A day in Guayaquil

View of Guayaquil from Las penas.

I have so much to write about Ecuador, I think I'll just have to slowly chip away at all the things I've done here.
3 weeks ago I was supposed to go to Monatnita with some other international students, but I got super sick. I was not able to keep anything down. I was first sick on Thursday (jueves) night, and on Friday (viernes) I knew there was no way I'd make it through a day at clinic. My host mom was painfully nice she woke me up every two hours and tried to make me eat something which the Dr. that we work with how sick I was, and he recommended that I take antibiotics because he seems to think my symptoms were associated with a bacteria instead of a virus. This is quite the opposite of what we are taught in the US. In the US we try to avoid antibiotics unless we are sure it is a bacterial infections. But I was so miserable I decided I'd take his advice. I went down stairs to try and explain to my host family that tomorrow I needed to go the a pharmacy. But my once I managed to explain to my host mom what I needed she promptly got on the phone and started talking rapidly. I was very confused and tried to go back upstairs and go to bed, but she insisted I stay downstairs 10 min later there was a knock on the door. A delivery man was waiting with the antibiotics which I had said I needed. How crazy is that? In Ecuador the pharmacy will deliver medications to your house... it's almost like getting pizza. It's amazing the differences that exist between the two countries.I promptly threw- up. I know she meant well but...I really just wanted her to leave me alone. I left my poor fellow PA student to fend for herself at the clinic, but she says she survived. She told I have to say I'm glad that Ecuador has very lax rules about their medications. By Sunday (Domingo) I was feeling better. I told my host family I wanted to go to church. They said they'd take me but first they wanted me to go 'shopping' with them, they told me to bring money and my camera. I tagged along thinking it'd be okay.
They didn't take me shopping they took me to the "Malecon". Well first we went to, (Parque Seminario o de las Iguanas) Seminario Park or of the Iguanas. I had two pet Iguanas when I was growing up so I love them. My host mom was horrified about the idea of me touching the little lizards. There park was rampant with the Iguanas. They eat Iguanas in other parts of Ecuador but in this park in Guayaquil you're not allowed to eat them... which suits me just fine.
After the park we went to the Malicon, which is sort of like a big board walk along the coast in Guayaquil.
We climbed Las Penas which is a set of stairs and shops that climbs up Cerro Santa Ana or the Santa Ana Hill. There are over 500 steps and it's a long hike... I got sooo sunburned! The pictures at the top of the blog are from the top of the hill looking down over Guayaquil.

Isn't he cute! This Iguana was kind enough to pose for me.

This is a picture of me trying to make friends with the Iguanas. The children to my left were guarding my back in case the wild animal got out of control.

These are my host parents Raul and Patty. This picture was taken on the Malicon.

Just me and the Guyas river.

Sorry this isn't my best Blog but I'm running short on time these days