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Tuesday 9th October 2007 - Agua Caliente, Eastern Guatemala.

(Daniel) Having not slept at all last night, I watched the sun rise, then crawled out of the tent to begin packing away the rest of my stuff.  I had to leave, another night like that could kill me, no one to call for help, no one to see if something happened.  In my condition, packing was very hard work, I had to stop every few minutes to sit down.  I felt sick and dirty, but couldn’t do anything about it.

After a couple of hours, to make life that much harder, a group of Nuns arrived, they had some kind of seminar arranged here.  I had buried the vomit and diarrhoea but the smell of illness was still in the air, as hoards of nuns swamped the campsite, laughing and cheerily bouncing around all over the place!

I tried to work harder to finish the packing, but found myself being sick again behind a tree.  One of the Nuns drivers spotted me hunched over, he brought over some lemons.  He told me to drink the juice, to clean my stomach.  I tried it, and to my surprise got some peace for a while.  Long enough to finish packing and leave.

The main road!

Old bridge

Rough going

I headed back out on the rough dirt track which led another 170kms to Coban.  The track was really bad, a few times I went a bit too close to the edge, and was nearly thrown off as the gravel and shingle collapsed.  Three hours into the drive and I knew I wouldn’t make it.  It was impossible to maintain a good speed, with huge holes hidden everywhere in the dusty track.

Church in Centre of Town

Evening scene

At around 7pm, I stopped at a small village, checking into a workers rest stop.  The place seemed safe enough, so I settled down, try to sleep.  Loud music started up, and blared for most of the night from a fiesta downstairs.  I read the Lonely planet guide, knowing that I wouldn’t have slept anyway, the stomach problem was still raging inside me.  

The guide told me that this road was considered too dangerous a route for tourists and was not advised for anyone.  Thanks Yerko!  But I hadn’t seen any dangerous people today, perhaps tomorrow?  I ate the last of the lemons which the driver had given me earlier, then managed to get a few hours rest before morning.   

Didn’t sleep so didn’t wake up!, still very ill, spend day trying to pack up stuff, so ill!  Have to leave, must get tp civilization!  Eventually have to wait for washing, many nuns come for a course, am sick several times, drink lemon juice,  leave at around 3.30, drive as far as possible, but have to stop in small town, find hotel, check in for night, bad sleep again, shawer many times to cool down, no power in room,

 

 

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Copyright © 2007 Daniel Moylan