This marks my first post in this blog. I have exactly 32 days left until I leave for Ecuador on May 2nd, 2007.
I decided that I would find an internship this summer and also travel for at least a month afterward. I am majoring in Anthropology and Communications which are essentially useless for finding a job after I graduate, or so i heard. It seems the only way to get a job after i graduate is to gain experience.
Ever since I went to Bolivia 2 years ago, I have fantasized of traveling again in South America. It’s an addiction and I think about it every day and cannot stop reading travel blogs, watching videos, ect. I searched and applied to many internships and it came down to a few that I seriously considered. One was basically a telemarketing job in China, another was a marketing internship in Los Angeles, and for a marketing internship in either Quito, Buenos Aires, Lima, or Cusco. I really had to follow up on the South America internships a lot to make sure i got it.
I eventually got offered positions at all four cities. I chose Ecuador over the others because it seems like the most unique of place of the four, at least to me. It is a small country which means I could basically go everywhere on the weekends and really see a lot. Ecuador has the Galapagos Islands, mountains, beaches, jungles, cloud forests, volcanoes, etc. Quito also seems like an amazing city with a lot of culture. Plus, Ecuador is damn cheap. I know Peru is cheaper but I have heard awful things about Lima, and Cusco is too small of a city for me. I want to live in a big one!
The internship is unpaid but I have saved money from over the last few years and will leave the States with more than enough money. I did not really believe I would go abroad this summer so I am glad I started saving early. It turns out that travel is one of the few things I would choose to spend money on so it makes sense. I never expected my parents to approve me doing something like this because in the past they had rejected all of my plans to go abroad solo.
I am glad to be going solo and expect to meet tons of interesting people. How could I realisticly expect another friend my age to be motivated enough to travel to South America with enough money? I’ll have about three weeks to travel after working and i’m thinking i’ll spend a week of that in the Galapagos, and the rest of the time on beaches, in the jungle, etc. I’d love to see Colombia but it would worry my parents too much. Maybe next time. Plus, I won’t really have enough time to do another country if I want to do the Galapagos.