Day 1: June 2
This is the order of my day!
On the right is this cheesy…snack that’s popular in South American airplanes. Something similar to peanuts. The other stuff is breakfast goodies. I met a college traveler who has been traveling around the world since he was 16 and was going back to his home country for the summer. (HEY JAVIER!)
Something about this being one of the best South American airports? The altitude in Bogota is 2,640 meters, while the U.S. altitude is 43 m.
Menu at a cafe in Bogota, Columbia airport. Note that their currency is pesos, while Ecuador’s is US dollars.
Breakfast # 2 on airplane. They called it a ham and cheese burrito.
View from outside of Quito’s airport. Quito’s altitude is 2,850 m.
I thought it was interesting how the car had 3 seats in the front.
Driving to host family’s home.
Driving to host family’s home.
Driving to host family’s home.
There is a woman selling fruits (I think?) to drivers. She is wearing traditional Ecuadorian clothing.
My room at my host family’s house.
Grilled cheese and ham sandwich with a glass of water.
Bought 5 1.2L of water with my host mother, Maria. Because of the high altitude and being on the equator, you can get dehydrated and fatigued quickly.
I definitely got altitude sickness — headache, nausea, lightheadedness — which continued for 2 days. I took one Motrin tablet and had to lay down in bed for a while. In general, I brought petrolium jelly for skin dryness, hydrocortisone 2.5% and 1.0% ointment for inflammation and itching, benadryl tablets for severe itching or inflammation, claritin tablets for minor itching or inflammation, some chinese medication (because my mom said so), neosporin ointment for cuts, personal medications, and diarrhea or stomach ache medication. Then there’s the typical first aid, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. The only vaccination I got was for typhoid. I wish I had gotten malaria and yellow fever vaccines as well. Luckily, I can get the malaria vaccination over the counter here “for cheap” (what my school says) — doxycycline, but the yellow fever is hard to get.