show me the way to go home-..... i´m tired and i want to go to bed. i had a little drink about 5 minutes ago and it´s gone right to my head da da da da.....
Well Hallai has asked a very pertinent question, am I a danger ot myself or others? I took her drinking tonight with a brolken back. I think Í´m a bad sister. Cáca would kill me, she will kill me when she finds out. and moneypenny won´t holiday with me anymore either. so maybe I am better off not being around people, cos I only seem to end up hurting them or getting them into really bad situations.
i´m hoping to be in ireland on Sunday. also i have offically lost my will to fornicate. it´s sad but true. new year new me.
yours drunk as a monkey,
CactusFan
Friday, October 6, 2006
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
I want to go home!
I really want to go home now. This is day 6 in Lima and I´ve really had enough.
I found some English navy guys yesterday so I went on the piss last night. First night out drinking since I got here, but christ they are just a bunch of boring fuckers. I suppose if I was stuck on a boat for 7 months I would be looking to get hammered too, but I would have been better off back in the hostel. There´s nothing worse than being on your own in a crowd. And the worst of it was all they are really interested in is getting laid, preferrably without having to pay for it.
But now I´m off to the hospital to fight with some administration people to try and get out of here and home.
Hallai is doing much much better. She is bored out of her mind though. I feel sorry for her being stuck in a hospital bed the whole time. But she is able to get up and walk around the room so at least that´s something. Can´t wait to go home at this stage.
TTFN
I found some English navy guys yesterday so I went on the piss last night. First night out drinking since I got here, but christ they are just a bunch of boring fuckers. I suppose if I was stuck on a boat for 7 months I would be looking to get hammered too, but I would have been better off back in the hostel. There´s nothing worse than being on your own in a crowd. And the worst of it was all they are really interested in is getting laid, preferrably without having to pay for it.
But now I´m off to the hospital to fight with some administration people to try and get out of here and home.
Hallai is doing much much better. She is bored out of her mind though. I feel sorry for her being stuck in a hospital bed the whole time. But she is able to get up and walk around the room so at least that´s something. Can´t wait to go home at this stage.
TTFN
Monday, October 2, 2006
I´m so bored
Bored out of my brain here. So, thought I´d write out a couple of observations made while here in Lima.
The people are really fab, a mass of contradictions though, in one hand they are very generous of spirit, always quick to smile and greet a stranger and a very open people, but on the other, see westerners as one big dollar sign and if they think they can con an extra dollar out of you they will. It´s quite weird really. I haven´t seen that much begging on the streets or homeless on the streets, but then to be honest, I´m travelling between the 3 more upmarket districts of the city. It´s just too dodgy for a white chick on her own to be walking around the centre of the city on her own.
The food in Peru is great, not a place to come for a weight loss holiday because Peruvians like to eat, a lot! Oh, and I´ve had a couple of pisco sours and they are like rocket fuel. Very strong indeed.
Lima reminds me a bit of LA. It´s covered in a constant grey smog, it´s noisy and dangerous to be out walking on your own. But the people are nicer so that helps. And good god do they drive like lunatics! You are literally taking your life in your hands ever time you get into a taxi. They are constantly beeping their horns and make Dublin drivers look calm and serene. Good fun though in a weird way, I wouldn´t mind having a go at driving here, there´s one roundabout in San Isidro near the hospital that makes the Walkinstown roundabout look like a piece of piss and drivers don´t wait their turn to drive onto this bad boy, oh now, you literally close your eyes as they beep their horns and drive straight at it. Been a couple of narrow misses so far.
I will defo come back, I´m disappointed I didn´t get to do the whole trip, but my sister is ok so I´m just going to have to accept that these things happen for a reason and it just wasn´t my time to be touring around Peru. It´s funny, I had such a bad feeling before I left Dublin, I just thought it would be me hurt and not Hallai. Anyway, you live and learn eh!
Now I have to go and fight with insurance company and the hospital here, very funny when I haven´t got a word of Spanish! Still, a raised eyebrow is a universal language!
TTFN.
The people are really fab, a mass of contradictions though, in one hand they are very generous of spirit, always quick to smile and greet a stranger and a very open people, but on the other, see westerners as one big dollar sign and if they think they can con an extra dollar out of you they will. It´s quite weird really. I haven´t seen that much begging on the streets or homeless on the streets, but then to be honest, I´m travelling between the 3 more upmarket districts of the city. It´s just too dodgy for a white chick on her own to be walking around the centre of the city on her own.
