Me duele el estómago

It´s Wednesday and a free day for us in Cuzco. Cari hasn´t been feeling well with an upset stomach and lightheadedness (is that even a word?)and she had a really bad night. She was having a hard time standing last night because she felt faint and sometime in the middle of the night she tried to go to the bathroom and fainted. I woke up when I heard her hit the floor and ran in there to help her back into bed. She was ok and I stayed up with her most of the night to make sure things didn´t get worse.

In the morning I talked with Hans about getting a doctor to see her. It was the same doctor who came to see Hans the day before when he was having the same symptoms. Hans thinks they might have gotten a bug from the fresh Brazil nuts he and Cari ate at the jungle lodge. Apparently the nuts themselves were ok (thank god since I had one too) but the shells might have had a fungus on them. Cari said she had about 4 or 5 of them might have used her mouth to get the nut of one out of the shell. That might have done the trick.

The doctor confirmed the theory and said it was something Cari ate. He prescribed some gatorade, a few things for nausea and her slight fever and said she should be back on her feet by tomorrow.

I got her some gatorade, filled the prescriptions at the pharmacy around the corner and got her on the meds early this morning.

I left Cari to sleep a little and the rest of us walked around the town a little. Chris and Leslie and I went into a few of the museums. Most of them were pretty poor. The contemporary art museum had three rooms with art and a total of about 35 pieces. One of the rooms had about 15 pieces of sculpture, each of them depicting a rather large naked woman with a big ass and even bigger breasts in different contorted positions. They all looked like something you´d buy at Spencer´s Gift at the mall. The detail on the nipples was amazing.

The last museum we went into was the best. It was once a monastary and all of the art was religious. Some really cool stuff in there. One thing I noticed is that they depict Jesus in a much bloodier way than we do. We are used to a very clean Jesus nailed to the cross. Just a hint of blood but nothing too gory. Not these guys. It´s like a Quentin Tarantino version of the cruxifiction. You know what the Peruvians call Jesus? He´s the Royal That Bleeds.

We headed back in time to hook up with the rest of the gang to grab some lunch. Cari was feeling better and wanted me to bring something back for her to eat. We went to another hole in the wall restaurant and ate with the locals. Apparently all the local dogs like this place too. About three or four of them wandered in during lunch. They just came in, checked out the place and left.

Nothing too exciting for lunch. I wasn´t really hungry and they didn´t have anything on the menu that piqued my interest. They did have Chicha though which is a local drink made with fermented corn, mixed with some other stuff and then fruit is added. It doesn´t taste too bad. They serve the stuff in glasses the size of pitchers that you need to hands to pick up. When they drink this stuff they look a bit like little kids trying to drink out of their parent´s glass. About half of their head is buried in the glass and you´re just waiting for the glass to slip out of their hands because it´s too big for them to hold.

Nothing at the restaurant for Cari to eat so I headed to a vegetarian place that someone in the group recommended. I got her a bowl of soup and a sandwich and we hung out for a bit.

Although she was feeling better she didn´t want to venture out with the rest of us to see a Peruvian dance troupe this evening. She wanted to make sure she kicks what she has so she doesn´t miss the next few days which include Machu Picchu.
The dancing was pretty good even though I could swear it looked like the same dance the whole time. I think they just threw on a new hat and shirt and kicked the same steps the whole night.

The music was interesting too. I really liked it in the beginning, but by the second dance I noticed some similarities. By the third dance I was humming along with the music. I think I could have conducted the band by the fourth dance. It reminded me of the dinner at Ma Li where "I´ll Make Love to You" played over and over and over. And over. Seriously though, the dancing and music were really good.

Well, I gotta go to bed because we have to get up early tomorrow to leave for the Sacred Valley. Cari should be close to 100% tomorrow so it´ll be great to have her back.

More later.

B