April 20

What comes now is a further description of my odyssee. I have included a lot of detail, but not all by any means, and it might be tedious reading to hear how sick I was. I don't like to indulge in drama, but these were very dark moments and writing about it has been therapeutic.

By morning I was no better, but we had to move on. Unfortunately they had no more rooms where we were staying. The hotel hosts had been extremely kind and helpful and I wished we could have kept our room.

 After an hour in the car we were in Trujillo where we were already booked for a night. Scott and Rachael were there, too, as this was part of the original itinerary. We didn't see them, I wasn't leaving the room, but we were in close contact the whole time, as with Susan. They were giving me tremendous moral support. Again I slept all day and at times felt better when the blinding nausea subsided. I would then think, now I am getting better, I am recovering.  I still couldn't eat and was trying hard to swallow the electrolyte drink and enough water to keep me hydrated.

April 21

Not feeling a lot better, but I was feeling a little more stable in the morning when Rachael and Scott stopped by before cycling off. They had a problem of their own. One of Rachael's brakes wasn't working and as it was Sunday there was nothing they could do about it. They decided Rachael would have to ride using just one brake and hoped the terrain would be flat enough. The obvious solution was that Janos, while I slept all day anyway, would drive Rachael with her bike to the next point on the itinerary, a short hop by car. 

With some persuasion they accepted the offer. So while Scott cycled on to the Park at Monfragüe, Rachael and Janos drove there. We didn't realize immediately that in Monfragüe there wouldn't be a bicycle shop either. The ensuing plan was that on the following day Janos get Rachael in Monfragüe and drive her to Plasencia where there would be bike shops. Having a car was not in the original plan - if you have been able to follow all the ins and outs of the past days - but it certainly turned out to be a boon.

We decided on staying a second night where we were and then move into an apartment for the next four days to give us more time to consider our options and for me to recover. I wasn't yet in any way well enough to start the drive home.

April 22

The night didn't bring the improvement I had been hoping for. Worse case scenarios were passing through my mind, I was frightened, felt trapped, didn't know how I was going to get home or proper medical treatment. In the morning my body was again fighting overwhelming nausea and stomach cramps. Off to the next emergency hospital, hoping to see a doctor, but we were received by another paramedic. I got another injection to relieve the nausea and the advice that I be patient, this should be better in three to five days. If not, they gave us the address of the University Hospital in Cáceres. This was beginning to feel Kafkaesque. Where are the doctors? I was awfully weak by now, hanging on to Janos' arm when we got out of the car.

Although we had to check out of the hotel by noon and Janos wanted to give Rachael a lift to Plasencia in the afternoon, we decided to see if we could get help in the University Hospital, not that far away, just a 45-minute drive. The university at Cáceres was giant and signs showing the way to the hospital were absent. Navigating using Google Maps, we found the enormous hospital and I went in with my referal. I was told to take a seat in the waiting room along with about 40 others who wanted to see a doctor. It was then that I decided I didn't care how sick I was, I couldn't do this, I wasn't going down that rabbit hole - and I fled. 

So, we drove back to our hotel, checked out, got the bikes back on the rack, and found our new lodgings which turned out to be brilliant, a real stroke of luck. But Janos was on a tight schedule and was now off to give a hand to the Andersons. I know we didn't "have" to, they always find their own solutions and are extremely resourceful and self-sufficient, come what may. But we very much wanted to. 

I was suppoed to be drinking a liter a day of that horrible orange electrolyte solution. Just looking at it turned my stomach. I decided to stop, and whether for that reason or by coincidence, my stomach bloat stopped and I began to feel better. I'm not saying that was what was making me sick, but it wasn't helping to force feed myself with it. In the evening I began feeling much better. I wasn't well but no longer desperate, things seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

I'll stop here, the post is long enough. But this isn't meant to be a cliffhanger. As I write this, two days later, I am able to eat, although I'm sticking to a very limited diet still, I have no more nausea and no more stomach pain.  I'm going for little walks to regain my strength, and I have enough energy to write all this.