The food in Peru is great, not a place to come for a weight loss holiday because Peruvians like to eat, a lot! Oh, and I´ve had a couple of pisco sours and they are like rocket fuel. Very strong indeed.
Lima reminds me a bit of LA. It´s covered in a constant grey smog, it´s noisy and dangerous to be out walking on your own. But the people are nicer so that helps. And good god do they drive like lunatics! You are literally taking your life in your hands ever time you get into a taxi. They are constantly beeping their horns and make Dublin drivers look calm and serene. Good fun though in a weird way, I wouldn´t mind having a go at driving here, there´s one roundabout in San Isidro near the hospital that makes the Walkinstown roundabout look like a piece of piss and drivers don´t wait their turn to drive onto this bad boy, oh now, you literally close your eyes as they beep their horns and drive straight at it. Been a couple of narrow misses so far.
I will defo come back, I´m disappointed I didn´t get to do the whole trip, but my sister is ok so I´m just going to have to accept that these things happen for a reason and it just wasn´t my time to be touring around Peru. It´s funny, I had such a bad feeling before I left Dublin, I just thought it would be me hurt and not Hallai. Anyway, you live and learn eh!
Now I have to go and fight with insurance company and the hospital here, very funny when I haven´t got a word of Spanish! Still, a raised eyebrow is a universal language!
TTFN.
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Update from Smoggy Lima
Well seeing as it was in the bloody Star newspaper yesterday, (Friday 30th Sept 2006), I suppose the best thing to do would be to detail what happened to my lil sis here. We were on the 3rd day of the trip, and had gone to Ica from Pisco. In the afternoon there was optional sand buggy trips available in Huacachina in Ica. The sand buggys are savage! They are so much fun, would recommend them to anyone, although, maybe not if you dont like rollercoasters, cos thats what they are like. Anyway, we were also given sand boards and we were allowed to slide down the dunes on the boards.
We had all had a fews goes on the boards, and we were getting brave, so we were going onto steeper hills. We were almost ready to head back, and Hallai was sliding down on her board and had reached the end of the dune when she it a bump in the sand and fell over. She fell very badly on her left shoulder, and it snapped her neck back and the impact hurt her back badly. She says she could actually hear the crack. Anyway, she was removed by stretcher to the nearest hospital, a 5 minute drive away in Ica. This was the Regional Hospital in Ica. And my good god was it basic. I will never complain about Irish hospitals again.
She was seen immediately and we got her x-rayed and she was admitted into intensive care. After a series of tests on her and we established that there was no damage to the spinal cord as she has full movement in both her arms and her legs.
But on the Wednesday, the day staff in Ica were terrible. They wouldnt let me in to see her, they kept changing the diagnosis and then to add insult to injury, she was not given any pain relief even though I did pain for the medication. I had to buy all of the medicine for her in a pharmacy accross the street, and I mean everything, the needles for blood tests, the saline drip, the drip cord, a plastic cup for her to use to take tablets, it was unreal. And if you couldnt but the stuff up front, then she wouldnt get anything. By the end of the day, I had enough of the bitch doctor and decided for Hallai's sake it was best to move her and get her to Lima.
We organised a private Red Cross Ambulance from Nazca to come to Ica to collect Hallai and bring her to Lima. This is a 6 hour drive, not fun. And I had to go to Nazca first to pick up the ambulance, then back to Ica. Anyway, we left Ica hospital at 3am on Wednesday morning, but the bloody ambulance broke down an hour into the journey so we had to sit on the side of the road for 2 hours for another ambulance to arrive from Pisco. It was the longest 7 hours of poor Hallai's life, she was in so much pain and there was fuck all I could do for her. And there worst of it was that I was moving her against the doc in Icas advices, so I was shitting myself I was doing her more harm than good.
We got to the Clinica Anglo Americana in Lima just after 10am on Thursday morning and she has been ok ever since. The Irish consul out here from the Embassy has been brilliant, a really big help. And Hallai has improved a lot, she is able to sit up in a chair now and can walk a little bit, but is still in a lot of pain. Im just in the process of fighting with the clinic and the insurance people to get her home safely.
So yeah, not what I expected from this trip at all, but I will come back to Peru, just I will make sure I have taken Spanish classes before I do!
We had all had a fews goes on the boards, and we were getting brave, so we were going onto steeper hills. We were almost ready to head back, and Hallai was sliding down on her board and had reached the end of the dune when she it a bump in the sand and fell over. She fell very badly on her left shoulder, and it snapped her neck back and the impact hurt her back badly. She says she could actually hear the crack. Anyway, she was removed by stretcher to the nearest hospital, a 5 minute drive away in Ica. This was the Regional Hospital in Ica. And my good god was it basic. I will never complain about Irish hospitals again.
