Bel & Salta: Part 2 - Bronchitis + Spa day

So here I am. I survived my second night in Salta.

I woke up feeling bad, but not worse than yesterday.

I was supposed to visit like 3 museums today. Instead I walked the same 5 blocks than yesterday...

I took a guided tour in the Cabildo...

And you can see from my face that I feel better than yesterday!

Although it took me like 5 minutes to recover from the stairs
(historical building means no elevator)

I got kicked out from the Cabildo because they were closing and I was taking too much time to take pictures of me...
So, I did some walking around the main square...

50 meters is all my bronchitis and I can walk before moaning like a dying cow...
So, I chose this quiet spot to have lunch outdoors, before taking a cab to Villa San Lorenzo where I booked a day spa :)
(Originally I was taking a bus, but... 8 blocks to bus stop is more than my bronchospasms and I can take)

Normally, in 4 hours of hot stones massage, jacuzzi and sauna, I would have taken more pictures of me getting pampered, but it takes too much effort and oxygen!

So, this is the only picture you`ll see!

Bel & Salta: Part I - Bronchitis + Fever :(

I arrived yesterday afternoon feeling so bad that i just wanted to get into the turbin and get over my agony ;)
What was supposed to be an oasis in the middle of my stressfull year, turned out to be hell in form of vacations.

I had a throatsoare for a couple of days but didn´t feel really bad until yesterday when I was flying to Salta.

I got my ticket after acumulating miles in the OneWorld Mileage Program and it was not refundable so here I am.

Anyway, If I knew I was going to feel this bad, I had never left home...

I´m all alone here... feeling like a dying cow...

So, I was telling you how I boarded the plane feeling crap. I slept most of the flight and started to feel agitated. I couldn´t sleep well, I couldn´t breath, I couldn´t talk... Crap, crap, crap!

I never get sick, but well, I´m sick.

I took a cab in the airport to the city right to my hostel.

I ussually stays in hostels. I think it doesn´t make any sense to spend looots of many in a hotel if you are going there just to sleep. But this was not the case...This was going to be different.

The hostel was nice, an old house, probably from the colonnial times, with a nice courtyard in the middle. I booked a private room, with private bathroom, that was just ok. I had my own desk to sit and write my postcards, and use my laptop... It would have been perfect if it wasn´t for the humidity you could feel in the air.

As soon as I get to the hostel, I lay down in bed for half an hour. I felt exhausted!

After a while, I took all my strength to walk to main square and grab a bite. Those 3 blocks felt endless... I got agitated every two steps and I have to make a pause almost every block.

The city looks great in the evening. The main square is quite crowded since it´s surrounded by restaurants and bars. I took a short walk around it, grab some tourist brochures and then sit in a bar, to have some empanadas de carne. I ordered some tea and try to inhalate tha vapor to breath better. It worked but only for a short time.

I wanted to visit some tourist offices but I didn´t feel like walking anymore.

When I got to the hotel, it turned out was feverish.

I went to bed and spent a crappy night, shivering and hating myself for pretending being a brave girl that travel alone.

This morning I felt even worse. My fever had gone up, I couldn´t breathe at all and I almost panicked. Last night I was already planing to go to the doctor , but not like this! Not feeling this bad...

So, I called my med insurance to find out about my coverage in the city and it turned out I had a private clinic only a few blocks from the hostel. Great!

It took me around 45 minutes to walk 6 blocks. I´m not kidding. I had to walk slowly and make constant pauses.

People from Salta and the Northwestern region in Argentina is well known for taking life easy, taking naps and living life slowly, one short slow step at a time.

Well, I was walking even slower than them!

Anyway, the doctor checked me and it turned out I have bronchitis and spasms. That makes sense! It explains how bad I´m breathing and how much I get agitated for nothing. It explains how much I want to cry every step I make.

So, the doctor prescribed me lots of medicines, and a spray for the spasms. But I have hypertension and it turned out my cardiologist prevented me from taking that spray... So here I am still moaning like a dying cow. I was suggested not to move, not to walk, just to rest and forget about my holidays...

But, after resting for the entire day I felt better. So, I took a short walk around the main square, once again, and I realized it was the only thing I´ve seen from the city. So, I visited some tourist offices and made some research about the tours:

All the spots I wanted to visist in Salta and this region have high altitude. And you know... more altitude equals less oxygen. Ohhh, I´m so pissed off...

