CotoKate and Hospital Beds

Well team, I still have yet to update you on my last (and final) outdoor adventure of South America: Mountain biking 35km (~22 miles) down the Cotopaxi Volcano (the second highest active volcano in the world!). I set a new personal altitude record at 5897m! Being so close to the equator and only three hours away from the hot and humid rainforest, I sure didn't expect to be standing in snow and braving fierce winds with sleet and hail. Brrrrrr! The snow disappeared pretty early on in our decent and only got warmer the further down we went. Of course it was cloudy, but we still were able to catch

Sexy Volcano!

glimpses of the volcano during the ride. There were 3 others on the trip too: Anthony from France, Pratik from Washington DC, and Brian from Canada. We made for a super fun, adventurous, and optimistic team if I do say so myself! Here's a disclaimer that the pictures from the ride can't even begin to capture the beauty nor geographical wonder of this super cool national park.
We had an insanely fun time descending that volcano! I ended the ride covered head to toe in mud, which we all know is a pretty common thing for me to be. It was my first time mountain biking and I can remember the moment when I began to

taking a rest

Lunch spot: wild horses and Incan ruins

GO TEAM

realize that the limits of what you can do on a mountain bike are pretty epic compared to a roadbike. You can go over crazy big rocks, bike on the side of sandy hills, bomb through puddles you don't know the depth of, bounce through river crossings, completely skid out on gravel but still maintain balance - why didn't I discover this sooner?!?! The ride wasn't too technical so it was a great introduction to mountain biking. I did eat it a couple times, but I learned from mistakes and was pro by the end of the ride. For example, when I coast on my roadbike, I usually have one pedal

yahoo mud!!!

all the way down. But when I did this on the mountain bike, my pedal clipped a rock I passed over, got stuck, and flipped me onto the ground. So I started coasting with both pedals planar with the ground (so both were equally high off the ground) and that never happened again! Lesson's also learned in braking, slippery big rocks, wet sand, changing gears, and when to stand up...
If you ever end up in Ecuador and want to do this day trip, I recommend the Biking Dutchman. They were awesome! We had a really great guide, amazing vegetarian food, bikes that were actually in good condition, and helmets (unheard of for South America). The guide followed us in the 4x4 and had extra gear in case anything went wrong. He was also a park ranger, so he gave us the low down on the landscape, the wildlife, the history of the park and volcano, I couldn't think of a better adventure to close out South America with.


I say this because this update is coming to you from day 7 in the ER, and day 5 for this particular hospital. On Friday night I started getting those awful uncontrollable shivers, but I thought maybe I had somehow gone mildly hypothermic after biking in the sleet while wearing shorts the whole day. When I woke up in the middle of the night with a pounding headache, sweating and shivering at the same time I knew it was probably something worse. I'm a champ at rallying, but I'm so glad I didn't give into the Kiwi guys pleas of "Put ya face on and come oot wit us!" I spent Saturday in bed because I had literally no energy and my whole body was aching. Just getting up and going to the bathroom took so much energy that I would have to take a 3 hour nap afterward. Yuck. I literally had the best case scenario as far as hostels and roommates go. Marc, one of the Aussie roomies, brought me some orange juice and complimented me on how shit I looked. Wendy, the New Zealand roomie, brought me an apple and vitamin C. James, the other Aussie roomie brought me some medicine, told me funny stories, and played little 10sec "get better soon" tunes on his guitar for me. And Animesh, the Indian roomie came with me to the hospital and kept me company for hours and hours. I didn't ask for a single thing from anybody, but they are all on long enough trips to know how much it sucks to be sick and on your own. Backpackers really do take care of eachother - I'll be so sad to leave the scene! I must have racked up some good karma points or something because these guys were all legendary!
Sunday I wasn't getting any better nor responding to medicine, so I ended up going to the ER. It's never a good sign when the doctor comes back with the results of your blood work and asks, "You've been in the jungle recently, haven't you?" They wrestled with a diagnosis thinking maybe I had mono or some parasite. They gave me some meds and sent me on my way. I felt great! Well, good enough that I wanted to get out of Quito and carry on with my travels. I hoped a bus at 4:30am the next day to Cuenca where Fabian (small world story guy from previous post) and Stephanie (a good friend from Lewis and Clark who is studying aboard here for the summer) are living. But in the middle of the 10 hour bus ride, I started feeling really crappy, really fast. When we arrived into Cuenca I basically fell into a taxi cab and tried my hardest to just keep on as a normal human. It was amazing to be reunited with Stephanie and it lifted my spirits enough for me to make it through a salsa lesson (well kinda, I had to sit down bc my joints felt like I was an 80 yr old),
a short walk around Cuenca, and an entertaining bus ride to the home she is staying in. I went straight to bed, but woke up soon after because it really hurt to breathe and I couldn't get a full breath in. I thought, "Yeah, I'm definitely not better. Time to get to the hospital again." It was so painful and took so much energy to just get in the car and get there, but I'm so glad I did.

Steph and I always keeping it classy

The docs here have gone through all kinds of guesses...malaria, dengue fever, salmonella poisoning, bacterial hepatitis, leptospirosis... but nothing is for sure. I'll spare you guys the ridiculous details of the adventure of me and my organs, but I'll just say I'm ready for it all to be over. Although I'm devastated my trip is cut short, I know it's the best decision to go home to the States for continued medical treatment. There have been a lot of life threatening situations this past week, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared about it all. I would prefer to be in an English speaking hospital and a US operating room anyway haha. I'm just a plane ride away, folks! Wish me luck! You all know I'm way too stubborn and optimistic for anything bad to happen so this will be over soon. Go team!
I do want to mention that Stephanie and her host mom have been WONDERFUL. They visit often and her mom has treated me like one of her daughters even though she just met me. They keep my spirits high and have brought a lot of comfort to this situation. Also, Fabian dropped in a few visits too, which totally made my day. He's doing a medical residency here in Cuenca and was super helpful with translating the results of my blood work/ultrasounds/xrays/ct scans etc for me. What a rockstar! He brought over a stack of movies and his computer yesterday which was glorious. I'm so humbled and grateful for all the friends and family who have reached out to me both here and back in the States. Holy smokes! boy do I feel the love, guys! You guys rock! Thank you so so so so much for making today's travel bearable - moreso than you'll ever realize.

Know that the second I'm better, I plan on returning to South America to finish my travels. And I'll come back as the sassiest, feistiest, adventure-woman ever - watch out!

Alright you awesome people, adventure on! Catch ya Stateside.