After landing in Costa Rica, we hung around in the airport for about an hour before embarking on our final flight that would take us into Quito. After getting through immigrations and customs, Taylah and I parted ways, as her host family picked her up, and I headed off to my hostel, the Secret Garden. Quito reminded me, in parts, of Tanzania, and I was soaking up the atmosphere eagerly. It may have also been the fact that at 2800m above sea level, I was literally soaking up as much of the oxygen as I could. I arrived at the hostel, which was quaint and wonderful, but certainly a workout - Ecuadorian stairs are nearly as large, if not more so, than Tanzanian stairs!!! My legs are not that long! The reception sits at the top of 4 stories, on the terrace, so they really make you work for the check in - but the view from the terrace is certainly worth the effort!
As both my normal and travel sim failed to allow me to connect to a network in Ecuador, I set off to explore the streets in search of a sim card - Internet was down and so I needed some way to let everyone know I had arrived and was in fact still alive. Fumbling my way through with very poor Spanish, I finally came across a small store that looked promising - and turned out to be very promising as when remarking to the man that my Spanish was no es beuno, and that I sort of wished I was in a French speaking country, he proceeded to rattle off in French. I very gladly joined in, and so rather cheated on my first day, getting by with French. He set my phone up with one of the Ecuadorian network sims, and I was able to call home. Unfortunately, as it would turn out, that was all I could do - texting was not able to happen from this network. But that can come later.
So, extremely jet lagged as I was, and attempting to adjust to being at a high altitude, I settle in for the evening, only to find that 16 hours time difference really does throw your sleeping patterns. I managed to get a few hours between tossing and turning. In the morning, I was still exhausted, and woke to have breakfast, a quick chat with my mum and then returned to the cocoon of my room for some shut eye, as at that point, it was midnight at home - and boy, did my body know that! But prior to turning in, I met a lovely American woman who was leaving to go back home and she gave me her antibiotic ointment - long story short, I had a small wound alongside one of my fingernails, which while clean at home, had become infected and pussy along the trip - and of course, the only thing missing from my mobile pharmacy was antiseptic cream. So, I used the cream that this lady gave me, all hunky dorey, went to sleep - to be woken with Taylah and two new friends, Jordan and Ian at my door. Without Internet, I had not been able to tell Taylah I was safely at my hostel, and believing I was either out of Internet reach or dead, she came to the hostel to cllect me for a day of exploration. Rather groggily, I got dressed and we embarked on our quest, which took us to Parque la Carolina, the largest park in Quito, with and assortment of attractions. The first stop was the botanical gardens, which provided some remarkably beautiful specimens of flora, some even from Australia :) Afterwards, we headed over to El Jardin, the large shopping centre across from the park, to get lunch - boy was I in for a surprise! I had realised that Quito was more cosmopolitan than Moshi, and even Arusha and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania - but I was yet to realise just how much. Walking into El Jardin, I could have been walking into any large shopping centre in Australia - I was stunned! They even had pizza hut! and baskin robbins!!!! After picking my jaw up from the floor, we headed up to the food court, which was massive! I had a lasagna and salad.
After lunch, we returned to the park to visit the reptile house, which had some amazing snakes, including a large variety of vipers! And I got to cuddle a boa constrictor, who was very amiable.
Needless to say, exhausted, I returned to my hostel, and the others left for Cumbaya to return to their host home. Upon returning to my room, I took off my shirt - to find my entire right shoulder, all the way down to my elbow covered in a bright red rash - and I rather thought that was not good. Checking for bites, and realising I had none, I retraced my steps to what may have caused this reaction... and found myself looking at the tube of antibiotic cream. Sure enough, written in the directions was a warning that if allergic to the active ingredients, one may find a rash appear....hhmm.
So, more than likely setting a record for the earliest call to the International SOS that we have been subscribed to through the university, I called and requested some medical advice, which was readily given by a very nice doctor. Anyway, the rash cleared up over night, and the cream went away, after making a very bold note in my notebook of the active ingredients and highlighting the fact I had an allergic reaction to those ingredients. Not going there again!
Unfortunately, another rather sleepless and jet lagged night followed. The next morning (Saturday) I comically stumbled on the other Australian student who would be studying the marine biology track with me, and we introduced ourselves, had breakfast, and headed off to the shops to grab a few things, before meeting the others in the Historical Centre of Quito - which, in a word, is stunning!!! After a wonderful morning there, Merric and I returned to the hostel, stopping for lunch on the way, to wait for our host families. My host parents arrived first, and needless to say, they were amazing! Such lovely welcoming people. I am so blessed to be staying with them, and their son and his wife. They are all really lovely people, and I could not have asked for a kinder host family. They took me to their home and introduced me to where I would be spending the next month, fed me and showed me to my room, which is really lovely. Later that evening, my lovely American housemate Ashleigh arrived. I was so excited when we were all together, as I was a tad nervous that perhaps my host family, or my housemate, or even all of the above would not like me. But we all get on really well!!!
Today (Sunday) our Spanish mother and father took us to Mitad del Mundo - the Middle of the World - where I stood on the Equator, and in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres at the same time :) It was ridiculously awesome! We then came home and had lunch, which was cooked by Antonio and Susana's lovely son Ricardo, who, by the by, is an AMAZING chef!!!! The food was wonderful, and we had a lovely chat. I am really enjoying our chats with Antonio and Susana, they are teaching us so much Spanish and being so kind with our fumbling, especially mine, as Ashleigh has much better Spanish than mine. But I am really looking forward to improving. I just keep swapping into French, as there are so many words that are either similar, or exactly the same!!
Well, that is about all for now, if you have managed to stay with me this entire post, then wow, that's amazing and I appreciate your interest in my happenings - if you couldn't do the whole thing, I really really don't blame you, it's a rather long rambling!! Tomorrow, we have our first day of orientation, and it is rather late here, though my body is still on Aussie time. So I should head off
Buenos noches!! Hasta pronto!
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment