No Good, Very Bad Day
Gina. Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.
Yesterday was a bad day. Things started out nicely on Saturday night. We met a bunch of people at all hostel from all over the world (Spain, Holland, Switzerland, and Australia) and everyone was nice and talkative and we had fun talking about places we´ve been in S. America, future plans, and just chatting. We also learned to play a fun Israeli game called Yaneev (no idea how to spell that) which I was ridiculously bad at. We stayed up late and had plans to get up in the morning and take a boat ride to see blue-footed boobies, whales, and go snorkeling.
But then things went downhill. Neither of us could sleep–it was hot and we had spent a good portion of the evening drinking Argentinian tea with a Dutch guy named Steve who was sort of the center of the gathering. In retrospect I never should have drank any of the tea since I don´t ever really consume caffeine and who knows how much it had in it. And then at some point in the wee hours of the morning I got sick. It turns out that my pharmacy of medication I have to take for the parasite and the bacterial infection all have nausea and vomiting as the first two possible side effects. I spent most of the night feeling nauseous and the rest of the night vomiting. No fun at all. At some point Steve shifted in his sleep and I felt violently ill and I realized there was no way I was going to get on a boat in a couple of hours. I decided that Steve should try to get our money back or reschedule for the next day and if he couldn´t he should go since it´d suck to be out $40.
He ended up getting $15 back for me (which was fine since originally they were going to charge us $25 each but went down to $20) and went on his own. I spent the day sleeping, eating very bland crackers (more bland than Saltines if you can believe it, and they were perfect for my upset stomach), and still taking my stupid medicine every 8 hours. Thankfully I didn´t get sick any more after the night, but I had no energy and felt like crap.
Steve had an adventure of his own. There were supposed to be 4 other people going with Wiston Churchill on his boat. 3 others didn´t show up, so it was just Steve and some other guy. Because they wouldn´t make enough money to cover costs by taking out only two people, they found another tour boat about to leave that would take Steve and the other dude. Why they didn´t just give Steve back his money or try to reschedule us for the next day, I´ll never understand. There were three things that they promised us for the trip: whale watching, snorkeling, and seeing the birds. Their big pitch was that unlike other tour companies that just go out looking for whales and come back as soon as they see them, they liked to tailor to their customers and do more things and have a good time. We were really more interested in the birds and the snorkeling and that´s why we decided to go with them. Steve saw some whales, which was exciting, but that was it. He went out on a boat (where he got seasick, poor thing. We thought he might be susceptible since when we were in Baha, Mexico he got sea sick on a fishing trip but that was after a night of margaritas so we weren´t positive it was the boat that made him sick) and did not get to snorkel which was the only reason he wanted to go, really. The guys just made a really poor business decision. We liked them, we were excited about going with them, and then they pushed Steve off on someone else (who I´m sure they gave his $25 to) and so they made no money and disappointed their customer. How sad.
So, yesterday was a bad day. Steve had no fun. I had no fun. We spent the rest of the day lounging and reading and napping. Today was nicer but still really relaxed. We walked along the beach and then had a late lunch and another nap. I´m still not feeling great, but after tomorrow at lunch I´ll only have the antibiotics left (until Friday). I´m looking forward to no more parasites and no more pills. We´re going to Bahia de Caraquez tomorrow where we´ll hopefully settle down in a nice apartment for a month and start volunteering and unpack our bags for a while.
I think I´m going to come back to Puerto Lopez some weekend over the next month on my own or maybe with a volunteering friend and go to Isla de la Plata. I want to see the boobies, damn it, and take funny pictures of them. Steve isn´t going to risk the 3 hours round trip boat ride, so I´m on my own unless I can find a buddy. But that´s fine since it costs $55 to go ($15 for the island day park pass and $40 for the boat/guide–although I think we get a 10% discount with Machalilla tours with our SAE card) and it´s really for me anyway.
Tags: Ecuador, Puerto Lopez, Wiston Churchill
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