Salmonella City

My friend Kelly Petska invited me over for dinner one night when we both lived in Phoenix and it was delicious, except for some freakishly dry chicken. I didn’t say anything, but Kelly was quick to point out that she always overcooks her chicken after getting hit with salmonella on a trip to Africa. Well, I have now joined the Salmonella Club, and Kelly, I totally understand your obsession over dry chicken. Holy cow, this is one brutal sickness.

As Chris mentioned in the last blog, we had to cut our four day hiking trip short halfway through day one due to my mystery illness. I was feverish, cold, shaking uncontrollably, and sooooooo tired. We got back to the hostel Friday night and on Saturday, in addition to those symptoms, I was greeted with some awesome diarrhoea and horrific stomach cramps. I didn’t want to eat, couldn’t get out of bed, and was just generally miserable. Chris was nice and stayed with me all day Saturday but I asked him to leave to go back out on the hike on Sunday because a person should only have to tolerate so much diarrhea from their girlfriend and I felt he’d more than met his quota. I finally got myself to a doctor today (after getting out the Spanish dictionary and writing out all my symptoms) and he told me I have salmonella. He prescribed me some antibiotics, pain relievers, and some sort of anti-bloating pills. The doctor visit cost less than $20US and the drugs were less than $10US. Getting sick in Peru is very economical.

Chris will get back from his hike later today and will be able to regale us with his adventures, as my adventures currently involve sweating profusely and being bloaty and sitting in an internet café listening to C&C Music Factory and Ace of Base. The biggest bummer is that we are in a truly wonderful place.

Back in 1999 (I sound old); I went to Prague and Budapest with two other Americans that I was going to school with in Northern Ireland. I loved those cities and had so much fun, but everyone kept telling us we were about five years too late. According to most people we ran into, Eastern Europe was so much better then. Everything was cheaper, cooler, and there were less tourists. When I went to Rio in 2003 and Croatia in 2005, I heard the same story. When we go down to Macchu Picchu next week, we’re picking up what the guidebooks and locals call The Gringo Trail. I always feel like I’m a few years too late. Granted, I always still have fun and I think the people that tell me I missed the good party are usually losers, but part of me still wants to be the smug person that says, “Oh, you really shouldn’t even bother with (insert new cool place here), it’s so overrun with tourists now, and it isn’t even worth it.” Then I will snort disapprovingly in their general direction.

And now that we’re in Chachapoyas, I could totally snort disapprovingly. Part of me wants to tell everyone how bad this place sucks so I can keep it to myself (then I realized only 20 people actually read this things so I think I’m safe). This is the place that rivals Macchu Picchu and no one comes here. Well, according to one of our guides, about 20 tourists per day come to the town of Chachapoyas… in the high season. When we hike to Macchu Picchu, there will be 500 people on the trail with us, in addition to the 1500 others that started the days before us.

The sites here include entire pre-Incan cities discovered only three years ago. They just got the word out about their giant waterfall two years ago. There is a perfect river for rafting, but no one has thought to use it. Currently, they are paving the only road that grants access to many of the small villages and tourist sites. I am afraid that when the road is completed, more and more people will start to come. And that’s really good for the economy but I know things will get ruined.

Before the death illness took me over, we stopped in a small village to get lunch. The local kids surrounded us and wanted us to take their pictures with out digital cameras, just to see themselves. That’s the first time I’ve seen that on this trip. When death illness did take me over, and the road was closed to get back to Chachapoyas, our taxi driver took us to his home for me to rest. He lives in a one room home with a rock floor and was nice enough to offer us food and drinks and take Chris to the fruit stand in town.

Anyway, the point is, this place is really nice and there is a lot to see and I’m too sick to see most of it! Today Chris is at Kuelap, a giant pre-Incan city built on top of a mountain. I wanted to see it so bad, but right now, I’m having issues walking up one flight of stairs. I really want to come back here soon so if this sounds like a good place to you, let’s start planning the next trip.