The week of sketchadorian products

(sketchadorian = sketchy Ecuadorian)

Out of necessity this week, I tried some new Ecuadorian name brand items. Usually with food, this is ok but I always cringe just a little bit when buying personal health products. The FDA does not exist here. I’m sure they’re fine it’s just that they’re not the American brands I’m use to. So anyways, for my wounded toes I needed some bandages more to keep the dirt out than anything else. The pharmacy by my house doesn’t sell boxes of band-aids, which was fine for me. I only wanted five. So I bought five at five cents each. I decided to ask for something for bug bites also. The lady (the pharmacist I guess) gave me a little can of salve called Mentol Chino or Chinese menthol. I’m not sure why it’s called Chinese; it says on the outside made in Guayaquil (which is in Ecuador). It’s green and smells kind of minty and metholy. For thirty-five cents, it helps a bit, probably more the placebo effect than anything else. On Wednesday I went to Fybeca which is a large chain store pharmacy. The mission: vitamins with iron and toothpaste. A lady working there recommended a certain brand of vitamins to me. She said they were the best. I wasn’t going to argue. At .0527 cents each they should be ok. I took one tonight. It was mottled brown and tasted horrible (I swallowed, not chewed it but could still taste it.) I figure it can’t hurt. I decided to stick with Colgate toothpaste but they market different products here. I picked out the Frescura Confiable (Confident Freshness) Xtreme Red Gel. It’s quite interesting. It’s in a red translucent tube a bit smaller than your normal US toothpaste tube. I tried it tonight. I’m not quite sure what flavor Xtreme Red is but it tasted sort of cinnamony although there was definitely nothing extreme about it. I highly recommend living in a foreign country. You just never quite know what you’re buying!