Lifeinthekeyofme

I’m back in San Francisco, but need to recap my last night in Guayaquil; my hostel bud (Daniel) and I decided to take a crack at the local Mariscos restaurant. While we enjoyed our dinner I took the opportunity to ask him various questions about why take 6 months out of your life to come to South America, so far from home (Melbourne). I remember being 20 and having a hard time leaving my own neighborhood, let alone flying 3,000 miles away. Actually, I think I was 20 the first time I took a plane, and it was only to a destination 90 miles away

So ladies & gents, introducing Mr. Daniel Nicholson

From at the airport

So I’m at the airport, waiting for my soon to be delayed flight.  I couldn’t get a signal to save my life, so I saw a “smoke lounge” that had free wi-fi. Yes, I did it, I went in and felt guilty that I wasn’t smoking so I bought a pack, lit one up and let it burn. Though I also did enjoy a tasty latte, not sure if that cancels out the cig.

I’m going to hell, but at least I was able to post this for you

My last day in Guayaquil was pretty amazing. I spent the majority of the day meeting with the great folks at D-Miro, which is a microfinance org in Ecuador. Some of D-Miro’s projects are available as investments @Microplace.com

Since I have personally invested in projects in Ecuador (via Microplace), I felt this was a “must do” opportunity to go and not only meet the folks on the ground, but the actual borrowers. I could go into so much detail, but I think that’s going to be used for a future post on an eBay.com blog soon enough. But what I will say is that I had goosebumps hearing the story of Miguel Anchundia, and how he used a simple (to us) $600 loan to get his family out of poverty. He makes pillows, he’s been making them for a while because he needed to put food on the table. He owns his own business now and his brand Bella Flor is now known throughout Ecuador. And soon it will be known in my aptartment in San Francisco, as I’m bring some with me

Here are some pictures I took

My blog frequency has been derailed. I have some family matters that need my attention, so I am coming home earlier than expected. But no worries, life is like a box of re-usable flight vouchers. So I plan to come back and visit Argentina (which I had planned to do) in the next 3 months.

I also still have a lot of time on my hands, so I plan to actually do absolutely nothing and just de-stress. I actually haven’t done that yet, since I started this thing. I also have realized that I’m a little neurotic lately and I should probably get some professional help. I’m so misunderstood (to myself)

When you’re back in your old neighborhood
The cigarettes taste so good
But you’re so misunderstood
You’re so misunderstood
There’s something there that you can’t find
Honest when you’re tellin’ a lie
You hurt her but you don’t know why
You love her but you don’t know why
You’re short on long term goals
There’s a party there that we oughtta go to
Do you still love rock and roll?
Do you still love rock and roll?

The first few days of my stay in Ecuador was very chill, full of late night conversation and HOT & HUMID. This is definitely the “summer” part of South America they were talking about. I had about 2 hours of sleep before getting to the airport in the morning and I looked it (exhibit A above). It’s a nice city and I’m excited to do some exploring today, but here are some pics I took so far:

January 5th, I’m headed to Guayaquil