And I Think To Myself...

What a day.
This morning, I signed up for a boat tour that would take me 1.5 hours into the choppy Pacific to the Isla de la Plata-- the aforementioned ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos.¨ I meant to take Dramamine, I really did.
About five minutes into the voyage, I realized what a grave oversight I had made. To my credit, I fought merciless waves of nausea for an entire hour-- those of you who´ve experienced seasickness can sympathize. At the first sight of blue skies, the song ¨What a Wonderful World¨ got stuck in my head-- because I don´t know all the words, it went like, ¨I see skies are blue, red roses too, ladadeedeeda, ladeedodadoo, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world!¨ Not at all appropriate.
I finally gave up the fight when one of the employees of the tour company said I´d feel better if I just threw up. By that point my entire gut was conspiring against me, so I leaned over the side of the boat and proceeded to evacuate my stomach and proximal duodenum four or five times in rapid succession. And I did feel better. For about two minutes.
The hope of making it to the island kept my strength up during most of that first hour. But right about the time I hurled, there was a whale sighting. To my infinite remorse, the pilot slowly turned the boat around and everyone--but me-- went a-whale-watching. I had other things on my mind. The second bout of vomiting did not present itself in the form of a choice, and it came only about twenty minutes after the first. And though it didn´t rid me of my nausea, it did weaken me to such an extent that my brainstem realized I was possibly dying and therefore sent my body into a semi-conscious state in which I closed my eyes and contemplated why God and natural selection had not spared me this fate.
After whoknowshowlong, we made mercifully made landfall. I rested and ate with the rest of the group for about fifteen minutes, then gathered my strength for the hike; I would not be deterred from seeing whatever there was to see. What I saw were hordes of fragata birds... my tour didn´t go to the side of the island with the blue-footed boobies, so I was deprived of my one opportunity to make immature jokes today. But I did manage to gain some strength as the afternoon progressed, comforted by the fact that I had been armed with dramamine by a German lady on the same tour. I also saw some beautiful fish and a group of eight or nine sea turtles. Wish I had gotten photos but I can´t locate my camera at the moment.
The trip back made a true believer in dramamine out of me, though I had an urgent need to urinate and narrowly avoided hypothermia. Nevertheless, I survived it all and proceeded to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I´ve ever seen when I returned. I also just gathered a few dozen stones and coral pieces that struck my fancy. Tonight, I recover-- no dancing or drinking at the beach-side tiki huts for me.
I anticipate my final week in Ecuador to be good but laid-back. I´ll be at the hospital (which has been consistently a good experience) in Chone again on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then return to Quito on Thursday. I´m over halfway through the book 501 Spanish Verbs and hope to finish it up by the time I leave on Saturday the thirty-first. The Spanish-only thing is tough when everyone else speaks Enlgish, but I´m still trying to keep it español. I also have an idea for a short story that I might try to write when I get back to Quito. Stay posted. Looking forward to seeing you all.