After a month in Peru, Jessa and her dear friend Christen DuCharme arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador as they had in every other city that trip: with a spirit of adventure and no lodging reservations! As luck would have it, the city was celebrating its independence and everywhere was booked. After an hour of asking, the tired adventurers were ready to take up residence in the streets, when they decided to try one more place: La Casa Cuencana. A lovely lady named Marta greeted us with a smile and said she had a room. Hooray! The streets would wait! But Jessa and Christen couldn't understand the rest of what she said. Their confused expressions prompted her to call her hijo. Enter a strapping young lad who showed us to our room and gave us the details we hadn't understood. Jessa was so excited to have a bed she paid him no mind and plopped down, relieved. The next night, out on the town enjoying the parades and activity in the street with an international mix of ladies, someone pointed out: there's the hottie from the hostel!!! Call him over!!! Jessa obliged, and waved through the crowd to Jonathan and his friend Omar. We invited them to hang out with us which consisted of going to the liquor store to get a box of wine to drink in the park (clearly a classy bunch!). Wine in the park, and some conversation that Jessa and Jonathan remember quite differently (because English) Jonathan saw his chance: he reached out his hand and asked Jessa to come with him for a drink. They went to dance and Jonathan asked for a kiss. And that was all it took to bring us to this wedding 8 years later! HA! The truth is, that after that kiss they spent a few days together and felt an indescribable connection. Jessa knew she had to act! So she broke out her Spanish phrase book and pieced together a note with a simple message:

Let's stay together. Jonathan was touched, and pledged to wait for her. And he did! For 8 months he listened to her radio show (Kaleidoscope Theory) on Kauai at 3am, Skyped every Sunday and called when he could. And when those 8 months were up, Jessa left the island she loved with a backpack of some possessions, got on an airplane and never looked back. To this day Jonathan still has the note she wrote him, almost 10 years ago, now in pieces from reading it over the years, with all its bad Spanish, in his wallet for good luck.