A slight change in plans, or how to overstay your visa in Ecuador...and get away with it!

The answer to our previous answers was, in general, a resounding NO! No, Teresita Rosita did not leave the country before her visa expired. No, she did not head south. No, she did not get to eat tasty Peruvian food.

She stuck with her fried chicken and rice, she stuck with Ecuador and stuck with working at The Secret Garden with her new bestie Colo Rùccula. Yes, she had spent so much in the Galapagos that she couldn't actually afford to go back home, but that really didn't factor too much in Teresita Rosita's decision making. She was enjoying herself too much in Quito to think about leaving...

 ... at least she was for a while.
Then things changed...

The rainy season started in Ecuador, and with the change of weather came a change in atmosphere in the hostel. The lovely happy times, changed into not very happy times. Sure, there were good changes in the form Teresita Rosita's new friend, Jungle Dan, with his Chancho hat, who had started working with the girls and their animal hats.

But there were bad changes as well, and to cut a long, incredibly interesting and dramatic story short, the friends decided it was time to move on and they left!

Now, Teresita Rosita had been adamant that she would continue south as she had always planned, this was, after all the South America trip she'd been planning for years and years. But the thought of parting ways with her new friends, who were both heading north, and the thought of missing out on the amazing food and equally fantastic weather of Central America swayed our little traveller. South America could wait a little bit longer - Teresita Rosita assumed it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. North it was!!!

Though not before the band of misfits decided to go all the way south to Vilcabamba (yeah, it was pretty much in Peru!) and relax a bit after the hectic last days in Quito. They ate pizza and hung out with the crazy expat gringos that inhabited the place. They went walking through the country breathing in the fresh mountain air. They reminisced about the good times they'd had in Quito. They laughed about the bad.

And then they went all the way back north again. A brief stop in Cuenca to look at churches and street art, another pause in Quito to say a final adios to all the amigos that they'd made there, and then the border.

The dreaded border.

We all know that Teresita Rosita may have overstayed her visa by just a little while. And the prospect of crossing the border was a tad daunting. Maybe they were going to fine her, or arrest her, or - it didn't bear thinking about - DEPORT HER!!! Her palms sweated. Her heart fluttered. Her eyes flittered. They were onto her, she just knew it. This was never going to work. Why had she overstayed her visa? She was going to end up sharing an Ecuadorian prison cell with 20 other prisoners AND their families.

She waited her turn in the immigration queue. She sidled up to the window. She slide her passport under the glass. She tried to look nonchalant. Her panda tried to look innocent. The official typed some stuff into the computer. A warning message flashed on screen. With a big red cross on it!

Eep!
"Miss, you have overstayed your visa by 62 days".
"Oh, really? I didn't realise. What do I do sir?"
"You must DIE!!!!"

.....
Well, not quite.

Teresita Rosita didn't get arrested, she didn't end up in an overcrowded South American jail, she didn't pay a fine, and she definitely didn't die.

She had to go ALL the way around the corner, photocopy her passport THREE whole times, give the copies to the official and then she had to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And three and a half hours later, just when the friends had given up hope that they'd get out of the country before dark, the official called them over, found the forms that had, most likely, been sitting on the desk the entire three and a half hours, printed something on them, and gave the girls their exit stamps.

That was it.
They were free.

They skipped across the border back into Colombia. They got fresh stamps letting them in and then they were off again. Ecuador was behind them. Five months of volcanos, beaches, blue footed boobies, and sunsets over Quito were over. Colombia was ahead of them with a whole lot of places that Teresita Rosita had visited before, but also a whole lot that she hadn't. And she was determined to see as much of it as possible in the 90 days she had been kindly given. Definitely NO more!

How To Swim with Sharks and other adventures - Teresita Rosita visits the Galapagos Islands

OK Teresita Rosita never planned to go to the Galapagos. In fact she was determined NOT to go, seeing as she was going to be traveling for the unforeseeable future and that much money for that little time just wasn't an option in the whole scheme of things. Gee whiz... $2000 could last a savvy backpacker at least a couple of months in Bolivia if not more.

But...

See, the thing with working at a hostel is that you're always talking to people, and the thing with working at a hostel in Quito is that you're always talking to people who are either going to, or coming from the Galapagos. And the thing with hearing really awesome things about a place over, and over, and over, and over again, is that you start thinking that maybe you should just bite the bullet and go yourself.

And so one day, Teresita Rosita took a big chunk out of that bullet and bought herself a plane ticket out into the middle(ish) of the Pacific Ocean. And then she packed up her little green bag again and jumped on a plane.

