First we said goodbye to Shrina, Indu, Kate and Brooke for their Amazon adventure, it turned out later Brooke had to miss the Amazon trip due to being sick, another reminder how lucky I was to not get sick when doing something major. I understand a doctor had to assist Brooke. While I still wasn’t 100% I wanted to get out and walk around to force my body to start operating again, Karen was happy to take me on a shopping tour of the city.

Andrew indicated he wanted a day by himself which turned out to mostly be sleeping in to noon, going down to McDonalds and then doing a little exploring. He deserved the break after such a long and at times hectic holiday; I think Andrew will turn out to be a traveller.

I met Karen for the hotel breakfast but could only manage the orange juice. Hopefully by walking around I’ll get back my hunger and eat some food. The centre square is close to our hotel and after Karen checked out the high class shops for jewellery and I withdraw some additional money we set off to explore this city. There was one food market which almost made me sick just looking at it; I don’t see myself trusting any of this food. Now Karen is a great negotiator, many a time she got items for less than 50% of the original price, this included getting ponchos for Andrew and myself and a great little gift for myself to take home (a stone llama). I only needed to use the local bano (toilet) once and pushed though feeling tired so much so that we walked around for over 5.5 hours. We finished our shopping tour at a pub overlooking the main square and ordered a late lunch which I couldn’t really eat (Andrew finished what I bought back later). During the day I both Karen and I touched on a lot of personal subjects and I found myself enjoying her warm company and insights. I was very happy I pushed myself for this walk and I’m sure it will help me recover.