One week ...

I can't believe it's a week before we leave. It seems like we have been planing this trip forever. I "ordered" my drugs yesterday ... CIPRO for travelers diarrhea (how glamorous), DIAMOX for altitude sickness and MALARONE for malaria. Not quite the drug list I had in the 80's. I still have to get bug spray and sunscreen of 100SPF, it is the equator after all.   

And the clothes ... PLEASE ! I'm more concerned about what one wears to an APP (Amazon Pool Party) then my health. Hats. I don't wear hat's well. I wish I did but I can't pull it off. I have a big head. There, I said it. What a weight off my shoulders, so to speak. Baseball caps are OK. But I cant be seen in the middle of the Amazon wearing an "EAT AT JOE'S" baseball cap. What would the natives think ? Ecuador is the were the "Panama" Hat originated. Honest, its true: 

A Panama hat (sometimes informally among hat enthusiasts, just a Panama - see Isthmus of Panama) is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant (Carludovica palmata). Straw hats woven in Ecuador, like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas and Europe. For some products, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of domestic origin stuck, hence "Panama hats." The 49ers picked up these hats in Panama, and when President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal construction, he wore such a hat, which increased its popularity. They're also known as a Jipijapa, named for a town in Ecuador, one of the centers of the hat trade. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a use of the term as early as 1834. 

And that's a direct quote from Wiki, so you know it's true.

Anyway ... I leave a week from today and I am SO looking forward to spending time with my dad and the rest of the family.

I need some time to re-group and re-charge.

Until next time,  Happy Trails ...