"This will probably make you sick" said Pablo. "The locals can eat it, but Americans get sick."
I couldn't help myself. Right outside our hotel was a place where several street food carts had set up for business and I was able to smell it from my room on the sixth floor. The smell was intoxicating! Even though the elevator was broke and I knew I would have to walk back up the six flights of stairs (at over 9000 feet elevation, no small task for a chubby boy), I still made my way down to the street vendors to sample their wares.
But the fact was, I didn't get sick. Pablo was amazed.
"I was sure that you would be very sick for the next couple of days" he said.
After that, Pablo pointed out other street vendors to me whenever we visited new towns. For whatever reason, I have always been able to eat most anything without any ill effects, and Ecuador was a treasure trove of new taste experiences. To Pablo's continued amazement, nothing made me sick.
In Guayaquil I was directed to a particularly tasty cart with some seasoned meat. It was amazing!
"What kind of meat is this?" I asked Pablo.
"Um...pork I think" he replied vaguely as we watched a pack of homeless dogs run across the street.
At one stop we had an Ecuadorian delicacy called Cuy (sounds like "koowee"). Cuy is what we call "Guinea Pig" here in the states. As one choir member put it: "Cuy is chewy".
All was well...until we stopped at Manta.
The town was picturesque. I was happily enjoying myself as I lay in a hammock beneath some palm trees, the sound of the ocean lulling me to sleep.
And then it happened. A man with a cart pulled up right on the beach.
"Hello" I said to myself "what do we have here?"
I sauntered over to see what new taste experience awaited me. Glory be, it was shaved ice and a whole host of flavors! It had to have been 90 degrees out, so this was just what the Doctor ordered!
I tried out some of my newly learned Spanish. "Cuánto cuesta?" I asked. In broken English he tells me the shaved ice is .50 cents. Nice!
"Tres" I say eagerly. I choose three different flavors and make my way back to the hammock. Rocking with a light breeze and three shaved ices....I could have cried from sheer happiness.
That night, I could have cried from sheer misery. Let's just say it involved both ends, sometimes at the same time. To say I felt terrible is an understatement. While the food didn't seem to give me problems, the water is a different story. Whatever bug was in the shaved ice water came to life and wreaked havoc on my system.
When I told Pablo what had happened, he couldn't stop laughing whenever he saw me throughout the day.
"The shaved ice got you in the end" was his joke.
Yeah. Both ends.
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