How Travelling "By Yourself" Works

You arrive at the hostel relieved that you managed to successfully navigate the public transportation system without having anything stolen or getting significantly lost.  Even though you're in Cuenca, Ecuador in the middle of summer, the 1800 meters of altitude make the weather quite pleasant, possibly even a little chilly if you're cold natured.  You're staying in a 6-bed dorm, because that's the optimum choice for having just enough people to guarantee that someone else will want to do the same thing as you, but not so many people that you'll be up all night as people come and go.  (A dorm is a rooming option at most hostels in which you rent a bed instead of a room.  This means that you share a room with other travelers (strangers) and hope that none of them snore, steal, or are obnoxious in any of the many ways possible.)  When you get to the room you discover that your Swiss friend, Sandra, who you met in Quito a few days ago, has already arrived, as planned.  Together you set out to wander around the town, do some shopping, and take in the sights, along with a Canadian girl you meet at the reception. 

For lunch you all decide to find a small, authentic restaurant that doesn't look too touristy.  For just $2.50 you order the fixed meal, which includes a small steak, rice, beans, salad, soup, juice, and a banana.  As you pay you still find it odd that the one and only official currency of Ecuador is the US dollar, but at least you don't have to worry about converting it to find out how much you're really spending.  You go back to the hostel and take it easy for a while.  The Canadian girl leaves; a Dutch girl comes.  Later in the afternoon you go with Sandra and the Dutch girl to an ethnographic museum that has various exhibits of the tribes of Ecuador (past and present).  Back at the hostel you make plans for tomorrow: there's a national park not too far away that sounds enticing.  You also meet the other guests that will be sharing your room for the night: 2 college students from California, and a guy who you never find out where he's from because he's incredibly hungover, in addition to Sandra, the Dutch girl, and yourself.  As is the norm at hostels, you invite your roommates to join you in all that you have planned.  The 2 girls from CA want to go to the park tomorrow too; the hungover guy mumbles that he's hungover. 

The next morning you all head out early, luckily mentioning to the girl working at the hostel where you're going, who advises you all to take much warmer clothing.  You flag a taxi to the bus station, but the driver offers to take you all the way to the park for just $12, which is a much better alternative, so you accept.  (A month later as you're writing this you discover that the SUPERBOWL IS ON TV HERE and the quality of your writing possibly declines as you cheer for Russell and the Seahawks.)  As you arrive at the park, which sits at 4000 meters, you layer on all the clothes you brought, wishing you had more.  But the scenery is absolutely stunning!!  You walk up and down the hills, which is more difficult than usual due to the altitude, but luckily you have some coca leaves you smuggled from Peru, so you chew those, hoping you don't get altitude sickness like you did in Cuzco (even though you do later that night anyway).  As you admire the lakes, rivers, mountains, plants, mud pits, and flowers with your new friends, you forget that you just met them less than 24 hours ago, because certain experiences are so surreal and magical that they transcend time, and in an inexplicable way it really has been more than 24 hours.