Mon 26th 1125 Just pulling out of Almirante, on poss direct bus for David. Bag is in boot which makes me tiny bit edgy but OTOH this means I can feel safer getting off if there's a piss stop.
Gonna stop writin as we are moving.
1319 At rest stop I remember from northbound. Got off and had tiny piss and watery shit (yeah yeah, gross) which didn't need but can't take risks and have to go destroyer tactics.
Woke up IIRC midnightish feeling a bit worse, had another big (solid) dump and felt a bit better. Didn't sleep super well but not terribly.
Think another big solid one 7-8ish and one watery one before leaving hostel. I popped out to ms Bastimentos for a litre of water. Have brought the three beer cans with me which is annoying (bag is way too "big" ) but still, it is (I hope!) in boot.
Left dorm key in door as no one around to give it to.
Got boats OK, beyond prob not motion related occasional gut churn no issue. 5 from Old Bank to Bocas Town and 6 (having to show passport copy) BT-Almirante. Mid-water transfer on OB-BT leg FWIW for some odd reason, think locals seemed a bit surprised too.
Fobbed off a good number of touts at Almirante and just outside terminal (one presumably jokingly when I said I was going to Boquete asked if I'd like to get a boat straight there), trogged to bus terminal OK and got on this bus.
I have a half decent seat right at back, it is aircon and I don't (fingers crossed) feel terrible. Intermittent gut churning and mild hot flush, but not too bad. I am going to provisionally put all this down to constipation due to poor diet but who knows. I will try to get some fruit in David and depending how I feel may not eat a proper meal.
1325 Off.
1628 At new hostel. I've paid an extra 5 to upgrade to a private - the dorm made sense when I felt fine but although I'm not that bad I figured I might as well. TBH wouldn't surprise me if I am the only guest and I'd have had the dorm to myself but never mind. There is no aircon in either afaik but there are a couple of fans in this room which I should be able to arrange to use for myself.
2007 Did see one other guest earlier. Out on terrace having just eaten two smallish (bread out here seems small in "radius" ) ham sandwiches. I went out and bought too much food for a bit under USD9 at a supermarket after I got here (feeling decidedly ropy and suddenly realising no way could I face sitting in a hot restaurant). Got back and lay on bed and watched a bit of YT and ate a few slightly sticky seedful grapes. Earlier on after arrival I felt surprisingly bad for a bit but that passed - it is v hot here (and as remembered when passing through there is a strange oven-like concentrated heat at the bus terminal).
Have had some v watery clearish shits but they are not completely "out of control".
The dogs here are lovely and the cats seem nice though not stroked them yet. Bit weird as there's a shower+toilet out back but no sink (was told to use kitchen; doesn't bother me as long as no one else is squeamish about it) and another one with a sink off one of the dorms (the dorm?) which I was told I could use but not sure that's really appropriate esp in middle of night.
I haven't booked a bus to PC tomorrow, fingers crossed they are both frequent and not full. Checkout is 12 and I do hope to leave early so as to get to hostel in daylight but depending how things feel I may want to hang on until later.
I am not reacting badly to these two sandwiches so I will give it another few minutes then have another couple. I got some apples and nearly 1l of milk too, I may - beer cans bloating bag make this extra awkward - take eg the apples and perhaps a couple of sandwiches on bus but we'll see. While galling, if I have to leave stuff here it isn't the end of the world.
This is of course all v bad timing. It could be worse - could have happened eg day before boat trip - but pretty bad. The only lesson I can learn I think is weak advice to not have two adjacent days of relatively " arduous" (or at least length) travel and/or the somewhat equivalent "try not to stay for just 1 night, or at least not to be so booked up you can't choose to extend for a second night" . But this is all just bad luck wrt pending boat trip and I really couldn't have done that much, short of a hard rule along the lines of the above which would be very constraining and 95% of the time would be harmful. Were I healthy the two no-massive-deal buses would not be an enormous problem.
I am not taking any medicine yet. I touch wood don't have "unpredictable" diarrhea and I understand suppressive medicines don't help cure it, and I haven't really felt the need for any ibuprofen yet.
The bus today was mildly irksome and uncomfortable at times - tho towards end my left knee had started feeling "hollow" from sitting and that did actually dominate the sickness feelings - but not terrible. So far (touch wood again) this has been nothing like eg the prob food poisoning I got in Salta or the sickness I got on the last day of the Santa Marta 3 day hike when I felt shit and had to walk.
Owner sitting out here with laptop, she's very "present" but not a problem. And while the dogs are lovely they do sometimes get barking bad if another dog nearby goes off etc and it's nice to feel she's around to control them.
Fingers crossed I am feeling better already, and I think there's some chance I will feel much better in the morning, but not counting my chickens. These symptoms don't feel utterly unprecedented or enormously alarming, but if I didn't have the boat trip I'd be less stressed and would probably hole up here (room is warm as hell but tolerable with fan and prob more so at night) for a couple of nights to recover. I still hope I'm going to be fine for the boat trip.
2025 Stomach feels a bit heavy, just a bit but will give it a bit longer before eating more.
2148 Second pair of sandwiches bit of a struggle. Cleaned teeth and lying on bed. Did teeth in dorm bathroom as cleaning them at kitchen sink would have felt (irrationally?) weird. Two more not-forced but close together in time watery shits.
Kind of glad I ate, even if do feel slightly funny. Fingers crossed not going to be sick - I haven't been yet.
Will set alarm for 8 and lie on bed reading and see what happens.
Tue 27th 0233 Been sleeping (badly). Just had watery shit but was not desperate and I might try to imagine things are getting better. Been a bit gassy and burping/farting (cautiously) in bed. Feel a bit dehydrated and it is also warm anyway. Not great but mildly optimistic. Will send this now.
