The lowest point of my trip
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
85
122
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Arequipa,
Peru
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Santa Catalina 1
. The plan for the evening was to head to a concert for Arequipa Independence Day in the early evening but when I woke up I was still groggy & caught in two minds whether to make the effort to try & join the others and go ... I forced myself to get up and went along but in the end I came back home within the hour as I was feeling so dreadful. Spent Sunday and Monday entirely in bed without being able to eat anything at all and on Tuesday morning , Carmen , the Volunteer Manager who lives in the house with us , kindly accompanied me to a local clinic so I could see a doctor. Didnt know what to expect from a Peruvian clinic to be honest but it actually turned out to be very good ... clean & professional and I had a consultation with an experienced GP who I liked right away. Carmen was so helpful , translating for me and waiting patiently with me to see the doctor , the laboratory for "sample" analysis and the pharmacy to get loaded up with numerous drugs. I did have a bit of a shock when they put me on the weighing scales ... I haven´t weighed myself at all on my entire trip since I left England so I may well have lost weight anyway but I weighed in at only 12 stone ... I cant remember ever being that light in my entire adult life ... in England my weight is pretty stable between 13st 3 and 13st 7 so I´m down by potentially up to a stone and a half ! Two more days in bed followed on Wed and Thurs , dosing up on the antibiotics & other drugs and really struggling to force little bits of food down me without throwing it all straight back up again
Santa Catalina 2
. Thankfully on Thursday I was feeling quite a bit better and was able to get up and about again around the house , if not yet back teaching at the classroom at Chachani . My volunteering housemates are such total stars and have been really wonderful whilst I´ve been sick , looking after me with tea , offers of food and general concern ... as said above I do feel really lucky to have had them around at this time. On Friday I was pleased to feel well enough to be able to go back to teaching at Chachani .... I feel really quite sad to have lost these days precious time teaching the kids , especially when next week is my last week in Arequipa. Also a bit sad that I have missed out on going trekking in the Colca Canyon ... I was planning to go with some of the other volunteers for three days over this weekend (Fri-Sun) but I decided it probably wasnt a good idea and I should still have a restful weekend building my strength up (next weekend I am hitting the the Inca trail to Macchu Pichu ! ) ... in any case I wasn´t envious when my room-mate got up at 4am Fri morning to leave for Colca :) On Saturday lunchtime I had the pleasure of watching British premier league football on cable TV ... joy ! ... and on Saturday afternoon I went for a long lunch at a local fish restaurant together with some of the other volunteers , Carmen , Sandra my Spanish teacher and her husband . It was so nice to actually start to savour my food again ... this was the first proper meal I had eaten in its entirety and actually enjoyed for a week ! On Sunday morning I went to Santa Catalina , the local monastery , which I have been meaning to visit the entire time I have been in Arequipa. 
