Voluntering, Hitchhiking and Illegal boarder crossing into Ecuador, Brooklyn Style

(This is actually a pic of the Mexican boarder to make things a bit more dramatic)

I know this might sounds like a somewhat strange thing to do, but complicated situations call for extreme measures and I am the king of complicated situations. What would cause a guy with a US passport to enter a country illegally, was it insanity, boredom, stupidity or something else. In order to comprehend what caused me to enter Ecuador from Colombia without getting my passport stamped, it's necessary to understand the circumstances that lead me to act in the way I did. At the time of my crossing I had been in Colombia over 5 months, 2 months over the 90 days I was given upon my arrival into Medellin from Fort Lauderdale. As I was approaching the 90 day mark in Colombia, I was aware that I had a limited time to request the extension, which is normally done on the Colombia migraciones website preferably a few days before the 90th day. At that time I had been doing some workaway volunteering for 2 months in a mountain 2 hours outside of Medellin known as Cocorna for a Colombian/Dutch couple named Jefrey and Fee.

Aside from the majestic mountain and paragliding, Cocorna is an extremely boring town overpriced town that feels like you have traveled 20 years back in time and entered the twilight zone. Since I was a 50 minute walk from the town to where I was staying in the mountain, I only went down to the town on the weekends out of complete boredom or if I was in dire need of internet access since there was no wifi where I was staying. My main reason for staying in this extremely boring place was to participate in ceremonies using ancestral medicine. Before this I had about 15 experiences taking Ayahuasca in Colombia and Brazil, but this place had some different medicines that I had no previous knowledge of. Since I'm all about trying new things that can help bring me to the higher level of consciousness (whatever that is) and connecting with like minded souls staying on the mountain had it's benefits.

Another big reason I stayed in Cocorna for so long was because of my crypto. When I left the states in March, I had a crypto Nexus that I was really banking on. About half the money in this crypto I earned from Steemit and the other half was my own money that I invested. Like many people I took a big gamble without a lot of knowledge, by investing pretty much everything I had in crypto and not being aware that this could bite me on the ass hard. And eventually this is what happened. My original plan was to head to Budapest in June to take a 3 week English certification course that was already payed for that included hotel stay and 3 meals a day for only $80 dollars. As the time was approaching I lost site of my goals and froze. I became obsessed with the price of NXS so much that I completely lost site of my plans. Then while on the mountain I kept coming across people who advised me that it would be beneficial to head to California at the end of September to do some marijuana trimming.

So as time went by I starting thinking it was better to make quick money in Cali then continue improving my English teaching skills in Budapest. Everything in life has it's own reasoning and there is a lesson to learn from every situation even if it takes time to comprehend what the lesson is. So the plan was to kill some time in Colombia before heading to California. I sadly made a big mistake by not calculating the exact amount of time I had to apply for the extension. As I was approaching my 90th day there was a 4 day ceremony approaching that I was not planning to be apart of. Even though I had participated in the previous ceremony free of charge and was given 2 free Kambo ceremonies, there was some tensions between some of the people on the mountain. Even though they described themselves as a community, the reality is that they are just bunch of individualistic people who only come together to profit from the retreats they perform mainly for Europeans who can afford the price of entry. Due to this I assumed I would not be offered to participate in the ceremony without having to pay. To my surprise I was approached by Juan Estaban, I guy who I would classify as a self centered money hungry narcissist who was incapable of doing something without receiving something in return. So strangely this character came to me and offered for me to participate in the upcoming ceremony which comprised of Kambo, Yopo and Tamazcal (sweat lodge). In exchange for taking part in the ceremonies, I agreed to do some work for him. How the fuck was I going to have time to do work for this guy while I was slaving for 8 hours a day volunteering for a Colombian Dutch couple was beyond me. But it was still a good deal I thought even if I was going to have to sacrifice a weekend of my free time to fulfill my so called obligation for this deucebag.

