Food poisoning; Boat back to Santa Cruz

Food poisoning; Boat back to Santa Cruz

Puerto Ayora, Ecuador, South America

For the first time ever on my travels, I got food poisoning. Last night was horrific. I was sick all night, getting up every hour, and not getting any sleep. I’m assuming it was food poisoning, because now it’s night time and I’m already feeling 90% better. The problem was that this completely ruined my plan to go diving.

I was supposed to meet at the dive center at 7am, so since I was awake, I went down to the center at 6:30am. I was hoping that the earlier I could let Harry know that I couldn’t dive the better. It didn’t really matter though. He didn’t know anyone that could fill my place, so the best he could offer me was $75 of my money back, which means that I still lost $93. On top of me being up all night sick, I also paid $93, AND I didn’t get to dive. This was not a good day.

I went back to the hostel and tried to get some more rest, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. I wasn’t sick again after that, but I felt like garbage anyway. I went into town and knew that I had to try something to eat, but I wasn’t sure I could keep it down. The safest thing I could think of was a fruit smoothie, so I had a banana-blackberry smoothie and it went down a treat. I still didn’t feel like trying real food yet, but the smoothie gave me a little bit of energy that I definitely needed.

I went down to the docks to check out the sea lions and penguins one last time before leaving Isabela. They are all over the place here, it’s so cool. I ran into Laura, Alyce and Harry, so at least I got to say bye to them, and then I caught my boat back to Santa Cruz at 2:30pm. I was really nervous about the boat ride because I still wasn’t feeling very well, and I wasn’t sure how the motion of the boat was going to make me feel. Luckily, it was a much smoother and faster ride than it had been coming to Isabela, so I was fine. I met a couple of nice German girls on the boat ride as well, Rike and Joe. They are traveling around Ecuador for a few weeks together and they are on my same flight on Saturday back to Guayaquil.

I got back to Puerto Ayora, found my new hotel, Cormorant Lodging House, and checked in. It’s a bit nicer than Hotel Espana, where I was last week, and it has wifi in my room, so that’s a bonus. The wifi on the islands is really bad though, so I’m just going to have to wait till I get back to the mainland to upload my blogs with the pictures.

I got some much needed rest in the hotel, and then went out to try eating for the first time today. I was still a little bit nervous about trying real food, but it had to be done. I went back to the same restaurant I had eaten at a few days ago and knew it was safe, and I had a great meal. About halfway through the meal Rike and Joe walked by and decided to join me for dinner. It was a really nice end to a horrendous day. The food went down alright (and stayed down!), and I had some good company to share dinner with.

I went by Albatros Diving Center after dinner and asked if I can go standby on their diving trip tomorrow morning. They are going to Gordon Rocks, which is the number one place I wanted to go diving, and they said they have an open spot. They were waiting for six Colombian guests to arrive, and if they did, we will be leaving at 7am. I’m trying not to get too excited, but I’m feeling pretty good now, so as long as I’m not sick tonight, I could finally get to dive with hammerheads tomorrow morning!!

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