And it was all damn exciting, until she touched down and saw everyone else who had booked their pre-organised boat tours, or hotel pickups, or personal guides, or whatever it is that people do when they're organised and have money and head off to a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere.

You see, Teresita Rosita had not done this. She'd figured that seeing as she was now a veteran of Quito and generally all things Ecuador, she didn't really need to plan anything, that she could just rock up and talk to people and work things out as she went along.  But then, it wasn't at all like that when she arrived and she was scared and alone and didn't have Colo Rùccula to keep or company, and maybe her Spanish wasn't that good after all and she should have stayed in Quito where she knew stuff and stuff....and stuff.

But she wasn't in Quito anymore, she was in the middle of nowhere, on an island, by herself, and there was nothing else to do but buckle up and enjoy herself and go find herself some blue-footed boobies to make friends with. So she did!

Well, first she met a fellow Australian (surprisingly, they're not hard to pick when you run into them overseas) and they decided to hang out and explore the archipelago a bit together. They saw their first sea lion, jumped off some cliffs into crystal clear fish-filled water, ate lobster and generally decided that the Galapagos was the most amazing place on earth - ever!  But that was only just the beginning...

Teresita Rosita then decided that even though it had been over ten years ago (damn, she looked good for her age) that she'd last been diving, seeing as she was in the Galapagos it would just be silly not to don a scuba tank and try and spot some hammerheads. Good idea?

Well yes... and no.

Teresita Rosita had figured it'd be more or less like riding a bike, but the whole breathing under the water thing turned out to be a bit more complex than balancing on two wheels. She put her head beneath the waves and FREAKED OUT!

She gulped at the air that just didn't seem to be coming out of the regulator and came back up to the surface. Maybe she should have thought this over a bit more before she got on the boat...

No!

She tried again.

No dice....

Back at the surface she freaked out some more, then pulled herself together, took some more heaves of air and descended again.

And then there she was. She was under the water and she was BREATHING! Humans were not meant to do this crazy stuff but our little traveller was now a human fish and she was ready to seen what the Galapagos had on offer.

Sharks!

That's what there was.

Sharks, sharks and more sharks.

And you know what?

Teresita Rosita grew up in Australia and had the fear of sharks ingrained into the very blood that she was sure these supposedly "friendly" Galapagos sharks wanted to devour. Swimming next to a whole school of them really isn't conducive to conserving air either, nor is seeing hammerhead after hammerhead emerge from the gloom and glide gently back into it. Teresita Rosita gasped up her air, maybe not purposefully trying to use it all up as fast as possible in order to get away from those nasty sharks, but it certainly helped.

After that excitement, Teresita Rosita decided maybe she should take things a bit easier, so she decided to take a peaceful boat ride over to another of the Galapagos islands, San Cristobal.

Relaxing....

Not so much.

Turns out the Galapagos aren't exactly the tropical, tranquil paradise everyone thinks they are. Turns out there's a whole lot of open water in between each island. And turns out open water is pretty damn bumpy in a little speed boat that only holds 15 people. Teresita Rosita however,  made it unscathed, and without the aid of the seasickness pills she'd had the forethought to buy before leaving the mainland.

And it was worth the pain, because San Cristobal was a paradise within a paradise. Teresita had her first swim (of many) with frolicking sea lions and sea turtles. She wandered along deserted beaches and snorkeled in crystal clear bays. She ate amazing seafood and then decided to splash out and booked herself on a cruise for a 6 whole days! She was gonna do Galapagos the proper way.

And...


It was AMAZING!!

She felt like the biggest fraud fraud of all as she boarded the luxury yacht, and got shown to her own cabin with its own little balcony and bathroom with fluffy towels and a shower looking right out over the waves lapping at the edge of the boat. There was a lounge and a sundeck and a dining room and a bar and, and, and...

It was AMAZING!!!

When she was not up top watching the islands and the waves rush by, Teresita Rosita was snorkeling with more sea lions, disturbing the marine iguanas as they sun baked across the footpath, watching blue footed boobies do their wacky dances and generally doing the good things in life, like eating more seafood, watching sunsets and getting gently rocked to sleep by the waves each night. The only downside was getting off the boat and the whole world continuing with its gentle swaying back and forth for the following week, but hey, can't have everything can you?!

Teresita Rosita's final stop in the Galapagos was the biggest, yet least developed island of the archipelago, Isabela. Another 2 hour, spine jarring journey and our girl and her panda touched down upon the sandy shores of Isla Isabela. And there, they didn't do too much really. They met some lovely people with whom they rode bikes, climbed mountains, visited beaches and then danced the night away over the high tide that covered the vast beach each evening. They sun baked, hung with the iguanas and visited hundreds of baby giant tortoises. They snorkeled with more sharks and avoided crashing with swimming turtles.

