Keep going on till dawn
How many times must another line be drawn
We could be down and gone
But we hold on
The diarrhea began within 24 hours of my arrival.
You see, I had to travel unexpectedly to Quito, Ecuador last week and the Ecuadorian amoebas greeted me joyfully with a bout of diarrhea the morning after I arrived to this Andean city. The funny thing was, I had only eaten one Ecuadorian breakfast, which consisted of eggs, milk, bread, and juice. It was the juice's fault, of course. Juice in Ecuador is made with fresh fruit and tap water. So even though Ecuadorian juices are delicious, the tap water in Ecuador is not potable, even in Quito. So that is where I presume the diarrhea made its entry into my body.
The other thing I experienced in Quito was the contaminated air.
Here in Los Angeles, people often complain about the smog. But even though it is smoggy, the only way to really experience it is by flying over L.A. and seeing the layer of smog looming over Southern California, or by looking at the L.A. skyline from the top floors of a skyscraper. Yet, you can’t really smell the smog, or feel it when you breathe in because the cars emit low emissions (even the SUVs) and the public transit buses run on natural gas.
In Quito, the matter is quite different. All of the public transit buses (with the exception of the bus-rapid-transit buses, which are powered electrically) are diesel. And many of the cars do not have catalytic converters. There are thousands of diesel buses criss-crossing Quito. So, the stench is quite overpowering.
In fact, in Quito, there are so many diesel buses that my eyes burned and I felt nauseated from the overwhelming smell of diesel fumes as I walked the streets. Nearly all the buses boasted a thick jet of black diesel smoke that shot out of their tail pipes in abundance. Disgusting indeed.
I was only in Quito for two full days. While there, we went to a large park and also visited old town Quito, which is a United Nations World Heritage site.
You can visit Quito quite cheaply. I stayed in a great Hotel (Hostal Baron de Carondelet) for just $18 (breakfast, with diarrhea-inducing juice included). And three-course meals at restaurants average $1.40 a piece. Plus, the fare for those diesel-laced buses costs only 25 cents.
Even though I’m back in L.A., I’m still recovering from my intestinal distress. But, this time it’s not so bad since I spent only two days in Ecuador, instead of over two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
|  | 
|
