What's Next? 52 Mexico 2012

Mon., Mar. 19, 2012 at 7:12 p.m.

Well this is a first for me.  I passed out in the hotel restaurant today.  I woke up with Montezuma´s Revenge and after I came back from a walk things went from bad to worse.  Of course I had no appetite but I thought a small plate of fruit salad and yogurt would help.  I could finish only half of it and then I knew I was going to pass out.   I managed to struggle my way to the server to pay then on my way back to my table to get my things I fainted and next thing I knew I was looking up at all these very worried looking people.  They were worried that I hit my head but I was okay and I told them how nice it felt to lie down and I hoped they wouldn´t have to move me anytime soon.  One woman, a hotel guest I think, gave me on her fingers some hand sanitizer to use as smelling salts and it worked.  A man was putting a bottle of water to my lips.  I was actually surprised how calm I felt and even humorous and under the circumstances how good my Spanish was.  A couple of Red Cross paramedics were called in and they checked all my vital signs and found me okay.  They checked my blood sugar and I was relieved to learn that I so far don´t have diabetes.  They quickly found the culprit. Because of the diarrhea and all the water I had been drinking I had flushed out all my electrolytes.  This is why I passed out.  They gave me three packages of electrolyte crystals to dissolve into water and take over the next couple of days.  So I took a cab to the Red Cross clinic to get antibiotics.  There was a wait in line before the nurse could see me but I endured it okay and the doctor was very friendly and kind  as were the cab drivers who drove me there and back.  Fortunately I took out medical Insurance before I went on this trip so this episode hasn´t cost me anything.  I spent nearly four hours resting in my room and sipping on electrolytes.  They taste kind of weird but they seem to be doing the trick. Slowly I´m coming around but I´m taking it easy tomorrow before I go to Palenque Wednesday.  this is not a clean city and there is dogshit everywhere on the pavement and of course street food, salsas, and cheap restaurant food as well as fruits and vegetables that haven´t been pealed are verboten.  Two of the restaurant staff just came over to see how I´m doing.  I think this may be my last trip to Mexico for a while and really I´m feeling a bit anxious about returning home which occurs in thirteen days.  Count ém, thirteen, less than two weeks.  I really hope I don´t get bitten again by the travel bug any time soon. I´ll just bite back if it happens and  maybe even punch it´s lights out.  I´´m not negating any of the great value I have received while on this trip, as I´m sure many of you have seen in my postings but I would like to get home alive.  Just in case anything untoward happens I am forwarding to all of you in this e-mail the contact information for this hotel and for the Red Tree House. Tues. March 20, 2012 This is my last evening in San Cristobal, then I return here for four more days after three days in Palenque, which I expect will be the high point of my trip here.  A friend who is on my mailing list who is also a very well experienced traveller has ressured me not to worry about my health going awry or some of the emotional highs and lows that I´ve been experiencing on this trip because six weeks is a long time to be uprooted from my routine of ordinary life in Vancouver (mucha gracias otra vez, Enrique, muy amable!)  I certainly have been making good use of my earplugs while I´m here because as I have noted already Mexicans seem to be noisier and more tolerant of noise than Canadians.  I´m wearing them right now because someone is hammering away nearby.   The earthquake today was scarcely felt here in San Cristobal.  I was sitting in a cafe at noon when I heard several sirens from fire trucks and ambulances and it must have gone on for more than fifteen minutes.  Then someone mentioned that there had been an earthquake but neither I nor anyone else I asked felt the earth move.  So there was quite an overreaction I´d say.  I just exchanged e-mails with a friend in Mexico City who mentioned that it was quite scary because he works in a big office tower and everyone had to be evacuated.  But it all turned out okay.  I know well the many pedestrian bridges there and let´s just say that I am very relieved that I was not walking on that one at the time when it collapsed and I feel of course fortunate that I wasn´t there for the quake.   Speaking of timing I also feel relieved that I got sick yesterday, giving me good time to recover for my trip to Palenque tomorrow, where I am still going to try to take it easy given that it´s a lot hotter there than here in San Cristobal.   Just following the earthquake I went for a walk in the main square and just when I was starting on a rather negative train of thought about my life a white dove appeared at my feet among the pigeons and because I believe in omens, up to a point, I am taking this as a good sign.   I am up and about today, but still not feeling one hundred per cent recovered, but still a lot better than yesterday, and my appetite is slowly returning.   I wandered near the city limits in another direction, lured by the sight of green trees in the distance.  There is very little greenery or trees in this city and I think this is why I have been slow at warming to San Cristobal.   So I ended up walking by a rather foul-slmelling river and soon returned to the city centre.  Then a group of other tourists asked me for directions to a market in front of one of the big churches and I was glad to oblige them.  They are from Paris, France and we communicated in Spanish, our common language here.   I am pondering whether or not this will be my last big trip for a while and even though I´d like to say yes, it is, I think the jury is still out.  But I agree with Dorothy.  There´s no place like home.  I am thinking a lot about my age, and as a solo traveller of a certain age I am really wondering, what are the suitable clothes I should be wearing at my age, and please don´t anyone suggest Tilley Endurables.  Rather, since I have never been married nor had kids I have lived without some of the major bench marks of most other men, so it is harder for me to determine at times, what is really appropriate for a man of 56?  especially with a growing number of people asking me if I´m retired I certainly realize that I haven´t been a young kid for a long time, and that following yesterday´s episode that maybe I need to start pacing myself more carefully.  There is a saying: ¨Youth happens only once, but you can be immature forever.¨   I am still not comfortable with strangers asking me if I´m married or have kids.  I think next time this happens, I will ask them, politely, why they would want to know, and also mention that in my country I am almost never asked this question and for someone who has never been either married or a parent the question can be a bit awkward and invasive.  This is because no matter how family centred they are here in Mexico and in other parts of Latin America, cultural accommodation has to work both ways or it is not accommodation.  I´m sure that I could do this in a way that is neither rude or defensive.   I just bought a beautiful hand-woven table cloth from one of the native woman vendors and sure enough three or four others descended on my to buy their wares as well.  I had to shoo them away like flies.  They are very astute sales people and they do not easily take no for an answer.  I used to feel sorry for them.  Now I respect them.