Category: South America | Page 6

Air Stewardesses

I learnt a long time ago that air stewardesses smile at me because they have to as part of their job, and not because they happen to fancy me. I know it’s hard for a guy, but so long as you remember this important fact and don’t get too carried away it will make your flights more restful while avoiding all that nasty business with security at the destination.

More preparation

I’m actually working on my fitness now. I realised that for things like the Inca Trail, as well as other stuff that might be fun to try like sand surfing, fitness will help. Thing is, I’ve realised that fitness is an elusive measure. Every time I’ve gone to the gym I’ve done the treadmill fitness test. My VO2 max is up by six points from average to above average, my weight’s down a few kilos, and my body fat’s looking almost reasonable. And do I feel any fitter? Well no, not really! So I suppose fitness isn’t necessarily about feeling better. I suspect your average marathon runner, though very fit, finishes the race with their heart pounding, ears ringing, and pains all over the place.

I also took a long walk up Moel Famau, the nearest proper mountain, at the weekend. My friend showed me a route up that I’d never taken, but in one part it has the disadvantage of being more or less straight up. We worked hard for that one but when you get to the top, or into a clearing where the view’s great… well it does feel worthwhile. It’s one reason why I want to do the Inca Trail. Reaching Machu Picchu on a bus just won’t seem nearly so magical.

So it’s more fitness. Every two days I have to make myself work hard on the stair climbing thingy at the gym, and do half an hour on the treadmill at its steepest setting. Of course, I hate gyms! They’re weird places where nobody seems to want to talk to anybody else. They’re hardly the chattiest places are they? I got a very weird look trying to initiate a conversation with the person on the machine next to me. Maybe I’m a freak?!

Jabs

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking the yellow fever jab is trivial. It isn’t, it makes you feel f*cking awful! I thought maybe it was the effect of the wisdom tooth, but as the pain from that’s now subsiding I don’t think I can lay the blame on that.

Now – given that it’s essentially a mild version of the real disease it makes you realise just how bad a thing it must be to catch. So I suppose taking it is A Good Thing.

Ouch

Had my yellow fever jab today, and it turns out that that pretty much brings me up to date. Malaria tablets I get from the chemist’s (Boots in this case). I believe Maleron is the name of one of the better tablets.

I can’t say that the jab hurt much at all, but added to the wisdom tooth extraction I went through yesterday and the various drugs I’ve taken in preparation and for pain relief it’s all left me feeling pretty tired and jaded.

At the weekend I went to Dublin to see Geraldine and John (who are the happy couple that are marrying in Peru) and it was nice to catch up with them and some of the others from Paris that will be travelling in Peru. We didn’t really get much of the planning done that we hoped for, but I was disappointed that more people didn’t seem to want to hike to Machu Pichu along the Inca Trail although it was pointed out that as we’ll be there during the rainy season it may not be that clever an idea. However, I’ll set up a mailing list for everyone and hopefully we can get some good consensus going.