We made it back from our trip yesterday but a little worse for the wear. We started our Sunday at church where we went to the Sunday School classrooms and gave dental presentations and put floride on the children's teeth. After that we went out for lunch and the five of us were set free from the rest of the group to make our way to the bus station. Our first bus ride was 4 hours through mounitan terrain on narrow roads. Not too bad but I started to get a headache and as we arrived at the bus station and was nausous because of the higher altitude. We stayed there for several hours which I was pretty miserable the whole time. We bought tickets for an overnight bus to Uyuni which we were told was a "buscama" which is a sleeper bus where we should be able to recline all the way for a restful ride. Well, it was a bit of a misconception... I slept a little bit, but my seat only reclined as much as an airplane seat. The road was so bumpy that it felt like the bus would rattle apart at any moment. The window next to me kept on opening because of the bumps and the woman's seat in front of me kept breaking and falling back onto my knees. Of course these things happened when I had just fallen asleep and it would wake me up. The only good thing was that by the end of the ride my headace had gone away and I was feeling a bit better.
We arrived at 4am and was allowed to sleep on the bus until 7am. I slept soundly most of that time because apparently Kevin got sick and I had no clue until they talked about it later. But we got off the bus and found a travel agency that did a one day tour of the salt flats. She was very kind and brought us to a place to eat breakfast which was pretty good and the woman who served us was even a Christian! It was so cold there that from breakfast we went to the local market and all bought hats, mittens and some of us brought sweaters.
Our tour started at 10:30am and they took us to a train graveyard which was pretty much just a junkyard of old trains, but still pretty cool. Then we drove onto the actual salt flats which was awesome. It was like driving on a huge frozen lake, but it was all salt! We visited an island in the middle of the salt and hiked to the top of it which gave us great views! Then we ate a nice lunch that our tour driver prepared for us. It tasted very good, but it would come back to haunt me... It was a good day with the tour and we all had so much fun touring together. We got back and decided to take a train back since the bus was so bad, we bought our tickets, but the train wouldn't leave until 1:45am so we had to wait around until then. The tour guide lady agreed to let us stay in her office which was across the street from the train station until our train got there, so that was a blessing. We went to a pizza place which smelled amazing but once we got in there I started feeling queasy and I couldn't eat anything. My nausea increased as we sat in the travel office and I went outside several times to try to throw up but I couldn't. Finally I started thinking about all of the food that had made me nauseous and I vomited into a bag outside the office. I hoped I would feel better after, and I did for a while, but around 12am I started feeling it again and asked Kevin and Anna to come to the train station with me so I could go to the bathroom. I ended up throwing up again outside the train station and realized that I needed a bathroom because I also had diarrhea. Inside the train station, the bathroom was locked, not open yet and I was in agony. We started wandering the streets for an open bathroom or a hotel that would let us use thier bathroom but to no avail. We went back to the office where everyone else was and I asked Heidi and Marcia (who speak the best Spanish) to help me. We ended up going to a hotel and offering the woman 10 Bolivianos (the local money) to use her bathroom, she reluctantly agreed. I was so releaved but the pure liquid coming out of my backside gave me agony anew. I apologise for the indepth description of my illness, I'm just trying to keep everyone informed.
Anyway, I did vomit once more before we got on the train but someone gave us some imodium and I took it with vast amounts of prayers that I would not vomit on our 7 hour train ride. Thankfully, I didn't vomit on the train, I did have to visit the bathroom, but it was not as bad as before. The ride was smoother than the bus, but it was FREEZING! The temp in the train had to have been below 50 degrees F because I was so cold the whole way, I couldn't sleep very much at all. Plus I was still nauseous so I had to lean forward instead of backwards which was uncomfortable.
We finally made it to Oruro (still four hours from Cochabamba) and I was thankful that I was at least stable. I was still not hungry at all and nauseous but I wasn't exploding anywhere. Our last four hour busride was okay and we went from being freezing cold to terribly hot but we got back okay. I'm still feeling queasy and having to go to the bathroom every now and then so I'm taking it easy. I slept in this morning and didn't go to the orphanage, I probably wont go this evening either. All I've had to eat in the past 48 hours was a piece of toast and that has stayed down so far. I'm not hungry at all, but I'm drinking plenty of fluids and staying hydrated. The smell of food is still making me nauseous, so I think I'll stay here and just relax. Hopefully I'll continue to get better and with your prayers I know I'll get better. Thank you all for putting up with my descriptions of my illness and for your contined support and prayers. Thanks for reading, God Bless!
Sarah
No comments:
Post a Comment