How to Stay Active Abroad

The next afternoon I woke up late as usual and decided to take the day off from working. The three of us walked a few blocks along with an Australian to hot springs for a relaxing afternoon.

It was too relaxing.

Too relaxing that we walked to the nearest bridge where a few local guys had setup a sort of bungee jump offering it for $10 a jump.

I volunteered to jump first.

As I strapped myself into the harness I hesitated and the Australian jumped off the other side safely. This took away any doubts regarding the safety so like bungee jumping in Peru in 2008 I jumped at 1-2-3.

The feeling is nothing else as after a few seconds of freefall you swoop underneath the bridge unexpectedly like your swinging. As we are lowered to the ground we hanging hundreds of feet above a river until the guy throws a rope for you to hopefully catch so he can pull you to the side.

After that excitement we needed some more calm so Arielle and I treated ourselves to 1 hour Thai massages.  Being my first time I acted completely uncultured as I got into the bed with my pants still on. While I knew that a massage means stripping down to just the undies it just felt strange doing so. The masseuse looked at me and laughed until I realized I did really need to go pant less. I’ll just say the massage was worth it although she did focus on my butt probably a little too much.

Back at the hostel we all met on the rooftop terrace for some socializing.

View from the terrace during the day

The town even had a ferris wheel

As I was meeting all the hostel characters I looked at 1 guy and as we were both about to introduce ourselves we smiled and remembered. It was Tyler, the American I went out to Bungalow 6 with on my first Wednesday night in Ecuador.

We went out to one of the few bars with some guys from the U.K., America, and Argentina. It was fun but uneventful until I returned to the hostel to see some poor girl vomited all over the floor and was cleaning it up with a paper towel at 3AM.  Although drinking can make it easier to fall asleep I could hear her dry heaving much of the night.

It must seem like this is only a vacation. The truth is I do work on average 6 hours a day, seven days a week. But despite all of the hard work I make sure my “office” is not some dark place indoors and instead at a nice looking café outdoors when possible.  After working till 4PM on Friday I looked around town to find something to do. I rented a ATV bike for 30 minutes and drove around town at full speed in the rain. It was a rush!

Seeing as how I was cold and soaked I did the only thing logical and walked straight to the hot springs for some relaxing, followed by a long nap in my private room. I’m a private room traveler rather than a dorm room guy now. While I don’t meet the odd person like I used to in a door room I now have lots of privacy. It’s worth it.

That night we played a massive game of Kings on the terrace and after returning from a night out at the bar I heard the most amazing fight from the comfort of my bed. There is a Canadian couple sharing the room next to mine. Imagine a guy well over six feet tall and a skinny girl barely over five feet. I first heard the commotion as the guy screamed,

“No bitch! You hit me. You’re abusive. No Way.

The boyfriend had locked her out of the room and would not let her in because he was afraid she would beat him. She banged on the door asking for him to let her in. She tried to reason that he was overreacting but he would have none of it. He continued to yell various obscenities until the night auditor tried to intervene. The boyfriend held his own and would not budge. It ended when he finally opened the door and spit on her a good three or four times. She gave up and slept in a dorm room that night.  The craziest part was seeing them walking around town the next day holding hands as if what happened last night was no big deal.