2003-09-24 - 8:27 p.m.
There are no little bugs here that like to eat me. It's a fucking VIRUS. Mutherfucker!! I have a viral infection. No fever, no illness. Just nasty looking little red bumps all over me. Makes some sense. My immune system has been depressed from personal and traveling stress. But what a drag.
I am feeling fine now and the stupid things barely itch anymore. They've got me on an antiviral medication and here's where things get really fun. It is $50 for 25 tablets (mama mia!) and I need 112 (hijolay!). PLUS I have already depleted the town's supply of the medicine and I am 12 pills short. So if the farmacia shipment tomorrow doesn't bring my drug, I either skip my last day's worth of medicine or I go on a semi-wild goose chase to find it at some other town.
On the upside, I've been ...
* Mountain biking in a indigenous homeland/eco park. It is a beautiful prairie in a valley full of green grass, bright yellow flowers, cows, pigs, and wild horses. And crazy huge rocks eroded into the shapes of frogs, mushrooms, and erect penises.
Two filmmakers from Arizona, a couple from London, and I rode into the park for about an hour and stopped to eat a snack under the mushrooms. We shared a watermelon with the native kids who were hanging around. Hodgy, one of the Arizonans, pulled out his banjo and a bow (???), snapped a pair of blue swim goggles over his eyes, and wailed like a banshee to entertain us.
* Swimming in a pool halfway down the canyon that is fed by hotsprings running off the side of a mountain.
* Standing thousands of feet above the canyon on a precipice straight out of a Road Runner cartoon, complete with a giant rock at the edge that teeters as you step on and then very quickly off it.
* Singing cheesy 70s ballads in the hostel dining room with a German guitarist who only knows English songs and the goggle-wearing, banjo playing guy from Arizona who does incredible Bob Marley and Willie Nelson impressions. He plays banjo like it was lead guitar!? and, with a bow, like a sitar. (sounds like one, anyhow)
* Playing beer bottles in a banjo, dijiridoo, anklet bells, and beer bottles quartet. We're supposed to have our command performance tonight in the town square.
