Wednesday, October 31st

Dear Obiwan,
Obi! Look how beautiful this church in Ipiales is!

So today Obi my day was full of traveling and then celebrating! First, I arrived in Ipiales after my night bus at 530 am, took a cab straight to the church, arrived around 6am then took the cab to immigration. Immigration was easy, only took about an hour and a half and I met some really nice Venezuelans in the line.

After getting my passport stamped I bought a new sim card for Ecuador and exchanged my money on the street, supposed to be legit 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Then I walked over the border and I was in Ecuador!!! Hasta luego Colombia!!!

After that I took a $1 bus to Tulcan, Ecuador and before getting on I asked the guy who led me to the bus 3 TIMES “BAÑO EN EL AUTOBUS?!” (Bathroom on the bus?!) And he said ‘sí, sí!’ then I get on the bus, it drives away as I look and see NO BATHROOM, the guy just lied. So, I thought ‘I can handle 4.5 hours without a toilet,’ BUT Obi, the bus kept stopping to pick people up! And drop people off? So instead of 4.5 hours it took a little over 6 hours. And what was most bizarre to me was that there were older adults and young children and everyone in between and NO ONE HAD TO GO TO THE BATHROOM?! FOR 6 HOURS?! They are super human and also just so incredibly patient and calm.

Finally, I arrived in Quito! And I went to go get more minutes on my card ($5 USD) and the woman had her face painted like a skeleton because, oh right, it’s Halloween!!! One of my favorite holidays Obi!!! Someone told me that Ecuador was more religious than other places and therefore Halloween isn’t celebrated- but they were wrong! There were so many people dressed up! I then had pizza for dinner and it was delicious.

Once reaching my hostel, Community Hostel, I napped immediately. Right before falling asleep I met two Israelie guys, Ben and Itai in my dorm room.

After my brief nap I woke up and joined happy hour with about 20 other people from the hostel. Almost everyone had costumes or face paint! Happy hour was free if you had a costume so I asked ‘where can I get face paint?’ and a nice Irish girl immediately turned and offered to paint cat whiskers on my face with her eye liner! (Obi, I was a CAT FOR HALLOWEEN, I wish you were there!) Then boom, I had free drinks for the rest of happy hour (which meant 7 minutes) but the bartender was friendly and helpful.

After happy hour ended, led by one of the hostel workers who was dressed as a banana, we were off to go out in Quito.

The first place we went the hostel bought 2 huge fishbowls, one was red and one was blue. Everyone drank from a bunch of different straws and danced. The place was packed and the music varied from reggaeton to popular dance music.

At MIDNIGHT this club closed, it was OBSCENELY early. We then were supposed to meet back at the hostel to head to the next ‘after hours’ bar. But! Obi, one guy from our hostel got way too drunk and our hostel guide had to take him back to the hostel, so we were left to find our way back. Which seemed simple, just get a taxi back?

Wrong! It was impossible to get a taxi! I still don’t understand why? Every single taxi was full. We kept walking and walking and still, no empty cabs!

During this we met a group of guys from Quito and one of them was just in love with one of the Aussie guys we were with.

FINALLY about an hour later we found a few taxis to take us back. Once we got back we went to the after hours club up the street. I walked up the huge hill to get there, walked inside and knew I couldn’t be out anymore, I was so exhausted. So I went back down the big hill and went to bed!

It was a great Halloween but I found myself missing my friends so much back in Philly, I know James and Joleen were throwing a big party and every Halloween in Philly is always the best!

Till tomorrow lamb,

Love, Carly