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During the days of the retreat, I completely lost track of time. There was also a super hot fully operated Colombian chic who was taking part in the ceremonies which also was a cause of distraction for me. The retreat started on a Friday and ended on Monday, which was a holiday, which in Colombia is like every other week. Finally on Monday afternoon at the end of the ceremony I finally made into the town to try to take care of this visa extension issue. At this point I began to calculate how many days left I had before the 90th. So to my dismay, according to the 90 calculator I found online, I had 2 days left. So I started to panic and to make matters worse I had lost my debit card several weeks earlier so technically I didn't even have the money to pay. So the next day I went to the town again and asked my father if I could use his card. So I sent the request and kept my fingers crossed as I waited for the response from the migraciones. The next day I got a response from them denying my extension stating that I was 1 day late. I couldn't believe it, apparently Colombia counts the day you arrive in the country as 1 day. So I was fucked and a few days later I headed to Medellin to discuss the matter in person at migraciones. They had no interest in hearing my case and basically told me I would have to pay $430,000 pesos to leave the country, approximately $140 USD.

At this point I didn't know what to do so I went back to the mountain in the hopes that my crypto would go up a little so that I could sell it and depart Colombia. Instead of it going up, it kept going down, down, down. I was stupid not to have sold it when it was still worth about $1700. If I would have been thinking straight I would have sold the damn thing rather then hoping it would go up to $2000 which would have been close to the value of my position back in March. On the mountain I got very depressed as the couple I was totally consumed by the fact that I fucked up my extension ,not selling my crypto sooner and for working 8 hours a day for to people who I allowed to manipulate me to thinking that they cared about me and I was a part of something unique. To make matters worse the couple I was volunteering for completely scum bagged me. I had an agreement with them that if I stayed volunteering in the mountain helping out while Jefreys parents were aroud they would allow me to stay in their Teepee which coincidentally I helped carry all the bamboo needed to put this thing together. When I cam back from Medellin after trying to receive my visa issues, Jeffry and Fee had already gone to Europe. I got the news from Jeffry's parents that I was not allowed to stay in the Teepee and would have to continue sleeping in the same tent I had been sleeping in for the last 2 months. Needless to say I felt totally betrayed and could not believe people who claim or think themselves as so spiritual can be some selfish piece of shits. Well part of the benefit of this experience was to show me that talk is cheap and people are not always what they claim or portray themselves to be, including me sometimes. But it's a very rare occasion that I shit on people and don't keep my word.

(Jeffry his parents and yours truly)

Though I can say his parent's were very lovely people and treated me and feed me better then there son did, none the less the damage was done and I was miserable. Because of them being so kind with me I tried my best to continue working without being bothered by the deception I was experiencing. To make matters worse when I came back to the mountain from Medellin the washer machine that my so called friend Jefry promised to fix was never connected. So to add to my 8 hours of hard labor I was spending 1 hour a day prior to working washing my clothes by hand. After 1 month of this torture plus getting tired of his mother forcing Christianity down my throat I finally decided to leave. I was contemplating getting a regular job in Medellin and had an interview set up, so I use this as my escape from the self imposed prison I created for myself.

Once back in the city I was totally lost, disconnected from the world and had no idea what to do next. I was offered the job at a semi call center but was not convinced that I wanted to go from one form of slavery to slavery in an office for 9 hours a day. Eventually I went to Guadape to do another workaway, which didn't work out the way I had hoped for. In all reality I was so miserable that there was not much that would have made me happy. At this workaway, I did meet an Argentine couple that advised me to go to Ecuador. For me this was like deja vu since 2 1/2 years earlier I was in Colombia and was advised the same thing by another Argentine couple I had met. That trip ending by me taking 3 buses and 36 hours to get to Ipiales, the Colombian/Ecuador boarder only for me to be so weak that I decided to return to the US after 28 months in South America. Atleast this time I was in better condition to make the journey.

