After 95km including what, at the time, I thought was a super-tough 8km climb, we called it a day.
It's different travelling here. In Asia, everyone looking at me sees a foreigner. Here, friendly people will just come up and start speaking to me thinking I'm just another Brasilian travelling through...until I open my mouth of course.
One thing that was really tough for my super-paranoid self to accept: In these tiny little towns, Ted will just leave his unlocked bike against the wall of a cafe and go inside for lunch. All I can think of while we're eating is about someone swiping the bikes. Ted, whose bike is worth 4 times mine, is totally relaxed saying that this type of thing doesn't happen in these types of towns (he is just as paranoid as I am as soon as we get to a city).
One more: Ted drinks spring water when he's in the mountains -unfiltered, untreated. He's been living and travelling in Brasil for 5 years and has never been sick. To me this seemed totally insane: I would never have considered drink untreated water in the past, and I carried enough of a supply to always make it to the next town.
Saturday started out really well. We biked only 55km because it was so tough. We were on dirt roads and nearly all of the first 30km were uphill. The last 20 km, though downhill, were not so easy as it was super-bumpy and if I moved too quick my chain would fall off or if I wasn't moving slowly enough I may have flown off the cliff as the road sharply curved hugging the mountainside.
The scenery was really fantastic. Green everywhere, hills and mountains surrounding us, very few people, little towns, ranches...brilliant. It felt great to be out there enjoying nature.
On our 30km uphill, Ted continued to stop at these springs (where the local townfolk get their water) and would have his fill. In a not-too-bright moment, I was looking at my warm water-bottles and at him drinking this nice, "clean", cold water, and I thought what-the-hell...
As you may guess, I chose the wrong spring to drink from. Ted and I both were sick as dogs that evening and spent a restless night emptying the contents of our stomachs in various ways. Speaking to some people in the town (called Alagoa) we found that some of them too had gotten sick recently. They told us that it'll be a three-day recovery time. The women at the Pousada (guesthouse) where we stayed were super-nice and very motherly. They took Ted's temperature because he thought he was feverish (we would go from super-chilly spells to being really warm), and they mixed up this horrible, bitter concoction and told us to steadily drink it throughout the day.
To make it to the town where we were to catch a bus back home, we still had to bike 120km on Sunday. We made it about 100m before the nausea was too much and we pulled over heaving. Agreeing that there was no way we could bike in our condition we, 2 dudes with bicycles, tried to hitchhike on a Sunday (the day of rest) in a small town in the middle of nowhere. After three hours with no luck we decided to take the only bus out of town for the day...in the direction opposite of home. 4 buses later and at 6:30am on Monday morning we arrived in Belo Horizonte. I showered and went to work. Ted called in sick, stayed home and took care of himself. He came to work the next day feeling mostly better. One week later, I can say that I am finally over most of it.
All things considered, I still chalk this one up as a good trip.
3 comments:
Of course you drank the water....I saw Beth this weekend, and she was asking if I had heard from you - so I told her your stream water story :) (her reaction was the same as I'm sure everyone's will be....an eye roll that says 'typical Leon'....).
I'm glad to see the Brazil chronicles are going to be just as interesting as the Malaysia ones!
And I had the exact same reaction as Cheri did. :P
What would I do without you lovely ladies to keep me grounded?
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