The No-Send Report

The No-Send Trip Report

(This is a report that I originally had no intention of sending.  It is all bad or downer news, which I report as little as possible.  But I’ve decided it is time to send it.  Travel is not always roses and smooth sailing.  My apologies for the length of this litany. Skim this report quickly, and go on to the next one.) No pics, here.

This will be an email I can’t send.  There have been far more downs than ups on this trip so far.  We just haven’t gotten our sea legs on this trip yet.  The logistics of procuring necessities, the navigation through far too large cities, the traffic in this cities, and a lot of traveling so far, with little of interest to us, to show for it.  

We left home in CO 40 days ago according to my “No Backups.. . “ on my computer.  We enjoyed visiting Kathy and Richard, Tom and Deb, Lynn and Roger and the Sequoia’s and King’s Canyon in CA.  

The dentist had to be done, but otherwise it felt like treading water, waiting to leave.  I don’t miss Mollie because I know she is fine, and I keep thanking God (and Tom, Deb, Kathy and Richard) that we don’t have her with us, particularly in THIS camper.  

Mike and I are best friends, but we don’t ALWAYS share everything, at least not at the moment of happening.  I, for example, did’t tell Mike of all my health issues.  Two days before flying out, my jaw began to ache ever so slightly — not enough TIME to do something about it, except take antibiotics.  I did, but they didn’t seem to help.  So tried stronger ones for a couple of days.  No difference, so I quit and hoped for the best.  It currently comes and goes, and I think it may be o.k.

My night leg cramps continued, and the pills I bought in the states seem to help a lot.  In the meantime, on the third day in the country, we were walking our papers from the dock to DIAN (immigration) on a lovely, perfect, new sidewalk.  Suddenly, I’m on the ground — hit my Sept ’11 replacement hip hard, skinned my elbow in two places and knocked the wind out of me.  

Mike kept walking, unknowing.  Two guys on a motorcycle stopped and got me up.  Still quite shaken, I waved at Mike when he finally turned around.  Now I had a pretty scraped and bruised arm, and a bruised hip again (fell HARD a month ago from the back of the pickup with I stepped onto a wet stepladder).  Didn’t think it hurt any else.  I was wrong.

Two days later, I had pain shooting from my lower buttocks down the top half of my hamstrings.  About an 8 out of 10 on pain scale.  I could barely stand, couldn’t bend down or do the motion of sitting down.  Horrible.  Mike got me started on prednisone and slowly over the next five days, it became less and less.  I am slowly going off it. The pain is finally gone from my back and thighs.

In the meantime, I was having raging headaches — and I NEVER get headaches.  We finally decided that I had heat exhaustion from putting the truck back together.  We were parked in the shade, but were pouring sweat for two hours in 99 degree heat.  Thank GOD, we each had a HUGE lemonade before, and another after, or it might have been much worse.  These headaches lasted for two days. 

Now Mike doesn’t always tell me when he has problems either.  After being in the country for about 9 days, he told me he was completely unhappy with everything.  He just didn’t want to just drive around for 6 months.  Except for Minca there had been nothing to do on that side of the country before we cut across the center to Medellin.  Pastures were beautiful but little else to see.

We had planned to go further south into the mountains, which we enjoy so much and they are cooler.  More to do.  But because at times I could barely walk, we decided it would be best to head for Medillian where Mike has a friend.  If I needed an MRI, it would be the place to get it. Now, that won’t be necessary, nor would it have been possible to get anyway.  Apparently the medical system here makes it very hard to get care.

Logistics of simple living have been difficult.  Propane “gaz” places are hard to locate, although Mike did locate more places.  I had hoped to buy 5 gallon garafones to fill the camper with good water.  Can’t find any,  — any!  No water filtering plants to be found.  

Finally had to begin using unknown water, chlorinating it for dishes and showers. We thought of putting in a filter this summer, but they are so large, Mike said he would have to tear out the battery box and use most of the space under the sink which I have FILLED with necessities. 

No doubt, should have done it anyway, but with all of the other work he did on the camper, especially the inverter and solar panels, he wasn’t looking forward to it. And, we had so many doc appointments all summer with me, plus a trip back to see the kids; we simply had no down-time.  

Of course, we are buying drinking water, but the largest we can find are 6 liter bottles, and they are rare and expensive at $2.50 US for each bottle.  Don’t know a way around it, now.   About the biggest easily available bottles are 1 liter.  Now how far will that go!!  We’ve gotten so sick several times from water in Mexico, we are very cautious. . . 

Mike hurt his foot the first week in Oct, and I fell on my hip a week later.  He is still wearing a brace 2 months later, and I had a bruise for a month, then fell on it again on that sidewalk, same hip.  After twelve days I can finally lay on that side — almost.  Horrible bruise on my hip still.  And both hips still hurt when walking too much.  Didn’t before the two times I fell.

Mike had read there are lots of WIFI places to stop at.  We’ve seen TWO — and that was in Minca and finally, Medellin, six days apart. I was SO annoyed that he didn’t bring the computer chips to buy G4 time here.  Couldn’t believe he’d even THINK of not bringing them.  

They are a good portion of our entertainment and ALL of our communication with family and friends, plus the only way to pay bills at home. We need these modems and finally got a handle on getting one in Medellin. 

We never have gotten a handle of Medellin.  Our collective maps are horrible.  Our map of the city is about the size of circled thumb and fingers.  The size of the city is the size of encircled arms.  No landmarks on map that I can coordinate with each other, and the GPS will not give an understandable overall picture.

Having difficulty finding laundries.  I put our very wet, sweaty clothes from reloading the pickup in the laundry bag and had them washed within two days.  But most are still so smelly from mildew, we can’t stand them.  I tried soaking overnight in clorox water.  Didn’t help.  Will try with a laundry that uses machines and see if that helps.  I only know how to find a laundry  in smaller towns. Yet, we’ve not stayed anyplace more than one night except in Minca and Medellin.  So far, it’s been two 1//2 weeks since I’ve had laundry done and no help in sight.

Mike realized the solar panels were not generating as much charge as they should have.  Stopped in a BUSY small town for parts. Mike fixed the panels the next morning at 6 AM before the heat got bad.  The fix seemed to work.

Then, what seemed like the last straw.  When arriving in Medellin, we turned on a faucet only to find there was no water — at all.  It had all drained out of the tank somehow. It had not drained into the gray or backwater tanks, but Mike found that the back bumper was wet.  

When straightening disheveled dishes in the cabinet, I remembered an unseen speed bump that we hit very hard.  We feared this must have truly broken something, and would have to remove the camper and the bottom of camper to find it.

So we refilled the water tank from a gas station.  Drove around.  Nothing.  No leaks, no water dripping from the bumper nor into the tanks.  That was two days ago and it still seems fine. . . .  

We have yet to figure out where the whole nearly-full tank of water went — how and where??  Haven’t got a solution to this problem yet.  . . nor at the moment, a problem either!!! 

(Later update.  We finally solved the mystery.  Two things were going on, making it hard to solve the problem.  First an added faucet for the water tank on the stool kept jiggling open and letting water drain into the floor of the bathroom.  Second, apparently the bad jolt from the speed bump broke the line from the bathroom floor drain to the gray water tank.  Therefore water disappeared down the drain and outside, not going into the gray tank.)

Our apologies to our well-traveled friends for not rolling with the flow gracefully, here.  There are always ups and downs on a trip; we know that.  But we’ve also traveled enough to know that one can usually fix or work out the logistic bugs.  Two weeks is becoming a little long for that to happen.  Things need to change for the better and more interestingly, soon.