Sunshine on your shoulders ... may not make you happy.

I have talked about the surprisingly cold temperatures you may encounter in certain parts of Latin America. I would like to add that even if you're in those higher, dryer elevations with cooler temperatures, the sun can still fry you like a chimichanga de pollo. And when you’re close to the ocean, on a beach, cooling off from the heat and humidity, the use of sunscreen has to be used with greater frequency than you might think. I know that of which I speak.

When I was in Quito, Ecuador, the average daytime temperature was probably between 60 and 65 degrees (F), so I wasn’t too worried about the sun because I was in jeans and long-sleeved shirts a lot of the time. One day, my Spanish school took a field trip to some hot springs. They were located outside the city, in the village of Papallacta, and at a higher elevation than the already highly elevated Quito. All the way up, it was cloudy, foggy, and drizzling rain. When we got to the hot springs, it was the same. It was so cloudy that the clouds were right there with us, lounging by the pool, hardly moving. It lightly rained the entire time. After our relaxing lounge in the thermal pools, we had a meal on the way home, and then returned to the school. I went to the bathroom and discovered my thighs were bright red. And they felt hot and stung to the touch. I was sunburned! I told the others and a few said that they, too, were burned. We got sunburned in the freakin’ rain! So this is what happens when you are way up there (Papallacta’s altitude is over 10,000 feet) and practically sitting on the equator. Who knew?

In a more tropical area, at a beach in Panama, I had put plenty of sunscreen on for a couple of hours on the sand. Or so I thought. I enjoyed the beach on this typically hot day, and got into the water for a swim now and then to cool off. I had been hanging out with a guy from California and his Panamanian uncle, both of whom I had met on the ferry over to Taboga, a little island about 45 minutes from Panama City. After enough time on the beach, we were having lunch on an outdoor patio and my shoulders, neck and upper back just didn’t feel right. I asked them, “Am I totally sunburned, or what?” And they said, “Oh yes, it certainly looks that way.” I had arrogantly forgotten to reapply the necessary sunscreen after my dips in the ocean! Mr. California swore that the cure for my woes was some vinegar. “It draws out the heat,” he said. So we walked to a little store on the island and I bought some vinegar and applied it to my sunburn, various times. The burn continued to hurt like hell and I proceeded to smell like a jar of pickles for the rest of my stay. Reapply sunscreen; lesson learned.

Closer to the sun, closer to the equator, in any climate or weather, the odds of you not getting a little fried in Latin America are against you if you don’t take the necessary precautions. Even without heat and full-on sunshine, you can get zapped and suffer for it. As you are enjoying all the wonderful outdoor activities there are in Latin America, just remember the power of the sun. Learn from my mistakes and you won’t get burned.