MY BIRTHDAY IN CUSCO, PERU

I spent my 32nd birthday mostly on the toilet, or in bed thinking about being on the toilet, or thinking about the hamburger that started it all.

Liz Stein (a fellow Athens, Georgian) and I went to downtown Cusco to trapse around and shop and eat. We found an Irish pub with WiFi. It has THE cleanest bathrooms I have EVER seen in Peru and now I canÕt remember its name. But, I know it is near the infamous 12-sided stone.
Anyhow, at teh pub I got te` negra (black tea) and I called Page on Skype. She regaled me with info about our band and also about her love interest who I will be torturously grilling and inspecting when I return stateside... be warned! Then we went around the corner to a restaurant that serves typical Andean food, except I really wanted the hamburguesa royal. It tasted kinda sweet for some reason. Then we went to a dance-off at the Teatro Cultural. Lots of youth dance teams dressed in crazy, superhero-like outfits performing to loud souped-up Andean disco music. I have a video I'll post so you can see what I mean.
Then we slept at Liz's hostel in San Blas.
In the morning I woke up and nearly puked on her. Happy Birthday. Then we took a cab to the casa for class. But....
I spent the next two days in bed, eating and drinking mostly nothing, yet stuff continued to leave my body. At one point it left my body from both ends at the same time. Has this ever happened to you? It feels like you are dying. I was certain I was going to die. In two days my lips got awfully chapped, my eyes and cheeks sunk in a bit, everything hurt, I couldn't walk 10 ft without having to sit down and catch my breath. Ew. Brooke brought me a coke and saltines. Liz brought me a giant chocolate bonbon. Adrienne came and sang "Happy Barf-day to you". Finally I sent Liz out to buy Cepro.
On the 3rd day things had, shall we say, dried up a bit. But I still took one Cepro and have the rest of the pack handy just in case.
CEPRO is one of the strongest antibiotics you can buy. I am a proponent of self-medicating via research, but in Peru you can really take it to a whole new level. You can get mostly anything you want without a prescription here. You just tell the farmacia what you want (antibiotics, muscle relaxers, lidocane, sleeping pills, etc) and they give it to you no questions asked. Anyhow, I wanted Cepro. It is the strongest. It kills everything from anthrax to the clap. Seriously. It is good to have around, but NOT good to take unless you really need it as it is hell on the kidneys and liver. I theorized that I am naturally a scrawny lass, thus I cannot afford to really go more than two days without food and drink, and I warranted that if by the morning of Day 3 I was not completely well, I would pop a Cepro. So I did. We'll see how it goes. I am aware that you are supposed to take the entire recommended doses, but Cepro scares me a bit, so I have only taken one. If I get sick again then I'll take the whole schedule of doses. I promise. Or maybe I'll go to a clinic and actually get diagnosed.
I am sitting outside Liz's hostel room right now. It is beautiful except for the three brokedown mattresses on top of the roof. There is a b&w cat on the roof, too. She is staring at me trying to decide if I am good company.