Gonna stop writin as we are moving.
1319 At rest stop I remember from northbound. Got off and had tiny piss and watery shit (yeah yeah, gross) which didn't need but can't take risks and have to go destroyer tactics.
Woke up IIRC midnightish feeling a bit worse, had another big (solid) dump and felt a bit better. Didn't sleep super well but not terribly.
Think another big solid one 7-8ish and one watery one before leaving hostel. I popped out to ms Bastimentos for a litre of water. Have brought the three beer cans with me which is annoying (bag is way too "big" ) but still, it is (I hope!) in boot.
Left dorm key in door as no one around to give it to.
Got boats OK, beyond prob not motion related occasional gut churn no issue. 5 from Old Bank to Bocas Town and 6 (having to show passport copy) BT-Almirante. Mid-water transfer on OB-BT leg FWIW for some odd reason, think locals seemed a bit surprised too.
Fobbed off a good number of touts at Almirante and just outside terminal (one presumably jokingly when I said I was going to Boquete asked if I'd like to get a boat straight there), trogged to bus terminal OK and got on this bus.
I have a half decent seat right at back, it is aircon and I don't (fingers crossed) feel terrible. Intermittent gut churning and mild hot flush, but not too bad. I am going to provisionally put all this down to constipation due to poor diet but who knows. I will try to get some fruit in David and depending how I feel may not eat a proper meal.
1325 Off.
1628 At new hostel. I've paid an extra 5 to upgrade to a private - the dorm made sense when I felt fine but although I'm not that bad I figured I might as well. TBH wouldn't surprise me if I am the only guest and I'd have had the dorm to myself but never mind. There is no aircon in either afaik but there are a couple of fans in this room which I should be able to arrange to use for myself.
2007 Did see one other guest earlier. Out on terrace having just eaten two smallish (bread out here seems small in "radius" ) ham sandwiches. I went out and bought too much food for a bit under USD9 at a supermarket after I got here (feeling decidedly ropy and suddenly realising no way could I face sitting in a hot restaurant). Got back and lay on bed and watched a bit of YT and ate a few slightly sticky seedful grapes. Earlier on after arrival I felt surprisingly bad for a bit but that passed - it is v hot here (and as remembered when passing through there is a strange oven-like concentrated heat at the bus terminal).
Have had some v watery clearish shits but they are not completely "out of control".
The dogs here are lovely and the cats seem nice though not stroked them yet. Bit weird as there's a shower+toilet out back but no sink (was told to use kitchen; doesn't bother me as long as no one else is squeamish about it) and another one with a sink off one of the dorms (the dorm?) which I was told I could use but not sure that's really appropriate esp in middle of night.
I haven't booked a bus to PC tomorrow, fingers crossed they are both frequent and not full. Checkout is 12 and I do hope to leave early so as to get to hostel in daylight but depending how things feel I may want to hang on until later.
I am not reacting badly to these two sandwiches so I will give it another few minutes then have another couple. I got some apples and nearly 1l of milk too, I may - beer cans bloating bag make this extra awkward - take eg the apples and perhaps a couple of sandwiches on bus but we'll see. While galling, if I have to leave stuff here it isn't the end of the world.
This is of course all v bad timing. It could be worse - could have happened eg day before boat trip - but pretty bad. The only lesson I can learn I think is weak advice to not have two adjacent days of relatively " arduous" (or at least length) travel and/or the somewhat equivalent "try not to stay for just 1 night, or at least not to be so booked up you can't choose to extend for a second night" . But this is all just bad luck wrt pending boat trip and I really couldn't have done that much, short of a hard rule along the lines of the above which would be very constraining and 95% of the time would be harmful. Were I healthy the two no-massive-deal buses would not be an enormous problem.
I am not taking any medicine yet. I touch wood don't have "unpredictable" diarrhea and I understand suppressive medicines don't help cure it, and I haven't really felt the need for any ibuprofen yet.
The bus today was mildly irksome and uncomfortable at times - tho towards end my left knee had started feeling "hollow" from sitting and that did actually dominate the sickness feelings - but not terrible. So far (touch wood again) this has been nothing like eg the prob food poisoning I got in Salta or the sickness I got on the last day of the Santa Marta 3 day hike when I felt shit and had to walk.
Owner sitting out here with laptop, she's very "present" but not a problem. And while the dogs are lovely they do sometimes get barking bad if another dog nearby goes off etc and it's nice to feel she's around to control them.
Fingers crossed I am feeling better already, and I think there's some chance I will feel much better in the morning, but not counting my chickens. These symptoms don't feel utterly unprecedented or enormously alarming, but if I didn't have the boat trip I'd be less stressed and would probably hole up here (room is warm as hell but tolerable with fan and prob more so at night) for a couple of nights to recover. I still hope I'm going to be fine for the boat trip.
2025 Stomach feels a bit heavy, just a bit but will give it a bit longer before eating more.
2148 Second pair of sandwiches bit of a struggle. Cleaned teeth and lying on bed. Did teeth in dorm bathroom as cleaning them at kitchen sink would have felt (irrationally?) weird. Two more not-forced but close together in time watery shits.
Kind of glad I ate, even if do feel slightly funny. Fingers crossed not going to be sick - I haven't been yet.
Will set alarm for 8 and lie on bed reading and see what happens.
Tue 27th 0233 Been sleeping (badly). Just had watery shit but was not desperate and I might try to imagine things are getting better. Been a bit gassy and burping/farting (cautiously) in bed. Feel a bit dehydrated and it is also warm anyway. Not great but mildly optimistic. Will send this now.
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