And then it was time to go.

Two weeks in the Galapagos had flown by, and with a heavy heart and a much lighter bank balance, Teresita Rosita returned to the mainland with a new stamp in her passport and one day left on her visa.

But did she leave the country like she should have? Did she continue on her southern trajectory as she had planned? Did she finally make it to Peru to eat Causa and Lomo Saltado and Ceviche as she had planned?

You'll just have to stay tuned for the next episode of Teresita Rosita Travels to find out, won't you?!

Teresita Rosita makes a friend - Quito, a girl named Colo, and pineapple, delicious pineapple

Teresita Rosita is on the road again....finally. And heading north again. Of course this wasn't part of the original plan, but hey, what are plans for, if not only to change them? So what has led our little adventurer to head off into the blue again? Surely she was content in her new home in Quito? Hadn't she decided to stay there for the foreseeable future? Well, let's retrace her steps over the past few months and see what transpired in the little country known as Ecuador..

We left Teresita Rosita just as she had started working in a hostel in Quito, a city most people avoided but that she had fallen in love with and eagerly explored every chance she had. But how did she get there in the first place, because she had originally been one of those foolish souls who weren't even going to step foot in the place.

Well...

We all know Teresita Rosita had left Australia because the idea of work made her little panda covered head ache, but after being on the road for as long as she had she felt maybe it was time to stay put for a time. And it just so happened that in this lovely place called Cotopaxi there was about to be space to work as a volunteer. Ah, fresh mountain air, snow capped volcanoes, sparkling streams, green meadows, llamas and a jacuzzi, what more could a girl need? Well, Teresita Rosita was sold! She just had to make a quick visit to Quito to check it out and talk to the boss to get everything organised.

But, lo, upon entering the bustling city nestled in amongst the mountains, her changed once again. Within minutes of being there, Teresita Rosita found herself working at a hostel there instead! And it turned out she really liked it there. Not only that - she made some friends too! Teresita Rosita and her lucky panda hat now had company. Working at the hostel with the best view in town was Colo Rùccula and her smiling monkey hat, and before you could say "Hola, que tal? Me llamo Teresita Rosita" they were firm friends. And what adventures they had...

They went to the middle of the world and tried to balance eggs on nails and wobbled along the equator. Teresita Rosita also thought it would be a good idea to play on an elephant shaped slide. It was not such a good idea after all. Teresita Rosita found herself not sliding down the slide at all. She found herself in a very awkward situation instead. It looked a bit like this...

Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùculla visited the Virgin of Quito up on her little loaf of bread mountain and hugged the world at her feet. They ate coconut ice cream in plazas, they discovered zombified religious art in a monastery inhabited by midget tour guides, they listened to classical music in a church coated with gold, they visited their juice lady in the market for guanabana (amazing), mora (super amazing) and coco (absolutely incredible, especially when mixed with either of the other amazing options) juices and every Sunday they went to the central plaza to get their faces painted with the rest of the children.

And so passed the weeks, and then months. And then our intrepid duo went exploring together. Teresita Rosita had been in the mountains for much longer than she cared to think,  all that altitude was making her light-headed - it was time for the beach!

The animal hatted girls took an overnight bus that took 5 hours to drop them off in the middle of the night in a little town called Puerto Lopez. It wasn't the nicest place to be around at 5am so they kept on going until they reached Montañita. It was there Teresita Rosita and Colo Rùccula were introduced to drinking out of whole pineapples and half watermelons and with all the fruit juice they proceeded to imbibe, there was actually very little time to actually lay on the beach as they had originally planned. After three days they had had more than their fair share of juice as well so they thought maybe it was time to move on.

Back to Puerto Lopez they went, to give the town a second chance and actually do some sight seeing and beach lazing. They saw whales too lazy to leap out of the water and rode in nearly exploding tuk-tuks to a gorgeous nearby beach called Los Frailes, where Colo Rùccula finally had her first swim an actual ocean!

And then it was onwards and upwards, through the awesomely named,it not-so-awesome Jipijapa, to a quiet but not-so-quiet town called Canoa. It was Colo Rùccula's birthday (the actual reason why the girls were out of Quito) and so once again the beachy part of the trip was neglected for more fruit juice and dancing in a bar shaped like a boat until the early hours of the morning.

And so the beach holiday that didn't involve too much beaching was over and while Colo Rùccula went back to work like the slightly more responsible person she was, Teresita Rosita took off for....wait for it.... THE GALAPAGOS!!!!