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When I arrived in Quito, I didn't know what to expect. By that time I was working on a TV company by day and editing videos as a freelancer by night. One of my clients invited me to this press trip as a gift for my hard work on his project. So I managed the (not-so-easy) task to take a few days off of my daily job, grabbed my old suitcase without a second thought and traveled to Ecuador. As we headed to the first hotel, I remember noticing the beauty of the Cotopaxi, the volcano was active at that time and it was something so scary and stunning at the same time. Actually, it was exactly how I was feeling about the trip and I wasn't sure why. Our local guide, Camilo, knew everything about the places, history, and culture of Ecuador. He took us to incredible places from Quito to Guayaquil, passing by Cuenca, Otavalo, and even the Ecuadorian Amazon Forest. It was an intense week, we traveled by bus for hours and hours and each day we slept in a different city. We've seen local fairs, dances, churches, llamas, local art craft, we tried delicious local dishes, we rode on the famous Nariz Del Diablo train, we saw the Inca ruins and archeological site of Ingapirca, we visited a Panama Hat factory and discovered that this type of hat is actually from Ecuador, amongst many other activities. So I noticed something that amazed me: Camilo had a phone so old that it didn't have any kind of GPS, the bus didn't have a GPS either, so he truly knew all those places and roads by heart. Could we have asked for a better guide? At the end of the trip, he took us to El Quilotoa. We arrived at a modest restaurant and he told us to leave our heavy stuff there because we would hike on a place of high altitude. So we followed his instructions and started hiking. I thought we would see a beautiful view of a town or something like that. It wasn't an easy climb but Camilo was super excited. When we finally got to the top of the mountain I stopped breathing, not because of the height but because my eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing. El Quilotoa is a water-filled caldera inside a volcano, the blue of the lake has so many shades and each direction you move gives you a different sense of that beauty. I was speechless, so I just stood there and appreciate it for as long as I could. I felt really present at that moment. I can still relive it in my mind. That picture stuck to me until the end of the trip and when I got back to Brazil, all I could think about was that the world is so huge, wonderful and full of places to explore. On my first day back to work, I was shocked by reality. Later that day, I went straight to my boss's office and quit. Just like that. I knew in my heart I didn't want a 9 to 5 job anymore, I couldn't bare almost 3 hours of commuting every day and having to work on a second shift by night. I decided I would turn my freelancer job into my primary job, and so I did. El Quilotoa had awakened me to a new life, in which I would always live the "where" and the "now". So I started my own video company as an entrepreneur and digital nomad. It's not always an easy road to pursue, but I never regret this decision. Five years later, I realize that the leap of faith I took after Ecuador changed my whole life, and led me to wonderful achievements and places around the world.