But well, I booked some tours anyway. I was more conservative in terms of the altitude, and rule out some of the options. And, I ordered the tours according to the altitude they covered. The Cafayate wineries is the lowest point so it would be the first one, the Salinas (Salt Plains), the highest would be the last one, and I placed Cachi, in the second day of tours.

Of course, I´m not suicidal, so I´m doing nothing tomorrow... Well, not nothing. I will walk again around the main square! Again! That would be in the morning. And in the afternoon... I booked a spa day!

Well, this is it for now... Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling better.

So that you can see how bad I look, Im sharing some pics of today!

Wish me luck and a fast recovery!

Cheers,

Bel

Bel & Ecuador: Part 6: Montañita

If I start my post with a picture like this, I guess you can imagine what happened!

We got a flat tire!

On the way back from Salinas, to Montañita, we started to hear a strange noise... and yep... we got a flat tire... We couldn´t stop at the moment because it was a dark curvy road (no wonder!), so we stop about 10 kilometres further, on the first town we saw.

There was no car assistance spot, and we had never changed a tire. I knew how to do it, theoretically, but thankfully an old guy show up and helped us.

We gave him a good tip and continue driving to Montañita.

The morning after we went to have our tire fix. Actually, the guy almost had to reconstruct it, hehe

It was rainy in Montañita, but we felt happy to be back...

We got together with a bunch of travelers and set a fire on th beach. It was so fun! Of course we took the proper precautions.

We had dinner in my favourite place: Tiki Taka, and then... headed to a party!

But I started to feel bad, so I went to bed early.

It turned out I got food poisoned. Or maybe my body just couln´t tolerate any more pineapple juice.

The following morning I sent some postcards and headed to the airport!

Bye bye Ecuador!

We had a blast!

I hope to be back soon!

Bel & Ecuador: Part 5: Montañita & Salinas

We left Puerto Rico in the morning and made a few stopts before reaching Montañita.

One of the places we visited was Olon, where is a sanctuary of a local virgin. The sanctuary is made of sea stones and shelves.

Quite rare, right?

Oh, you can see our car parked just next to the sanctuary :)

The place had a nice view of the ocean...

It´s a shame the days were cloudy, and grey...

So, we kept driving to Montañita. The hotel was nice. It was the most expensive hotel in town. It had a swimming pool and a jacuzzi :) For $22 per night, we were like royalty in Montañita.

We left our luggage in our room and went to grab some lunch.

I was asking Mechi to take a picture of me with a banana track, when we saw Cecilia and Tamara! Remember how we met them in Baños the week before? We were supposed to meet two nights after in Quito, but we confused our itinerary and we were not staying in Quito for the arranged night. We had no contact number or emails to let them know and felt very sorry about missing them... So... we found them there!

They had just arrived, so we walked around the town together. The town is actually really small. It has like 5 or 6 blocks and that´s it. But it´s so nice, and everyone is happy and easygoing.

So, we went to the beach and took a long walk.

Then we met again for dinner.

The following morning it was also cloudy but we enjoyed the beach anyway.

We walked again along the beach and then found a great restaurant called Tiki Taka (or something like that).

I had a great salad with peanut sauce, that was just delicious!

We found the girls later and went out for drinks...

Have you noticed how we are still wearing bathing suits? Well, that´s the way to go in Montañita...

We did got changed after that and went to a club.

Actually, we went to "the" Club. Its called Caña Grill and its the hottest place in town.

We met a bunch of guys from Ecuador, and we joined them...

The morning after, it was time to drive South to Salinas... Time to say goodbye to Montañita...

This time we asked Cecilia and Tamara for their phone numbers and emails to stay in touch. They were also going to Salinas the same day...

The road was much better at this part... or maybe is that we were just used to the terrible conditions :)

We saw some salt fields, that are the ones that give the city "Salinas" its name.

We saw lots of beer advertising. It´s funny how the ad says, Ecuatorianly refreshing...

We had lunch on a nice bar we saw in front of the beach...

It was cloudy, again! But we headed to the beach...

Anyway, we realized Montañita was much better. People were not that nice in Salinas. The city was big but without personality.

So, we booked a boat tour and saw some interesting birds with blue legs!

Then, we got bored and realized the next 2 days were going to be really boring if we stayed there! We called Cecilia and Tamara to see what they were up to... Maybe they had found a better spot in the city that was worth watching... But, they didn´t! They told us they were already back in Montañita. They had also got bored and got back!

So we went back to the hotel, packed our belongings and left...

Montañita was waiting for us!