So I went back to the hostel I had stayed at prior to heading to Guatape. As things turned out, one of the Argentine volunteers I had made friends with was also planning to leave Medellin to head to Neiva which is in Huila. Since I was with limited funds aside from what I still had in my NXS position I decided it would be best for me to hitchhike. I had found a hostel to volunteer in Quito, so that was my destination. Heading to Neiva with Mati was not the best route for me to take from Medellin to Ecuador, but since I knew my energy was low and Mati's energy was great, plus he plays guitar, has some dreads and is more experienced hitchhiking then me, I decided to tag along with him was a good move. This actually turned out to be a great move on my point and my intuition was on point. Hitchiking with Mati was like childs play. Sometimes it seemed as if the cars were stopping for us before we even attempted to put our thumbs up.

We were dropped off outside of Medellin from the owner of the hostel we were staying at. The first guys who picked us up were a Colombian and Venezuelan guy. They were cool guys and even shared a joint with us before dropping us off. After this we got picked up by a Colombian woman in her 50's. I was still a bit high when she picked us up, actually before getting into the car she asked me if I was a good person, what was I to say No, I'm gonna fucking kill you. Well we took off and the way this woman drove thru the mountain had me pissing in my pants. At one point I wanted to get out of the car cause this woman drove like speed racer going in the opposite lane to pass cars in front, including 18 wheelers. After I calm down I realized even though she drove like a maniac she was a great driver. She dropped us of in San Luis, invited us for a coffee and actually cried when we departed. Since it was getting dark, we were going to have to find a place to sleep. As we were contemplating where to stay we were approached by a truck driver who asked us where we were going. As it turned out he was heading more or less in our direction and offered to take us in the direction we were heading in the mourning after getting his trucked weight. So we slept under his truck and I was slick enough to keep the rest of the joint we had smoked with the first guys who picked us up. Everything was flowing so easily, I was starting to feel good again about my journey. The next day the truck driver arrived, dropped us off at another spot while he got his trucked weighed. While we waited for him Mati gave me a lesson on how to get food and coffee for free. We went into a restaurant and Mati asked the waitress if we could have some patacones that the waitress was removing from another table. When we went to pay for the coffee Mati asked the cook if we could pay her a few pesos for some old bread that she was going to throw out. Not only did she give us some bread for free, she didn't even charge us for the coffee. Finally after some time the driver came to get us. As we were about to take off the woman from the restaurant came out to the street and handed us 2 meals which included meat and some agua panela to drink.

(Mati and me enjoying our free lunch while hitchhiking on top of the 18 wheeler.

At the beginning of this ride all was good. But after a few hours we got drained by the drive and by the scorching sun. We finally got dropped off in Ibague and immediately headed to a Gas station nearby where we were dropped off. After refreshing in the Gas station bathroom and drinking some water we went back to the business at hand. As usual Mati with his great vibe had asked some truck drivers if they were heading to Neiva. At first they said that they said they were heading to Bogota which was in the opposite direction. After a few minutes the drivers appeared to have a change of heart and told us they were going to Neiva. At this point Mati and I parted ways. I got in one truck and Mati in the other. The driver I was with had told me it was the first time he had ever picked up a hitchhiker, lucky me. I had been planning to go from Neiva to Cali then to Ipiales but the driver recommended I continued south with him. So I took his advise and set up my hammock underneath his truck as he check into the local motel.

The next day at about 5am we headed out again, sadly I left my last remaining beenie in the bathroom while the driver was waiting for me to head out. On the way to Pitalito, my next destination the driver was kind enough to invite me for breakfast. Another thing that occured while on this ride was I noticed the driver had a picture of a little girl along with some pictures of angels around her. When I asked him if the little girl was his daughter, he told it was and that she had died of cancer when only 8 years old. I couldn't even imagine how distraught this was, but he seemed to have learned to deal with the pain with a lot of grace. I coincidentally have a 6 year old daughter in Namibia that I have never meet, which immediately caused me to imagine what it would be like if something like that happened to her.

