social norms as our free-will stays one step ahead of the so-called destiny that refuses to live independent of our sixth sense, aka Intuition.

Here is the run-on summary of what we have been through, lived, overcome, seen, thought and eaten in this beautiful country that has trapped us between the never-before-seen 3-D surreal clouds that spread across a green only true to its Andean mountains and is reflected in the diverse beauty of its people: Womyn, smiles, Central Markets, Doubts, seeds, tires, roads, Good-byes, rain, weight, sweat, internet, holes in socks, backpacks, camera, fights, swollen feet, Spanglish, manuals, trolley buses, sewing, adrenaline, Chuta, Dollar Bills, Border, Gringos, Quimbolitos, mountains, interviews, diarrhea, feminism, Nepalese men, Catholicism, Palo Santo, egos, swimming again, Rituals, encebollados, cooking, toilet paper, writing, cold showers, and waiting for the next moment with a lot of hootspah (ask a Hebrew speaker). ..

To be continued in Peru…after we eat some ceviche

P.S.

¨I am happy! I discovered my Clit!¨

Quito, Ecuador