Last week there was “The great relief“, to day it turned into a nightmare after all… Yesterday my eye turned all red again, same symptoms as last week, just worse… Kept me awake again last night until Sal brought some words of wisdom and took most of my worries away. To remove even the last little worries, I decided to swing by the hospital eye doctor again, just to make sure I was worrying about nothing again…

But no… this time I was not as lucky. The serious eye inflammation was back… Sadness… Postponing the trip has become inevitable… The inflammation ain’t the biggest problem right now, but apparently there is something more serious wrong with me, causing the eye inflammation. And that is what they will try and find now. They took 6 small tubes of blood for testing, and took x-ray pictures of my lungs for checking.

Scary thing now is that I could have a whole range of serious or less serious conditions… Don’t wanne think about that to much at the moment… the lung x-ray results will be there in 3 days, the blood tests could take “weeks”. Patience seems essential. But my worst feelings are not in any regards to my health. I know I have something, I know they are looking for it, I know they will fix it again. All good. But what does worry me a lot and makes me very sad is the fact we have to postpone the trip.

Even though there ain’t much I can do about it, I do feel quite guilty towards Sal. I know how much we both looked forward to this trip, we planned so much already and Sal took her leave without pay and probably can’t delay that… Many reasons to feel sad…

Oh, if anyone is curious about what an injection into your eye does to your eye… this is how my eye ended up after an injection of anti-inflammation medicine… Yes, not very sexy… :-)

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Pffff… what great relief. Yesterday afternoon my eye started getting more and more red, and with it, I got more and more worried. To the point where I couldn’t handle it anymore, and called the hospital directly. Well… that’s not allowed. So had to go back to my general practitioner (GP) first and get a referral… OK, called the doctors office but the assistant wouldn’t give the “go ahead”… So had to go see the GP in person. Strangely enough, my eye got less and less red the more time I was away from work… so when I finally got to the GP’s office, it was actually feeling quite good. Tiny little bit red, little bit painful, but in general much better then it had been…

But still, I was very worried. Hardly slept the night from Monday to Tuesday, the worrying was keeping me awake, and just didn’t wanne go through that again. All I wanted was for the hospital doctor to have a look, as he would be the only one would could really tell me what the problem was and take my worries away. Well, went to see the GP, got send to the hospital immediately, and half an hour in the emergency room later my worries were gone. Just a minor cornea irritation… Unfortunately for me, with almost the exact same discomforts as with my earlier eye problem. But it’s behind me now. What a relief… Slept like a baby last night! :-)

Plus I can put the focus back to the trip again! Got my new camera yesterday, a lovely IXUS 850 IS. Now just going to invest in an extra battery, so I can’t run out of power on the Inca Trail! As I don’t believe I can send my porter back to charge the battery for me! ;-)

Did get the hotel (Hotel Gomero) booked for Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as the locals seem to call it. Only thing left is a hotel for the first week in Santiago. Well… only thing… that, and a ton of administrative stuff, additional travel gear, sorting travel insurance, etc., etc. … But fortunately nothing that can’t be sorted in time before I leave! :-)

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Scary day today. My left eye didn’t feel all that well today, and I got very worried the problems that hit my left eye by the end of last year were back… And as being back would mean there is something somewhat serious wrong with me. That’s not the biggest worry, as that can be fixed either way, but it would most likely also mean postponing the trip… and that would suck big time! Especially now we paid and booked the tickets a couple of days ago.

But, so far so good. Went to the doctor and got yet again the classic: “See what happens, if it get worse, come back” … So guess there is not much else to do then just that. Somewhat comforting is that I had somewhat similar issues a week and a half ago, ignored them as much as possible and a day later they were gone… so hopefully it will work out the same way this time! Have to try and stay positive! :-)

As I had the appointment in the afternoon, and the plan was the contact the vaccination office today, I managed to combine the to. So after seeing the doctor, I was off to the hospital to get some advice on the vaccinations I will need for our trip to South America. Funny enough Sally got her shots as well today. She got three in total. I was expecting somewhat of the same, as I looked it up on a travel information website and it turned out I mainly needed: Yellow fever, Hepatitis A and DTP (a three in one shot to cover Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio). Knowing Sal got 3 shots, I thought that would be enough for me as well… I was wrong…

Clearly wrong, as I left with 4 shots in my body and have to go back next week for another 4, have to get an extra 2 in either Sydney or Santiago and have to get a final one somewhere in September… that’s 11 in total!!! Ok, little difference that they pushed me to get the Rabies shots as well, what are 3 in total, but that still leaves me with getting 5 more (!!) shots then Sally…. Mmmmm… That gives to think… Is the Australian healthcare system that much more advanced then the Dutch one? That they are able to reduce the same number of shots by 5? Stunning!

