life by the beach

The adventure began on New Years Eve of 2021. Right as the clock turned midnight and 2022 began, we were in the air a couple hours from landing in Quito, Ecuador. The hostesses passed around champagne, cheerful songs in Spanish were sang, the pilot came over the intercom to wish us all a happy new year, and we carried on to our final destination.

Landing in the mountains of Ecuador was like something out of a dream. I was so tired from the travel, a bit sick from the altitude, and shocked at what I was doing that I remember my body not fully registering what was happening 100% of the time. We travelled all the way to the coast where I was met with so much sun, the smell of the ocean, and a breezy beach hut where we spent the next two and a half months. We surfed, ate strange and sour fruits I had never tasted in my life, but loved, baked endless amounts of sourdough bread, made friends with Ecuadorians and Americans, danced, laughed, cooked; all the while I was working remotely for an organization from the small wooden kitchen table in our “living room.”

Life by the beach was simple and easy. I’ll never be able to recreate the experience of living there ever again, and I’m okay with that. But there was something about that period of my life that felt so unique. I knew I would never digital nomad again. I knew I would never be living through a global pandemic on the coast of Ecuador in some small surf town with my boyfriend in my early twenties. It all felt so surreal and special and challenging and complicated all at the same time. There are no other words to describe it. I was grateful. The landscape there, however foreign to the landscapes I call home, and the landscapes inside of my being, held me because at that time, I really needed it. I was grateful over and over and over again.

The mountains were calling. The sun and salt had turned my skin to the color of olives and my hair all bright and beachy. I left with less hair and less stress on my shoulders. Life by the beach was over. It was time to move on from the fantasy.

All for now,

All my love,

Onward.

-m

(Written 01/01/2024)