Yet Another Great Reason to Get Travel Insurance

This is what kidney stones look like. It's a great way to enjoy new sensations and experiences with your body, and to get to know the joys of a Peruvian hospital on a holiday such as Easter. Thanks, Kidney Stones!!

This past weekend was one for the books! Pretty much everybody I knew was out of town, which left me to my own devices for the entire 4-day weekend. I planned a host of productive endeavors (beading! baking! cleaning! sight-seeing!) to keep myself occupied.

The marathon 'o fun began on Thursday. While I was sitting in the cab, some lovely man decided to stick his hand in the window, grab me and try to steal my stuff. Luckily I escaped unscathed and with enough adrenaline to run a marathon.

That pretty much deflated my enthusiasm to get out into those crowds in neighborhoods I don't know and partake in the Semana Santa (Holy Week) activities. Saturday I recovered my will and went and saw an Incan pyramid that is located in Lima. The best part was, of course, the hairless dog. I really liked this one, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me because I was still paranoid from Thursday. I might have to revisit it because this dog is running a close second to the first hairless dog I met.

I'll spare you the gory details of Sunday, but basically I spent most of the day in the hospital trying to figure out what was going on with me. Luckily I wasn't in too much pain and after I had the echogram (ultrasound) we determined that I didn't need to be hospitalized.

Most of the day I was overwhelmed to be sitting alone in a hospital in a foreign country, not knowing what was wrong and trying to speak in Spanish to the doctors and nurses. However, there was a part of me that was thinking 'what an adventure!' and so the day was not completely lost.

(I'd like to do a little advert here for travel insurance (www.worldnomads.com). My little ordeal cost me several hundred dollars which will all be reimbursed. Phew! The insurance has been worth it - don't leave home without it, because even healthy people can get sick!)

Unfortunately, I had to miss out on a work trip this week. We were going to go over the Andes, stopping in a beautiful mountain town called Tarma and continuing down to the coffee plantations in Chanchamayo, the beginnings of the Amazon jungle. Thankfully I'm not in too much pain (as of now) so I'm praying that the situation will peacefully remedy itself.

Well, I hope your holiday was a tad better than mine and that you had a chance to reflect upon and appreciate the significance of the day!

And thanks always for taking the time to read my blog. I really appreciate it! Feel free to leave a comment if you feel so inclined!