Shortly after we arrived in Pitalito, a very small city nearby a popular tourist attraction named San Agustin. I was finally on my own and was going to have to attempt to get to Ecuador solo. I tried to catch a ride outside the Pitalito bus station with no success. While attempting to catch a ride a very kind woman came up to me and asked me if she could give me something. I was like ok, and she took out what appeared to me a container of dish washing soap. I was at first confused and thought why is she giving me soap. She told me to open it and the large container was filled with food. It never seizes to amaze me the kindness of people and how the universe blesses you with all types of things when one finally has the courage to remove themselves from a difficult situation to a situation of just trusting what life has to offer. Again I continued to catch a ride with no success. Then the lady who gave me the food passed me by me on a local Chivas bus and asked me where I was going. It was difficult to talk to her from the street so she told me to get on the bus. When I told her where I was going she asked some of the other people on the bus which direction I needed to go. The people were as kind as her and told me where to get off. Not only that but the humble lady payed for my bus fare prior to getting off herself.

So now I was at least in the right direction but still needed a ride to continue to Ecuador. After having a coffee I continued to try to catch a ride. I continued on the main road with no success, so I continued to walk further along the highway. I was near San Augustin but still no ride. Finally after 4 drivers offering a ride to the next town Brusseles, I accepted the last driver offer to take me to Brusseles which was not a car but actually motorbike. So while on the bike, the driver asked me where I was heading. I told him Ecuador and he told me he was Ecuadorian and was heading to Ipiales tomorrow. I was like holy shit, what are the odds that I get picked up on a motobike by a guy is basically heading to the same place as me the following day. So I asked him if I could ride with him and he said sure, no problem. So I got dropped of in Brusseles and he told me to meet him 7am the following day. I felt pretty contempt with this offer, even though it was only 1pm I decided that I would hang out in the small town and meet the driver at 7am.

Near the main road there was a river nearby. I decided to hang my hammock there, refresh myself in the water and just enjoy the rest of the day. After hanging up my hammock I was confronted by the owner of the house that was right next to the river. I had asked him if it was ok if I stayed the night in that location. At first he seemed a bit suspicious of me but then after a few minutes of talking he opened up to me, gave me a jugg of agua panela to drink and handed me a bunch of mandarins from his garden. Later I went to a local spot to grab a bite to eat and just chill out. Then a very nice man began talking to me and offered for me to stay in his house. He seemed harmless and friendly so I accepted to offer to meet him later to stay at his place. I went back to the restaurant a few hours later but he never appears, oh well. So I slept in the hammock freezing my nuts off since I don't have much warm clothes and I left my beenie on the way. I got up around 6am to meet the guy who offered to take me into Ecuador.

Sadly 7am came and went and the guy never appeared. Needless to say I was very disappointed, tired and frustrating. The road from Bruselles to my next destination Pasto is not one that is frequented often. I only had a bit over 100,000 pesos which I was saving in case I had to bribe the people in the boarder to let get thru without having to pay the $430,000 pesos fine I was quoted in Medellin. Therefore my mission was to still hitch a ride to Ecuador without having to spend any more money. A bus driver in the town offered to take me to Pasto for $40k pesos which was 20 less then I was offered at the bus terminal but this was to much for my tight budget. So I continued to drive to catch a ride but it was Sunday and there were few cars on the road. The sun was also blazing which only made matters worse. I decided to head back to town and use the internet, potentially considering ditching my plan to go to Ecuador and just find another place to volunteer in Colombia nearby.

After half an hour bullshitting on the internet I decided to give it another go. I headed back on the road with my heavy poor excuse for a backpack. As I began walking along the road I passed a young Colombian couple smoking a joint. Without me having to say a word they invited me to partake in the festivities. It was just what the doctor ordered, and gave me a boost of energy that I severely needed to make it to my destination. The kid gave me some advise on how to hop on a truck while the trucks had to slow down for speed bumps. Back I went renewed to see what would happen. Shortly after a pick up truck with seats and passengers in the back stopped for me. He didn't offer me a free ride but he did offer to take me to the next city Mocoa for only 10k pesos, which was a deal that I could not refuse. Since I was suppose to be in Quito to start volunteering the following day I was trying to make up some time. The ride from Brusseles to Mocoa was amazing. I was super blazed which made the scenery that much more enjoyable and stunning.

