How I Change Plans to Live in the Moment

Lima Peru
Lima, Peru

 

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Never before have I realized the extent of that statement until I hit the road. I strive to live in the moment and grab opportunities as they arise. The tough part is that there are so many opportunities! If I grab this one, then these others cannot happen. 

Martin and I love having urban adventures. I love finding something unexpected, which is exactly what happened when we stayed one night in Bogotá on our way from Medellin to Lima. We didn’t expect much from this night. Our only plans were to eat lunch and dinner and then catch our plane in the morning. 

We had a lovely lunch at a vegan restaurant and immediately started planning where to eat dinner because that’s how we roll.

Parque de Luces, Medellin, Colombia
Parque de Luces, Medellin, Colombia

The Plan

Our first plan was to eat a restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. 

But, then we realized that we needed to put more money on our bus pass. The bus system in Bogotá is great and overly complicated. The buses are “Rapid-Transit” which means the busses get their own lanes and stop only at designated stations, very similar to how a train functions. To ride the bus you need a card and to put money on the card. You can only put money on the card at certain stations. To get back to the airport, we needed to add more money to our card, but we couldn’t do that from the station where we would get on the bus. 

Having spent 5 days in Bogotá before, we were feeling a bit like experts because we had actually figured out our dilemma. 🙂 So, we decided to go to the Flores station to add money to our card. The Flores station was about a 30 minute walk from our hotel. From there, we could take the bus another 20 blocks farther to a different restaurant that sounded fun. We had a plan. 

Plaza de Armas, Lima, Peru
Plaza de Armas, Lima, Peru

A Hitch in the Plan

The air was crisp and fresh. The walk to the Flores station felt great. 

But, we found the Flores station jammed with people. Apparently we had stumbled into rush hour. We shoved our way up to the ticket window where we discovered they only refilled the red bus card, not the green bus card that would take us to the airport. We put four rides on the red bus card. Have I mentioned that the Bogotá transit system is overly complicated?

So many people were crammed into the station! We couldn’t move. I looked at the busses approaching the station, and they were already full! It would be at least an hour before we would be able to get on the bus. 

Let’s walk. 

So far, our plan to get the green bus card filled and then take a bus to the restaurant hadn’t worked out at all. We instead got the red bus card filled and walked to the restaurant. 

Kennedy Park (I mean, Kitty Park), Lima, Peru
Kennedy Park (I mean, Kitty Park), Lima, Peru

A Twist to the Plan

Across the street from the restaurant was a Sony store. A big, bright store filled with expensive electronics – most importantly – cameras. 

We stopped. We stared in amazement. 

Martin and I had been shopping for a new camera halfheartedly for several weeks. My Olympus XZ-2 that I bought in October started acting up in January. After two repair shops failed to help me, I had mailed the camera back to Olympus. In the meantime, I had been using my iPhone as a camera and wasn’t happy with the results.

As a result, we would go on urban adventures looking first for the camera shops and second for a camera I wanted. If we found the camera shop, they rarely had a camera I wanted. We had gone on one of these urban adventures earlier in the day and narrowed down the type of camera we wanted: mirrorless. We had just done some internet searching before leaving for dinner and found several Sony camera models that we liked. I really wanted to play with the cameras before buying them.

And now we were staring at a Sony store. It had all the models we had been looking at, and they all had working batteries. I could play.

90 minutes later, we emerged with a sparkling new Sony a6000

Sony a6000

The Aftermath

We sat down at the restaurant stunned at the night’s events. 

We were both a little shaky from the big purchase. The restaurant was overwhelming. It had an 80 page menu and a stimulating environment. We probably should have eaten someplace else, but I didn’t have a clue where to go or the ability to make another decision.

I asked the waitress what I should order and took her advice. We used two of our red bus card rides to get back to our hotel.

We still didn’t have money on the green bus card for the airport in the morning. Instead we had a new camera. 

This is my life. 

I make a plan. I think it is simple. Things change, and suddenly I have something completely unexpected.

While traveling isn’t required to have a fruit-basket-upset-kind-of-night, it does put me in situations where I have more unknowns making the unexpected more likely. 

I love this. 

Yet, I crave some continuity. 

Yesterday, Martin and I sketched out our last few months on the road. Part of me really wants the plan to just work out. Part of me really wants the unexpected. 

Only time will tell how this story ends.

Epilogue

We did make it to the Bogotá airport on time for our flight. We used our last two red card bus rides to take us to the Museo Nacional station where we could fill our green card. Simple. No changes to that plan…this time.  

3 thoughts on “How I Change Plans to Live in the Moment”

  1. Wow! We’re glad things are working out. Is house sitting in Costa Rica still part of the “plan”?

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