Saturday, June 25

No, fuck me. Those weren’t chiggers. I woke up in the middle of the night clawing at my armpits. Those were no insect bites. I had hives everywhere except my face.

Why do I do such stupid things? I was smart enough to ask whether the milk was pasteurized, but not smart enough not to drink it. I had a milk allergy as a child and this crossed my mind when I was offered the milkshake. But, I have not been allergic to milk for nearly 30 years. Well, it turns out I have not been allergic to pasteurized and homogenized milk for nearly 30 years. The natural stuff—not so much.

Also, my ear is clogged. Terribly clogged. I think it happened on the bus ride down because I wore headphones going from La Cumbre to Chulumani. More stupidity. Well, whatever it is, I can’t really hear from my left ear.

So, to summarize, I am leaking from the back end. I am covered in hives. I can’t hear. If I typed this into Google, would leprosy come up?

I still hiked around the grounds for a little bit in the morning, finally getting a picture of Blue-and white swallow and a better picture of Red-billed Parrot. Along with the ubiquitous Marble-faced Bristle-tyrant, I also found a female Antshrike.

While I was stomping about, a man was supposed to be purchasing my ticket and returning to the lodge to pick up for the bus ride back to La Paz. He was late. Very late and it was looking like I would miss my bus. In fact, he was still in town. The lodge quickly called a car to pick me up. The driver attempted to make time by sliding through every corner and switchback on the dirt road to town. I would have preferred to miss my bus, frankly. But, I made it because the guy charged with buying the ticket basically stood in front of the bus to prevent them from leaving without me.