Not everything is roses
So, thought I would send you the latest update. Up until this point, I have just shared a few happy stories, and told everyone what a great time we have been having. Not that this has changed, but I thought I would fill everyone in on a few of the trials and tribulations that we, or mainly I, have been having…enjoy, and have a good laugh, cause I guess that´s all I can do at this point!
It started back in Montanita when we took the scuba course. We ran out of booties in the boat, so I had to wear fins without booties, and got a little tiny blister–no big deal, or so I thought. Well, apparently wounds that happen in the ocean are very susceptible to infections, and of course, my little blister got incredibly infected. It kept hurting, and I ignored it, until I looked down one day and saw that my ankle was like twice its normal size. We treated it on the surface for a few days with antibacterial creams and such, but nothing was working, so we finally walked to a pharmacy and bought some antibiotics that she recommended. I tried those for three days, but my foot was still huge, and got even more swollen when we would walk around town. We had thought the infection would go away when we left the beach and got my foot out of the sand, but to no avail. We went to another pharmacist in Guayaquil before we left for Lima, and she gave me some penicillin, which was stronger than what I had been taking. Took that for three more days, into Lima, and still, no luck. My foot was still swollen and got pretty sore while we were walking around the city. Steve was getting pretty worried, and started to wonder whether I was going to have to go to the doctor. So, we decided to go to one last pharmacist, and she gave me this cream to put on the actual cut. By now, the infection had eaten away at the blister, and it was pretty deep. All the pills had been really cheap, like a dollar or two, and this damn cream was $11, so I wasn´t very happy abou that, and we almost returned it–no extra money for medicine, you know?! Anyway, I put the cream on, and almost overnight, the infection went away. It was pretty amazing actually. I had tried all those antibiotics and topical creams and everything, over the spam of a few weeks, and nothing had worked until this cream. So yeah, that is story number one, only to be followed by story number two….(note the following happend only a few days after the blister/infection problem had been cured)…..
Anyway, we arrived in Arequipa yesterday morning amidst way too much drama. Two days ago, I woke up in Nasca with red welts all over the right side of my body–just my right though and nowhere else. Unfortunately, these little bastards itched like crazy, so I went to ANOTHER pharmacist ( i am pretty sick of pharmacies at this point) and they prescribed some medicine for me. Apparently, it looks like our beds in Huacachina may have had bed bugs or something, and I had an allergic reaction to the bites. Lovely, eh? So, to continue this story, we were catching an overnight bus at 9:45 pm from Nasca to Arequipa. It arrived 15 or 20 minutes late, but no big deal. We get on, it looks nice, leather seats, reclining, the whole nine yards. I am itching like crazy, but unfortunately, have to deal with it. Steve sets an alarm for 1 am, and we wake up for me to take the medicine that the pharmacist had prescribed for the bites. And after this, it all went down hill. I decide I have to go pee, so I wander my way back tot he bathroom, and carefully hover myself above the toilet–cause of course, there is no way I am touching anything in there. Anyway, we are going around all these crazy corners so I am having a hard time not falling over. I notice that there is a lot of hot air blowing out of the toilet, but don´t really acknowledge it—too bad for me. As graphic as this is, the hot air apparently caught all of my pee and threw it back on me, so it soaked the back of my legs and my ass and my underwear. If it hadn´t been such a hot and powerful gust of air, I may have noticed it sooner, but since it was so warm, it took me a few minutes to realize that I was essentially pissing down my legs. I realize it, cut off midstream, and stand there trying to figure out what to do. I am covered in pee, there is no toilet paper or anything to wipe it off with, and there is no water in the sink–typical bus, of course. I stand there for awhile trying to air dry, but I finally realize I have no other option besides pulling up my pants. Of course, this just makes my lovely green capris soaked with my own piss, and now I am just flipping out cause i feel absolutely disgusting and still have 5 hours left on this bus ride. I walk back to my seat, and burst into tears to Steve because I am soaked in my own pee and there is nothing to do about it. Luckily, the pants are thin, so they dried pretty quickly, but still, I feel horrid. And luckily for me, the story gets worse. So here I am, covered in pee and pee soaked clothes, itching these big red welts on my body, and I hear the transmission on the bus start making weird noises. Long