It's just madness - 11/23/2009

Finally I am at the Maya Mountain Research Farm in Belize. It was a ridiculously bumpy path getting here, to say the very least. My last week at Neverland actually included working with vegetables, FARMING! Which was really nice. Tina has still not graced us with her presence which not only annoyed all of us but Silvia and Andres (the workers) as well. The woman apparently doesn't have her shit together, oh well. Eventually Rebecca and Andrea, my dear friends and only companions in the valley's wilderness, took off for Guayquil, which was sad. I was left with this new guy who had arrived with two other girls but they only stayed one night and then left which was weird but, whatever. He was super nice but a bit scatterbrained and lost which led to "really deep," soul searching, figuring out the world man kind of conversations that interested me very little. However, this week included zero drama or natural disasters, so I can't really complain. Eventually I made it back to Vilcabamba and stayed there a day or two longer than I had planned, but the weather was nice, it was so relaxing, and my hostel had a wonderfully clean pool. I went to Cuenca for the night and then headed up the long road to Quito. I was really ready to leave Ecuador, which is not to say that my six months there wasn't incredible, because it was. But I was a bit lonely, ready for another volunteering site, and I felt that I had seen essentially everything I wanted to see in Ecuador. So on the day of my departure I got my tickets and checked at the airport, headed for migration when they told me I couldn't leave the country. Homicidal is probably the best adjective to describe how I was feeling at this point. Apparently Ecuadors dumb ass embassy was supposed to tell me to register my visa within 30 days of my arrival in Ecuador and that I needed to get this ID card thing called a censo in order to legally be in the country and to leave. But they didn't tell me any of this, and without it I couldn't board the plane. (insert numerous expletives here) So I left, fuming. Honestly, I just wanted to get the hell out of Quito, but first I had to take care of all this bullshit. Stupid stupid embassy! Well, I would have been more than happy to take care of all this stuff that day but, as fate would have it, it was a freaking national holiday and all of the government buildings were closed for not one but the next TWO WHOLE DAYS! So I had to just sit around in Quito some more; I hate Quito. That night, just to add to my misery and anger, I went to go get some Indian food where they served me glass in my food that broke one of my teeth. Awesome. I really just couldn't believe I had to deal with all this. But I did. Two days later I ha to get up early to go to the bank and deposit a $200 fine into the account of the Migracion Policia, then go to the migracion building, figure out what I needed. Oh, BIG SURPRISE, I didn't even need the damn censo because my visa was four days over the expiration and I could have just paid the fine at the airport. (insert numerous expletives here, again) Fuming once more. I had to change my flight which of course wasn't without difficulty, I had to argue my way out of paying a $250 change fee, but ended up paying $150 to make up the difference in my flight. Then i had to run back to the Policia de Migracion. Finally, everything was resolved and I was leaving the next morning. I threatened the Migracion officer that if I couldn't board the plane tomorrow I was coming to find him and he was going to fix it. Luckily that wasn't necessary. The next day went smoothly, even though I was super nervous that something was going to happen again. I enjoyed numerous magazines in the Miami airport and a bagel, then made it to my hotel in Belize City where everyone was super nice and empathized with the madness that I had been through. Early the next morning I hopped on a bus to Punta Gorda which was my jump off point to get to Maya Mountain Research Farm.