La Paz in the time of Amoeba

(with apologies to Señor Garcia Marquez for the cannibalisation of his book title)

It had to happen at some point and now it has - we´ve been hit by illness! Tom has been laid low by a devilish combination of an intestinal amoeba, gastroenteritis and another infection. What started as a painful stomach rapidly deteriorated into a serious condition and bang goes a week in Bolivia.

We called in a doctor straight away and were pleasantly surprised when the ridiculously friendly Dr Ebert Orellena Jordán pitched up. He speaks excellent English, though he claims that he talks like a drunk parrot.

At first it was thought that the condition was mild. 18 excrutiating bouts of diarrhoea later (sorry - too much information...) and antibiotics were clearly in order (and Tom was down to his fighting weight...). Matters were complicated by a relapse (and bathroom collapse) which required nurse Suse to rush Tom to hospital to be put on a drip and given an oxygen mask!

During the relapse, at the point when Tom thought that the pain could not get any worse the nightmarish tones of Boney M´s "Brown girl in the ring" floated through the window from a street stall. This is the same song that tormented Joe Simpson of "Touching the Void" fame, as he stumbled around the Himalayas on a broken leg and close to death. Now, I´m not saying that the situations were in any way similar, but this song does seem to crop up in unfortunate circumstances to add to the suffering and it did raise a rueful smile as well as a grimace.

Apparently there´s a lots of it about at the moment. One of our travelling buddies, David (he´s the one in the picture of the lake at sunset with half sunk canoe), has also got an amoeba and gastroenteritis and is recuperating in Cuzco. We wish him a speedy recovery.

While we´re taking a roll call of the sick and infirm associated with this trip, we should also mention Olly, who should be out here now with Doug but managed to incapacitate himself at our leaving party! (this really is a cursed trip....). Hope the operation was ok and that the ankle heals soon Olly.

While sickly Tom and wonderful nurse Suse have been holed up in La Paz, Doug has been out and about. He´s visited the pre-Incan ruins at Tiwanaku, done a three day trek in the Cordillera Real and mountain biked down what UNESCO have verified to be the world´s most dangerous road (on average 26 vehicles plummet over the 900m drop off from the single track dirt road every year). T&S had booked to bike the road but, having seen Doug´s photos, it´s probably not a bad thing that we missed it...

Anyhoos, we´ve been convalescing in Hotel El Rey (4 star - nische...), ordering room service, lazing around, watching movies and now we´re pretty much ready to hit the road again. We hope to have a more interesting report next time out! We´re off to Uyuni tomorrow (at last!) to visit the world´s largest salt lake, one of the more eerie landscapes on the planet.

Hasta Luego muchachos

T&S

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