story short, the transmission breaks and our bus is stuck on the side of the road, 3 hours from Nasca and 5 hours from Arequipa, at 2 in the flipping morning. Our driver tells us that the company isn´t sending any more buses, but that we can hop on the two or three that our behind us. The first comes, and there are seats for like 15 people, so they get in, but we wait, cause we wanted to make sure that we got on the same bus as our luggage. A second bus comes, about 20 minutes later, and there is only room for 5 people. A few more buses roll around, until there is just finally me, Steve, the bus attendant people, and like 4 or 5 other people. Another bus rolls up, and our driver tells us that there are no seats on the bus, but it is the last one going to Arequipa so we have to get on. Sweet. So now I am in dry, pee soaked clothes, itching, and I have to stand on a 5 hour bus ride that I paid 60 soles for (the equivelant of $18) I am pissed. We get on, and we´re standing in the aisle, waiting for the damn bus to start, adn the male bus attendant guy looks at me, and says ¨Senorita¨ Lovely, I think, now I am going to get yelled at for something, or as Steve thought, now I am going to have to translate for somebody, covered in pee and welts. So I walk over to this guy, not really in the mood for anything, and he gestures me downstairs to the bottom level of the bus (they are all double deckers) Apparently, he and the driver had taken pity on me, I think because I was the only girl standing in the aisle with a bunch of guys, and they told me I could sit up on the floor with the driver in the front of the bus. Not comfortable at all, and still sitting on the floor, but at least it was away from all the people and I didn´´t have to sit on the dirty aisle. So I say thank you, and then I give him my best cute face, and ask him if pretty please, can my boyfriend come down too. The driver pretends to be a gruff old man, but he says yes, so Steve gets to come down as well. So here we are, 3:30 in the morning, sitting in the front of the bus with the driver, covered in welts and pee. Finally, after like a half an hour, 3 people get off the first class section of the bus, and the attendant guys motions for me to go and take one of their seats. I feel pretty bad cause Steve is still stuck on the floor with the driver, but of course, I go ahead and take a seat. The attendant then calls upstairs for any other woman standing to come on down, and when they respond that there aren´t any, he sends this old man in to take the second seat. I had purposely made a pretty big show about leaving Steve, hoping that he would see and send him in for the last chair, and it worked, and he gave the third first class seat to Steve. A woman and a man even arranged their seats so Steve and I could sit together. So, it got a little better, but after all the rest, nothign could make me happy at that point!
So anyway, we finally rock into Arequipa at 9 in the morning, three hours after our intended arrival. I am still itching like crazy, and I felt absolutely disgusting cause although I was dry, I knew I was wearing pee-drenched clothes. We ended up not getting the breakfast that was included in our bus ticket because there wasn´t enough for everyone after we blended the buses, and in general, I was just ready to get out of the damn bus. We catch a taxi to take us to a hostel, and of course, he has to cause us havoc. All taxi drivers here have certain hostels that they work with, and they try to get you to go there so they get commission. He asked us if we wanted to go to his, we politely told him no, and we thought that would be the end of it. We look up a few minutes later, and he had driven us to HIS hostel anyway, and was motioning for us to get it. Wrong people, wrong time, buddy. Steve and I both essentially yell NO, and I shove the hostel pamphet in his face and tell him ¨We want to go to the place we told you before.¨ And that was that.
So, we finally arrived Arequipa, safe and sound. The first thing I did was shower, and my clothes are at the laundry place as we speak (although Steve did suggest burning them). We went to a museum yesterday and looked at some mummified sacrificial children found on the nearby volcano, and I spent today dragging Steve through this monastary. It was pretty cool, but Steve found it incredibly boring. What can you do.
So that´s that. Everything is better now, at least, and like I said, I suppose it is kinda funny–albeit still disgusting. We are headed into Colca Canyon tomorrow on a 3-day, 2-night tour. We are going to do a little exploring of the villages, as well as see some pretty condors. We then do a day trek into the canyon, followed by some hot springs and natural swimming pools, and on the third day, the unfortunate trek out. It is a pretty deep canyon–some 3400 meters–so it will definitly be a workout….will try to update when we get back to see if we made it out alive (or if I have to commit to the unbearable shame of riding a mule out instead of walking!)
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