We arrived in Quito late Monday night and took a taxi straight from the airport to our hotel in the Old City. The hotel, called the Hotel San Francisco de Quito, was very nice if a bit small. It reminded me of a European hotel, but luckily there were private bathrooms.
We woke up to our first full day in Ecuador (Tuesday) and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, complete with jugo de guyaba (guava juice) to which Slocomb took an immediate liking. The hotel had wireless internet, so we were planning to book a flight from Quito to Cuenca from the hotel. Unfortunately, the airline which we wanted to fly only took Diner's Club credit cards (who only takes Diner's Club? Seriously...). So, we decided just to go to the airport and buy the tickets there. We ended up taking the 1pm flight, which made things a little complicated once we got to Cuenca. The Colomas (Angel and Neille, our "home-stay parents") were planning to pick us up at the airport, meeting the 2 or 2:30pm flight. However, we were not able to call from the Quito airport to confirm our plans because all of the pay phones have specific phone company cards. Anyway, we took a taxi ($3 - and that was too expensive, we've been told!) from the airport in Cuenca to the Coloma's house on the East side of town. And, luckily, the Colomas pulled up to the house at the same time that we did.
Tuesday afternoon, Neille invited Slocomb and I to come into town with her and her niece, Katya, who is visiting Ecuador until Saturday. We did a few errands and got to see the largest market in town (I didn't take any pictures yet, but I will). After a short bite and coffee at a cafe, we went on a bus tour of Cuenca, seeing a good bit of the city. It got dark about half-way through the tour (by 7pm!), so we saw half of the city during the day and half at night. Unexpectedly, the tour bus (a double-decker, open air top bus) was a little bit... invigorating because the low-hanging power lines made all of us on the top of the bus pay attention or risk getting caught! Anyway, the tour took us up to a church on a hill on the south side of the city which gave us a great view of the town. Cuenca is actually a good sized city, about half a million in the city proper, but it is very close together. Most of the houses are built adjoining to one another, so there are a lot of people on a small bit of land. I guess when your choices are to live in the valley between mountains or on the mountain, people live closely together in the valley.
Tuesday was a very nice day, at least until bed time. I had started feeling a little queasy when I was getting ready for bed, but by midnight, I was definitely sick. Very sick. And then, about four hours later, Slocomb started getting sick too. Very unpleasant. So all of our plans for Wednesday were off because all Slocomb and I could do was lay around and be sick. At first, I had thought it was from this green salad that I had eaten at a cafe on Tuesday (and how many times had I been told, don't eat any fruit or veggies that you haven't cleaned and peeled yourself...). But Slocomb didn't have any salad and Katya didn't get sick either, so I think it was a bit of food poisoning from the quick bite we had at the Quito airport instead of something in Cuenca. So the combination of not being able to eat on Wednesday and altitude has kept us fairly fatigued today, but we are both feeling much better.
Us being sick was also an interesting way to get to know our host family. I managed to make it downstairs Wednesday morning, and Neille asked if there was anything that I might possibly be able to eat. The only thing that sounded good was applesauce, so I asked if they had any by chance. They didn't, but Neille insisted on making home-made applesauce from the apples they had around. And when Angel heard that we were sick, the first thing he did was call his gastroenterologist friend and ask his advice. The doctor recommended some medicine, which Neille promptly bought for us, as well as some pedialyte to keep us hydrated. I guess it wasn't the most fun way to really see the character of the Colomas, but it certainly gave us some insight into these very caring, wonderful people.
Anyway, after sleeping in a little today, I felt well enough to go out with Neille and Katya to this hacienda about 45 minutes outside of Cuenca. It was converted into a hotel about 30 years ago, and is a very popular relaxation place from Cuencanos. Neille relaxed on the lovely porch while Katya and I rode horses for a little bit. The horses were very calm, but they were also very stubborn. Even Katya, who is a more experienced horsewoman than I am, was not getting her horse to obey. Oh, well, I guess that's the trouble with attempting to have such intelligent beings at your disposal.
This evening we came home and had a light dinner at the Colomas and then played Canasta for a couple of hours. It reminded me a little of being home with Mom's parents and all of the games that we play together. I guess that playing games is a family tradition the world over.
And so, I suppose I am up to speed on everything that has happened in the last few days. There have been some ups and one major down, but I hope that it is all up hill from here!
I still think it was just a combination of dehydration and fatigue, both brought on by the altitude. Not only does the altitude make your body work harder, it requires that your body process more water, which we weren't expecting.
ReplyDeleteIt was food poisoning.
ReplyDelete