Regular readers will note that we didn´t leave Nasca on Friday night as planned. Well we`ve had a little adventure that changed our plans somewhat and resulted in me spending a couple of nights in a Peruvian hospital (no there weren´t any Peruvian bouncers involved).

I had been suffering a little for a few days, basically since we left Lima, with headaches and a fever and also a few tummy troubles but being the brave soldier that I am I´d continued to hurtle down sand-dunes on pieces of wood etc. However, as we were waiting for our bus on Friday night I had real pain in my stomach and (not sure how much details i should go into on a blog but we´re all friends aren`t we) I´d passed some blood. So off to Nasca hospital I went.

The first thing to say is that from to guy in the bus station to the doctors, nurses and other staff they were all brilliant and treated me really well. I´d heard from other travellers about some of the luxury hospitals that can be found in Cusco etc with laptops and cable tv etc, well Nasca wasn`t quite that. The facilities are very basic, in fact they`re a bit scary, for example the toilets on the ward were the worst I´ve been in for a long time and that really is saying something given some of the places we`ve been with toilets leaking everywhere, overflowing rubbish bins and not a bar of soap etc to be seen. The ward was also very basic, and I was tucked into bed by the burse putting my coat under my head as a pillow, I guess if you can´t afford to fix the toilets you`re not going to splash out on pillows. A little aside, those at my 30th party will see from the picture above that the same company that makes fancy dress cow outfits in the UK provides hospital blankets in Peru. As with most hospitals in the world the nurses were run off their feet which meant on occassions they told me what my next treatment was so I could pass it on to the next shift, needless to say my Spanish doesn´t cover most medical terms but believe me I concentrated on what they were saying. As nobody in the hospital spoke English there were a couple of misunderstandings, perhaps the best being when Alison appeared with a plastic cup (which you have to buy yourself) telling me they needed a sample, off I toddled, drip trolley in hand, to the hell hole bathrooms and provided a cup full of pee. Which Alison then carried off to the desk (true love eh - well she did say yes) only to return shortly afterwards with the chilling words, wrong end. The video óne man, one cup`can be found on the internet. It was also a real experience as to how lucky we are to have an NHS, on the Saturday afternoon Alison had gone to sort hotels etc out when the medicine in my drip ran out, as Alison had all the money my treatment had to stop for a couple of hours until she returned to go and buy some more, one can imagine that some people don´t have all the treatment they really need as they can´t afford it.

After the doctor had had a poke around on Sunday I was discharged with a referral to a specialist in Arequipa who we visited this morning and I was given the all clear having suffered from a form of gastroenteritis which, so he says, is particularly aggressive in the coastal areas of Peru.

This was obviously one of the more interesting and challenging experiences we have had but I guess if you travel in these countries you have to take the rough with the smooth. It also is probably one of the best ways to see how the people of a country are and the staff, other patients and their families were all wonderful and I am truly grateful for their kindness.