Less Danger, More Blood

If you're a thorough reader of our blog, you'll remember that we were attacked by a guy with a knife during the first half of our trip but came out unscathed.  On the other hand, we somehow managed to complete 2 extremely difficult and fairly perilous day hikes without more incident than dehydration, exhaustion, back spasms, and achy muscles.  Having expended my luck on those hikes, I took a hard fall on a marble staircase in Spain and bruised my ankle bone, forearm, and calf pretty badly.  

While I healed up from that after a few weeks, the second half of our trip has been marked by a few more challenges.  I landed in bed with dysentery for a few days in Morocco and then missed all of our beach days in Sri Lanka as I recovered from an extremely painful double ear infection.  I may or may not have had an allergic reaction to some Japanese fish last night.  Hard to say, as breaking out in head-to-toe hives is not an entirely uncommon experience for me. 

Marcus, who is generally immune to everything, is the one with the most dramatic-seeming injuries on our trip so far, however.  Hiking in the Sri Lankan jungle means exposure to leeches, and damn if those suckers didn't love the taste of Marcus.  No matter how much leech spray we covered him in, they kept eating through his shoes and socks and shirts and pants.  Their saliva has anti-coagulating properties, so once you're bleeding, it's really hard to get it to stop.  Took us 2 days and half of my first-aid kit to stem the tide from his wounds.  

We've got just about 10 days left of our trip.  Keep your fingers crossed for it to be injury and illness free!

BLOODY SHIRT FROM MARCUS'S FIST FIGHT WITH SRI LANKAN LEECHES (*NOT FROM OUR KNIFE FIGHT WITH MOROCCAN GANGS)

BLOODY SHIRT FROM MARCUS'S FIST FIGHT WITH SRI LANKAN LEECHES (*NOT FROM OUR KNIFE FIGHT WITH MOROCCAN GANGS)