BootsnAll Travel Network



Along Came Diarrhoea

19 October 2005 (Wednesday) – Huaraz, Peru

To avoid the Cajamarca incident of early-morning-wandering-around-and-unable-to-find-a-hostel-with-available-room, I had called up Hostal El Tambo yesterday and the guy, Miguel, said he would send someone over to pick me up from the bus terminal. Wow, that was a nice service.

I arrived to find Jaime waiting for me. He is a middle-aged guy and he speaks really good English. Apparently, his service with this hostel is entirely voluntary, he just loves to meet and help foreigners.

Herman, my host in Bogotá, Colombia, had recommended this hostel to me. For 10 soles a night, there was free breakfast, a kitchen available, free internet, movie selection, hot shower 24 hours, etc… It was a really great deal. And it turned out, I was the only one in the hostel today.

Miguel and Jaime offered me breakfast for free, although I did not really deserve this breakfast for my free breakfast should only start tomorrow. But the boss was not here, so who cares. We chatted for a while, as gosh, Jaime was just such a chatty little guy with tonnes of stories to share and he simply yakked and yakked non-stop. After about 1.5 hours, he got way too draggy for me, and I politely peeled myself off by continuing to smile and nod my head to his stories while I slowly made my way back to my room for a nap. And you know what, he followed me, totally clueless and chatting endlessly until I was right at the door to my room, haha!

I figured I would naturally wake up in an hour’s time. Nope, I slept for 3 hours and was up only by noon. But, by now, I was suffering from a terrible headache and a rumbling tummy. I think it is the altitude. Huaraz, at 3100m, is the highest city I have based myself in so far. I just had to take things really nice and slow today.

I wandered around town, looking to see what I could do. I knew I did not have too much time to acclimatize and do the long treks. Furthermore, I was not up for it physically… come on, born and bred at sea level, I did not think I could hike for days at altitudes of 4,000m – 5,000m. I had inadequate equipment and clothings. It was also the start of the time of the month for me. You just want to crawl into a hole and die… And my stomach continued to rumble and yes, unfortunately, I had to hurry back to the hostel for some purging.

Nah, I took the easy way out and signed up for several tours over the next few days. I worked out the cost to Chavin ruins if I were to do the trip by myself without a tour, it would be cheaper with a tour. Peru’s tours are not crazily-priced like in Ecuador.

I headed to the market to buy some vegetables, as now with a kitchen available, I could finally drag out the rice I bought in Mérida, Venezuela, the soya sauce, pepper and cooking oil I bought way back in Olinda, Brazil and do some disastrous cooking for myself.

At the market, I saw a whole tub of horses’ heads, nearly completely defurred, with the teeth grinning at me, glassy eyeballs and all. I saw rows and rows of uncooked cuys (guinea pigs) with the limbs outstretched, the colour a pale grey, the eyes closed, the mouths in half-screams. I saw horrid orange globs found inside disembowelled chickens. I saw badly decapitated goats’ heads carelessly thrown inside another pail. I saw livers, kidneys, intestines, pigs’ hooves, brains, a whole wide world of gloriously unrecognisable innards.

I am staying vegetarian at least for a couple of days.



Tags: ,

No Responses to “Along Came Diarrhoea”

  1. joks Says:

    I just noticed this little icon at the corner of your blog! Well, I am still glued to every single entry. Hope the stomach gets well soon, its not fun travelling with a bad stomach I know (severe giardia for me!). Wow, I have followed you from Buenos Aires and looping through the topping of the cone! What would I do when you finish the toppings!!! …. Rock on!

  2. Posted from Australia Australia

Leave a Reply