She was seen immediately and we got her x-rayed and she was admitted into intensive care. After a series of tests on her and we established that there was no damage to the spinal cord as she has full movement in both her arms and her legs.
But on the Wednesday, the day staff in Ica were terrible. They wouldnt let me in to see her, they kept changing the diagnosis and then to add insult to injury, she was not given any pain relief even though I did pain for the medication. I had to buy all of the medicine for her in a pharmacy accross the street, and I mean everything, the needles for blood tests, the saline drip, the drip cord, a plastic cup for her to use to take tablets, it was unreal. And if you couldnt but the stuff up front, then she wouldnt get anything. By the end of the day, I had enough of the bitch doctor and decided for Hallai's sake it was best to move her and get her to Lima.
We organised a private Red Cross Ambulance from Nazca to come to Ica to collect Hallai and bring her to Lima. This is a 6 hour drive, not fun. And I had to go to Nazca first to pick up the ambulance, then back to Ica. Anyway, we left Ica hospital at 3am on Wednesday morning, but the bloody ambulance broke down an hour into the journey so we had to sit on the side of the road for 2 hours for another ambulance to arrive from Pisco. It was the longest 7 hours of poor Hallai's life, she was in so much pain and there was fuck all I could do for her. And there worst of it was that I was moving her against the doc in Icas advices, so I was shitting myself I was doing her more harm than good.
We got to the Clinica Anglo Americana in Lima just after 10am on Thursday morning and she has been ok ever since. The Irish consul out here from the Embassy has been brilliant, a really big help. And Hallai has improved a lot, she is able to sit up in a chair now and can walk a little bit, but is still in a lot of pain. Im just in the process of fighting with the clinic and the insurance people to get her home safely.
So yeah, not what I expected from this trip at all, but I will come back to Peru, just I will make sure I have taken Spanish classes before I do!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Things not going according to plan
Ok, so the trip started out great. It´s true what you hear about Lima, it´s smoggy and noisy and really there´s no need to be there more than a day. So we headed off down the coast, I´m travelling with my youngest sister, Hallai, and hit Pisco, home of the famous Pisco Sour. Man, that is a strong drink and I´m used to drinking whiskey.
From there on to Paracas where we went out to the Ballestes Islands and saw sea lions and penguins and loads of birds and a really cool geoglyph called the candelabra which dates back to Inca times. The on to a pisco vineyard and drank the pure stuff, very like poitin. Then on to Ica.
This is when things went south. We went on sand buggys up into the sand dunes to do some sand boarding. It was great fun, I only had a very small tumble at the end but Hallai went down very badly on her back. She spent last night in intensive care in Ica and they are monitoring her progress. They don´t think that there are any bones broken in the back and she has full movement of her arms and legs but the pain is very intense and she´s not able to move because of it.
I´m fucking terrified. I can´t face telling my mother. We have to get a ct scan done today, so hopefully she´ll get the all clear, but I don´t have anyone who I can really talk to out here because of the time difference and it´s so bloody scary not speaking the language when you are in a hospital. And the hospital in Ica isn´t the best believe me!
Anyway, I´ll write more when I get the chance, I´m going back to the hospital now so hopefully the news will be good. I don´t care what gods you pray to, but please ask them to help her.
TTFN.
From there on to Paracas where we went out to the Ballestes Islands and saw sea lions and penguins and loads of birds and a really cool geoglyph called the candelabra which dates back to Inca times. The on to a pisco vineyard and drank the pure stuff, very like poitin. Then on to Ica.
This is when things went south. We went on sand buggys up into the sand dunes to do some sand boarding. It was great fun, I only had a very small tumble at the end but Hallai went down very badly on her back. She spent last night in intensive care in Ica and they are monitoring her progress. They don´t think that there are any bones broken in the back and she has full movement of her arms and legs but the pain is very intense and she´s not able to move because of it.
I´m fucking terrified. I can´t face telling my mother. We have to get a ct scan done today, so hopefully she´ll get the all clear, but I don´t have anyone who I can really talk to out here because of the time difference and it´s so bloody scary not speaking the language when you are in a hospital. And the hospital in Ica isn´t the best believe me!
Anyway, I´ll write more when I get the chance, I´m going back to the hospital now so hopefully the news will be good. I don´t care what gods you pray to, but please ask them to help her.
TTFN.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