Another stunning thing was the price! A lovely 230 euro for 8 shots! K-tjingg!!! OK, let’s finish with at least one positive thing about the Dutch vaccination office at the hospital, I left without any sign of pain, where Sally could hardly move her left arm after her visit! Guess 5 shots less come with a certain price as well! ;-)

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With me being in London last the week for work, most of the planning for the trip is coming down on Sally’s shoulders. Not that we aim to plan or book that much ahead, but for some things it’s quite essential. The 4 day Inca trail hike we want to do towards Machu Picchu, we have to book very early, as we will require a permit to hike on the Inca trail. And these permits are hard to get. The government only gives out a limited amount to not damage the trail to much. No clue what that number is, but hopefully it’s small enough so we don’t charge up the trial with hundreds of people on our day of the hike.

Similar problem occurs on our trip to the Galapagos Islands. To really experience the beauty of the Islands a Cruise is said to be essential. Only same as with the trail, places are limited, so book early. As Sally and I are meeting up with Sal’s two sisters in South America, and we will travel our last weeks together, so booking 4 places on the spot for both events could prove impossible.

So Sal has done an absolutely amazing job arranging the tours, and matching our round-the-world-ticket flights around them. That might sound easy, but does involve a hell of a lot of work; endless number of phone calls, emails, checking with and updating sisters and boyfriend, etc., etc. My involvement was only acknowledging her great work.

But now I had time to have a look at the tour packages, I finally have some input for her! Our Inca trail porter! :-) For US$ 45 you can hire a porter that caries 9kg for you up and down the Inca trail. OK, maybe not essential, but probably quite welcome when hiking at an altitude of 3500m. Plus who am I to deny the locals their work? It must be a good thing to support the local community!

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With the new year well on it’s way, it’s been way to long I haven’t written on the blog. *shame, shame, shame* As always after a long period of blog-silence, a lot has happened and there is a lot to catch up on. Let’s try the nutshell version for now! :-)

The first 2 weeks of December were not that exciting, working in Holland. Then the excitement started by flying to Australia for Christmas and New Years! Quite a journey to get to Canberra, leaving midday on the 15th, getting to Melbourne at 2200 on the 16th and not being able to get to Canberra until the next morning. No flights to Canberra later then 2100, so I was forced to spend a night at an airport motel. Other option was to take the night bus… but I wasn’t to keen on sitting in a bus for about 10 hours, after being in a plane for 24! :-)

Australia was yet again great! First the lovely Batten family lunch just after I arrived in Canberra. Sal’s birthday dinner at a lovely restaurant and then on to Melbourne for Christmas and Ashes cricket at the MCG. Up to Sydney for New Years eve, some snorkelling at Manly beach and back to Canberra for the final days of the trip. And such a great trip it was yet again.

Coming home was hard though… Arrived on Monday at 1900 and got up at 0600 on Tuesday to get back to work… Outch… that was rough… but actually worked out great! The plan was to ignore the jetlag and get straight back into the working rhythm. No point in postponing the inevitable. And now work is almost over again. My contract ends on the end of February, and the travelling life awaits again!

Early March I will fly back to Australia, and then together with Sally we will fly to South America a short week later. We plan to start in Chile, travel down the continent, back up to Buenos Aires and then go onto Peru to do the Inca Trail and see Machu Picchu and finally see the Galapagos islands before flying back to Europe. That’s the plan so far. Not much and still very flexible. We only have a ticket reservation so far, but even that is not holding back the planning!

Because even though we don’t have a “real” ticket to Santiago in Chile yet, I did book a flight already to Easter Island! Very excited about that one! As a little Bert I got very fascinated when reading about those big statues on an island truly in the middle of nowhere! How did the people get there? Why build those statues? In many ways I am very excited to go there and see my fascination come to life! So whatever happens, happens.

But if you are looking for me, I will be on Easter Island from the 20th till the 27th of March! :-)

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