The first will be Lima. Those who were on the trip know the nitty gritty details of how horrible things were, I do not plan to go into such detail.. Just the basics
After Cusco and Machu Picchu we flew into Lima for a day before late transfers for everyone that night back to Canada. During our 15 hour layover a day trip had been planned for a tour of Lima. That morning a few of us had rumbling stomachs, with one of the group members fairing a bit worse.. As we arrived in Lima, slowly but surely a nasty stomach bug started to take us down one by one. Only a few escaped feeling unwell. I was not one of the lucky few. I refused to succumb to the yucky feelings I was having and decided I would powerhouse through the day. I was to return to Lima in a few days I wanted to see the city for when I returned. This stubborn attitude was a mistake I would later come to regret. We went to the gold museum, which had relics and antiques from the Inca, and other ancient cultures of Peruvian history. Also a tour of the catacombes, and a church that had a large replica painting of "The Last Supper". The painting had an amazing Peruvian twist; the meal rather than bread was cuy, a Peruvian delicacy of guinea pig.
Sadly I was trying to enjoy this tour from a semi-fetal position. The day only progressed badly from this point. I soon joined a few of the other girls who had to bow out for the day in a rented hotel room, Gatorade and soda crackers the perfered meal. I at this time was unable to tolerate anything. Fortunately the bug passed through in a day, but not without putting a major dent in our group for the day.
The cockroach is a story from Easter Island...
I was on the island with a friend of mine from Calgary. He had arrived a few days earlier than me and had pre-scouted the island. After watching sunset the first night, we returned to the hotel, and both fell asleep while talking. I woke up a bit later as the patio door was open and the room was getting chilly.
Upon waking I realized we had been joined by a large disgusting friend. A HUGE cockroach had joined the party. He was about 6cm, or the size of my index finger, with huge flickering antenna. It was possibly worse than a spider. I didn't realize these disgusting creatures bothered me so, but watching it flit about the room had me hiding on the opposite side of the room, slightly panicked.
My friend was asleep and I didn't want to wake him. I was convinced I could deal with this problem independently. In the mean time, in stark contrast to my stubborn independence, I remained on the other side of the room, my arms curled up into my chest, devising no form of a plan.
The horrid bug continued his journey across the lovely clean white walls of the room, a brown stain in my island haven. I watched in mute horror. As he made his way to the front of the room, I thought maybe if I opened the front door of the room it would crawl out. I decided this was my best (and only) plan and would hopefully prevent me from having to get too close to it. One problem remained, my legs were rooted to the floor, and my hands remained grotesque claws curled by my neck.
Then the bug flew... I was a mere 25 feet away, therefore squealed like a little girl. I finally realized I was never going to be the solution to this problem and woke my friend. He sleepily and initially somewhat reluctantly went on a bug hunt. While explaining why I could not catch the bug, and that it HAD to leave the room I lost track of the bug. My bug defensive posture returned and I whimpered into the furthest corner of the room.
My Knight-in-Shining-Armor caught the bug in a glass. However he quickly disqualified himself from the hero status I was awarding him when he began to chase me around the room with the bug in the glass.
I realize that the dirty roach could do absolutely nothing to harm me, that it was trapped in a glass, and that my friend would have never released it on me; but logic plays no role in irrational fear. So with that I was doomed to play the role of a silly girly-girl and ran around the room squealing until I locked myself in the bathroom.
His fun over, and me yelling obscenities through the locked door, he released the thing into the wild.
New fear on my hit list: cockroaches.
As you can tell as it required its own blog entry, I was traumatized!!!
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