Day 20: Resort Prison

“Would you rather have Wi-Fi in the rooms or hot showers?”

A question from David Tames that started us out this morning. Interesting question, we will get back to you on that, David.

They are keeping us in a luxury hotel but we do not know why. We can’t leave, we do not know what’s out there, but we do have hot showers. And that is enough for us.

One of us decided to try and make a break for it by going on a run in the morning. The results were almost life-threatening. Amar came back to the hotel to tell us he was chased by a few dogs while trying to escape. That was the last time one of us tried to leave during the day. Instead, we tried our best to keep busy. We went in the hot tub, sauna, played with Frisbees, and laid by the pool all day to keep up our strength before another attempt at an escape to Cumbaya at night. As we were keeping busy in the sun, Brenna and Olivia M. had interviews with people from the outside world- and they landed the job!!

One by one, we slowly and individually let the the prison guards, David and Jean, know how we were doing with the process of being in Resort Prison. We seemed to be getting by alright. During our individual meetings, we all had meaningful talks about how we were doing with the two courses we have been taking over the past three weeks, how we have dealt with being away from friends and family, discussed any concerns we had, and much more. For Resort Prison guards, David and Jean are pretty compassionate.

Finally, it became time for our second escape plan. We gathered in the lobby of the hotel and Jaime, our bus driver, AKA the getaway car driver, told us to pile in. So far, so good. He took us to our friend William’s house so that we could drop the belongings that we didn’t need for the Galapagos Islands. We all got our pet-fix while dropping our stuff when two adorable dogs and about five cats swarmed all of us as we went in. So this is what it’s like in the real world!

Jaime gathered us all back on the bus and dropped us off at Cumbaya- the promise land! We made it! A whole night away from Resort Prison! What did we do with all of this freedom, you ask? We crashed someone else’s birthday party at a restaurant named “P. P. Botella”, obviously. The waitresses welcomed us with open arms and free blue shots with the famous sugar cane liquor Ecuador is known for. While one half of the group celebrated a “birthday”, the other half of the group went and had an Italian meal with two for one drinks. Either option was ideal.

We came back to the hotel singing show tunes from musicals like Annie, Hairspray, and the classiest and most original of them all- High School Musical. Full from amazing meals and great drinks, we all were excited to go back to Resort Prison. The real world is tough.

Some of us ended the night by singing Taylor Swift and dancing by the hot tub. Some of the other prisoners staying at the Resort Prison stopped by to get a peak at our dancing. Tourists are the worst, am I right? Tom Cairns, our sick prisoner, we hope you heard our singing all the way to your hospital room!