Right before arriving in Mocoa the driver decided to stop at a local spot to grap something to eat. I got out and decided to have a cheap empanada. While sitting eating my empananda with another guy sharing the table with me began talking to me. He asked me where I was heading, I told him Pasto, Ipiales then Ecuador. He said to me why am I going to Ipiales when I am so close to La Formiga which is the other boarder less travelled between Colombia and Ecuador. On a brown paper bag he drew a map and showed me where Puente International was and where Ipiales was. Needless to say he made perfect sense. If not for this guy I would have continued onto Pasto which was another 8 hours away. So I took his advise and at Mocoa I decided to head to La Formiga. When I got off the bus I asked the bus driver where was the main road to La Formiga so I could hitchhike. He told me I would not find a ride from their and it would be best to take a bus. Even though I know these guys know nothing about hitchhiking, I decided to take his advise because I was exhausted and on limited time. The first van offered to take me for $35k pesos, which I thought was way to much. Next I found a bus that offered to take me for $20k pesos, though I thought this was more then I wanted to spend, I decided to go for it.

I got on the bus and turned out I was the only none Venezuelan on the bus. It was definitely a surreal experience the be on a this bus with some 50 Venezuelans who were pretty much forced out of their country to the economic crisis. It was humbling experience when I compared what I thought was my misfortune to a group of people who were forced to leave there home country and move to a land not there own. What was so interesting and inspiring was to see how they banned together to help one another. You would have thought they were all from the same family but the reality wasn't the case. It was there affliction that brought them together to such a degree that they treating each other which in reality is the case because were are all human beings at the end of the day regardless of what country we come from, what our beliefs are or our economic standing in the World. I sat next to a guy who wanted a coffee but didn't have enough to buy to I bought him one. Afterwards I conversated with some of the Venezuelans who told me about their travels from Venezuela and what it took for them to get to Ecuador to begin an new life.

I thought the La Formiga was the actual boarder but that wasn't the case. Once arriving in La Formiga we took a van which cost $6000 pesos took us to another point, which was not Puente Internacional either. Due to the time the only way to get to the boarder was by taking a mototaxi which cost me another $3000 pesos. So I finally reached the boarder which appeared to be empty. At this point I thought I was going to get online at Migraciones and discuss my situation of being on overstay. I entered thru the first gate at the boarder, walked thru the entire boarder area which was filled with UNICEF for the Venezuelan refugees. There was one more gate to pass and just walked thru it with no problem. Now I was a little confused because at this point there was no more boarder or gates to cross just a road. I asked a mototaxi where the boarder was and he told me I already passed it. He told me Colombian Migraciones was closed closed and would open at 6am the next morning and it was around 7pm. The mototaxi guy then told me I was already in Ecuador. So I was already where I wanted to be, so what now. It was either stay in one of the UNICEF tents and wait on a long line the next morning to talk to Migraciones or due what the mototaxi advised me to do. He said to me "well your already in Ecuador so why don't you do what everyone else, just stay. I thought about this for a minute and finally decided "Fuck it, why not". I asked him if he knew a place where I could exchange my pesos for dollars and he just so happened to know a woman in the nearby town that was giving a pretty good exchange rate. Even though he wanted to charge $10 to get to the bus terminal to get to Quito at this point I just went with it. Even though I didn't want to pay $10 to get to the terminal, but at this point there was no other way to get there unless I waited until the morning. It had been a long day and I was happy to be in Ecuador, so I just continued with my mission to make it to Quito.

Everything worked out, I got my pesos converted, the guy was even nice enough to take me to a market to get some food and I then caught a bus which also cost $10 to get to Quito. How I will resolve this situation when the time comes to leave Quito is still a mystery to me. But the way I see things, it wasn't an accident that I ended up going this route all due to a guy I meet randomly while eating an Empanada. Since I know in life there are no coincidences, I call this destiny. Whatever the consequences are, I have no regrets doing what I did and would do it again if faced with the same circumstances.

Well that's the end of this part of the story, I hope to write about the events that took place once arriving in Quito. I hope you enjoyed my story and hope that in can inspire some of you in some type of way. Until next time, God Bless and Peace out.

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