Ecuadorean Adventure: Part 2

At the hot springs spa in
the Andes Mountain
while NYC is blanketed with snow.

The day after I got back from the Galapagos, I got a bad case of traveller's stomach. Fortunately, I did not allow it to ruin the rest of the trip. Our hosts arranged for a friend of theirs to drive us to a hot-water spa in the Andes Mountains. For $25, you can bathe in many different hot-water spring pools. They had a nice restaurant where I had a ceviche for lunch. A few days later, we spent a day at the Botanical Gardens which were lovely. 

After I returned, we decided to move to a hotel. I was still suffering from bathroom issues and we asked the hotel reception staff if there were a doctor we could contact. They called a Guest Medical service and a doctor, with a nurse, actually came to our hotel and prescribed a shelfful of medications. He also hooked me up to an IV and gave me fluids because he said I was dehydrated. In the US, the hotel probably would have told me to go wait in an emergency room and no one would have even looked at me for hours.

We had several nice meals in excellent restaurants. Our final days we went to shopping at a mall and a market. At the latter while trying on belts, we were standing next to a group of Australian young people who were debating the proper use of the "c**t" word. Over all, I liked Quito more than Mexico City which is too big and crowded. The Ecuadorians were very friendly. One our last morning the news announced Trump was sending the US military to Ecuador to route out drug trafficking. "We're getting out of here just in time," I said.

On the flight back, we had a layover in Bogota, Columbia. The plane from Quito landed so far away from the terminal, we had to take a bus to get there. Then we had go through customs (AGAIN) and race to the gate for our flight to NYC. The Avianca flight was five hours. No movies or entertainment unless you could figure out how to get the Avianca app on your phone (which I could not). One tiny sandwich. If you wanted more, you had to pay for it.