From: Tomer Morad [tomer_morad@hotmail.com] Sent: éåí ųėéųé 16 āåũčåáø 2001 18:44 To: tomer_morad@hotmail.com Subject: Rafting Hi all! The next ephisode after the Machu Pichu is the Rafting. The rafting was absolutely fabulous, amazing, great, all the superlatives! The first day and the last days were the best! So here goes: Before we start i would like to share with you my latest stategy on entering discos without paying... So the night before the rafting I went to the disco mama africa. As I approched the enterance, the guard looked at me. When he noticed that i keep walking, he said Hola. His face was saying someything like: Hi, this is mama africa, you have to pay here. You have to pay for discos. Where do you think you are going. Who do you think you are? Come here you white tourist. Pay! Pay! So I replied with Hola, and my face was saying: Hi! I am Israeli. I donīt pay for discos. Actually I donīt pay for anything in cuzco. I expect everything for free. Move away you indian! go worship the moon! go worship the sun! Move! Move! And it works... The next time I went we didnīt even exchange the holas.... So about the rafting, the first day we got there after driving five hours. I went with an israeli company, so I know what standards to expect. The standards were israeli alright, the bus was lacking shock absorvers and we all felt a little sick... When we got to the river, we started pedalling and learning all the commands. It was really fun. After that we made camp, tents, fire, and ate dinner. The dinner included chicken, soup and other treats. The last day was also good. We pedalled through some nice and fast rappids and got very wet. some even flew from the boat. So thatīs it... well, not quite. Seems I forgot about the second and third day... So at the night of the first day I started feeling the chicken talking to me from my stomache... I know that the next day will be a ĻhappyĻ day... Finally in the morning, we woke up. I started feeling dizzy and weak. Then I wanted to throw up. I told the guide, maybe I can walk back and take a bus back to the city. His reaction was Ļforget it man, you canīt do that. It is not possible to walk backĻ. He gave me two pills in order for me to throw up, which I did after 40 minutes. Suddenly I felt better and I started paddeling. What a mistake.... After 30 minutes we had to walk a little to avoid a dangerous part in the river. I was exhausted... I found a rock and laid there for 15 minutes, dehydrated, weak, with no ability to walk.... Finally the guides came to my rescue... My situation was si bad that I told them: Thatīs it. I am through. Get me a chopper and get me the hell out of this hole to a hospital. The guide said that because we are in a deep and narrow canyon a chopper canīt land in the canyon. You will have to finish the four days.... :( They helped me walk. Helped means carrying... So they carried me to the boat. Then I of course threw up again... Next thing I know i was on the cargo boat as cargo going down the river. Finally we arrived to camp, where i could rest. I went into the tent and didnīt go out... I was very week, but that didnīt interest my partners very much. They wanted my energy! I had to share my last bits of energy with my partners! my partners were of course the thousands of mosquitos there that bit me. I look now like a big mosquito bite... The funny thing is the repellant lotion. You try to helplessly fight the mosquitos with the lotion. It really does make the mosquitos laugh... Oh yea, i now remember a smart sentence from an israeli girl there: Donīt worry, there are no mosquitos at night! You should see her body now... Just when i thought it couldnīt get any worse, it started raining. So I closed my tent, even though it was very confined and i wanted to breath normal air. Then came the fever.... I was shaking in order to get warmer... So you think this is the lowest it gets?? think again. Next thing i know the tent collapsed on me. It was still raining so i started to get wet. First i tried to ignore it, but it became too wet. I had no luck fixing the tent so i woke up the guides... Their reaction was, oh yea, that tent was broken... Israeli standards... Eventually I slept next to the guides in a big open tent, so it was ok... All i could think about is how the chopper can manouver itself inside the canyon to come and get me.... Of course I didnīt think about it all the time, as I had to think about where my next place to throw up will be and how I will get there... The next day in the morning i gave up on saying no to antibiotics. Finally I started taking some pills, even though I didnīt know what they were. This day was a little better. I was (sleeping) on the cargo boat. I only woke up when I got wet... The night was much better, and in the next morning i felt better, pedalling. Now that Iīm back in Cuzco, I am now under close medical attention of a peruvian idol doctor... I had a blood test and am waiting for the results. So the rafting was fabulous, magnificant, all the superlatives... Very recommended!!! Best regards to you all! Tomer. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp