Cafes, Markets, and Buses

Nomada the time

Shit, we must of been further down than I thought we were. I passed four, five, six blocks and finally saw the pink building of Selina Hostel.

I was eating breakfast in a Venezuelan cafe called “Nomada” when a calendly notification popped up on my phone “Design call with Sandy at 10am” it was 9:50 and I had no headphones, no wifi, and my carne arepa was about to be out. Sandy booked the call the night before, and my wifi in the hostel was being spotty so I never saw the notification come through.

A few more minutes passed and my Arepa arrived, I grabbed 3 delicious bites with the homemade aioli and took half of Katies baguette and went running out of the cafe.

I ran into the room and sat down at my desk, opening my Macbook, it was 10am on the dot.

We had been further down than I thought and leaving at 9:55 I didn’t think I’d make it in time.

The design call never happened, as he was working with the client he needed to talk to me about. Instead his AI note taker showed up on the call and I opened a long LinkedIn message from him explaining what they’re working on and needed some questions answered. I swiftly answered them, and explained to his AI how the plan would work.

…Man is the future here or what.

We’ll be moving forward on a collab for the project.

I returned to Nomada, the Venezuelan cafe 30 minutes later and finished my amazing arepa and cold cappuccino.

The thing about business on the road.

It’s exciting, and as I execute and grow while working from not so ideal places sometimes, I know I’ll be setup to tackle anything when I decide to grab an ideal spot and setup.

My ideal plan to achieve business on the road is by projects, setup for a week to a month and front load a project, and then go move around and continue producing content and outreach.

That being said there’s two quotes that keep coming to my mind:

“Don’t let the world distract you from business”

“Don’t let business distract you from the world”

There’s a fine line, but I’d hate to be to focused on business that I don’t see and learn from the road while traveling.

That’s the reason I’m here.

Prescription For Health

Pins and needles piercing through my body, I look over at Katie. “Are your lungs cold? My breaths cold and I can feel it flowing through my lungs” Katie says looking uncomfortable.

I check my watch, 57, 58, 59, 2 minutes. Time to switch and I plunge my head underwater quickly.

Climbing out of the pool we immediately get into the one next to us, at first feeling nothing we sit down up to out neck in water and then BAM! Our bodies light up, feeling like it’s on fire as the cold nerves are warmed to the 114 degree water.

This is the final cycle, just 5 minutes in the heat and we’re done.

When they say you can spend the day at Banos de Cuenca, they really mean it.

We showed up right when they opened at 14:00 (2pm) and stayed til around 18:30 (6:30pm).

There’s multiple hot springs to pick from and we went with the mid range one Aqua-something… It was $22 a person which was pretty expensive, but you got a tiny cheese empanada, coffee, and unlimited tea included.

The hot springs sit just under a volcano, and it’s said the water and steam is full of minerals and extremely healing.

They offered a Steam room, Steam bath (you sit in a stall and close the doors, so just your heads sticking out. you have a lever arms height that you turn on steam and it fills up where your body is. A local showed us the right way to use it by throwing a bucket of cold water on us…).

Sauna, Mud bath and hot spring in a cave, a main pool (elders use it for working out, its about waste deep on me and they run back and forth in it. It’s harder than it sounds).

And finally an ice bath and a very hot pool. The hot pool is 42c (114f) and the cold pool is 8c (48f)

You do 3 cycles of hot and cold, cold you stay 1-2 minutes and hot 1-5 minutes, some of the elders in it made me feel like a kid…

Cojas Pass

Flying up the mountain, dodging pot holes and landslides while passing buses, snapping pictures like a mad man and laughing hysterically throughout the road trip. Tony got us safely to Cuenca when he was supposed to drop us off at Guayaquil for the bus.

A producer from RedBull and Katies friend showed up in Puerto Engabao to say hi, he was on a trip in Chile and decided to make some flight adjustments and visit Katie. Having rented a car he decided to change his travel plans (in true backpacker fashion) and drive all the way to Cuenca for a day.

It was a really fun trip, as we had another backpacker from the hostel Sophie with us and got to drive through the roads in a road trip fashion.

Crossing the mountain of Cojas National Park was a bit treacherous as the roads had seen a lot, we had to pass through a cloud it was probably a good mile you couldn’t see 3 feet in front of the car.

The landscape went from rainforest and jungle, to high alps, valleys, boulders, and alpine lakes. Ending in the beautiful ENDCA recognized colonial town of Cuenca (It kinda looks like Boulder, CO if it were a city)

Markets

Colorful fruits of every variety imaginable, peeled onions, cow hooves, whole hogs cooked, fish, grains, flours, toys, and clothes.

The busy markets fully alive with people shopping for groceries, selling you stuff, laughing, and smiles.

Cuenca’s known for it’s market, they open on Wednesday and run thru the week selling just about anything you need (except peanut butter)

Later we noticed one of our apples had a “Dole, Chile” sticker on it…

Selina the traveler

That’s the Wi-fi password for Selina Hostel incase you ever need it.

We stayed at a Selina Hostel after hearing mixed reviews. They’re known to be expensive, but this was one of the cheapest options in Cuenca for $25 a night for a private room (with hot water sometimes)

Selinas a worldwide hostel corporation that’s now trading on the Nasdaq as SLNA.

They’re known for accommodating budget backpackers in dorms to traveling business men in suites. They have a cool model as they push for community and bringing people together, while offering co working spaces and yoga studios.

Selena Hostels is a great place for getting work done and needing a co working space, or meeting other people working on the road.

We considered staying in Cuenca for a month to do some work, but just coming off the month volunteering I’m a little stir crazy and need to bounce around.

We did find some furnished apartments that were quite nice for $400-$500 a month.

Maybe I’ll be back.

Winding roads

We’ve got the next five or six stops planned out and will be in Peru before you know it.

It looks like we’ll be in small mountain villages for a bit before hitting the coast again for the world’s longest left wave.

Last night we watched a street fight out of our hostel window, some drunk college kids got into it.

Just passed a head on collision on the mountain pass, it looked like everyone was alright though.

As I sit here clenching my butt cheeks and trying to not have my laptop fall off my lap on these extremely winding roads I’m writing from the bus to Vilcabamba (our taxi driver in Cuenca called Vilcabamba “Gringtopia”).

The sky is the limit, my friend Tal recently told me that’s a limiting phrase so remember.

“The sky is not the limit, you can push beyond”

I hope this found you well, have a great Sunday (get out to a farmers market and enjoy some fruit…)

Cheers,

Eliot