So, I was taking malaria pills (because my mom was flipping out that I would be in the rain forest without thinking about protecting myself from malaria), and they were making SO ILL!
I remember taking one pill the morning my flight was leaving out of NY. I took the pill, put my backpack in my mom’s car, and then 10 minutes down the road, my mom had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the highway!
She assured me that was normal and that my body just had to get used to the pills, but that it was “well worth it” because it’s better than contracting malaria! (debatable – keep reading)
I arrived in South America and continued to take the damn pills. When I was in Cuzco, Peru, I remember feeling so incredibly sick – I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t even stand for more than a few minutes without feeling like I was going to pass out. The sheer thought of food made me gag.
I tried to drink tea that was supposed to help with nausea, eat crackers, etc. Nothing seemed to help.
After days of hardly eating or walking, I finally decided to venture out of my apartment room and try to eat something. I went to a restaurant, sat down, read the menu, and felt sick just from reading food options. I decided to try a salad.
Side Story: The guy sitting at a table across from me literally said to me “wow, you travel across the world to another country and all you order is a salad! What a great traveler you are!” Normally, I would have given this guy a piece of my mind and reamed him out pretty hard, but I hardly had any energy to even talk so…. Good job, asshole! I bet you tell this story to your friends about how you saw some “stupid tourist” who only ordered a salad and didn’t want to try local food – and I bet this makes you feel like a big man!
Anyway…
I’m eating my salad and still not feeling great, and all of a sudden I felt like the entire building was swaying. I grabbed only the table and tried to focus on a point on the wall – I thought I was dizzy and light-headed and thought to myself “oh my god, I’m really going to fall over or something because I feel like the whole building is moving!” (but I didn’t feel like I would about to puke, which was different)….
I broke my focus off the wall and looked around the room and noticed that glasses were falling off the shelves, the lights were swinging from the ceiling, the waiters were trying to not drop food and drinks, while the customers were screaming and running out the door and down the stairs.
Um…. What?!!! What the heck is going on. I really had no idea, but I followed everyone out.
The entire city of people were in the streets – just standing in the middle of the streets looking around and up at the buildings. The ground was shaking and I quickly realized this was an earthquake!
This was actually the first earthquake I have ever really felt.
What a crazy experience!
Morals of the story: I do not recommend malaria pills, and earthquakes are scary
Side Moral: Guys can be assholes for no reason at all.
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