I’ve been in South America for about eight weeks, staying in seven different Airbnb’s in three different cities. This pattern is a big change from what I had been doing for a long time. Previous to this trip I’d stay in one place and have a lot of comforting routines: my daily work, food, and bed.
I started to notice a pattern after making my last two moves down here: I’d feel hung over, with headaches, bodyaches, lack of appetite, and would stay in bed for up to 36 hours, after my travel day. After the first few times it happened I thought I had caught a virus, or the flu. Once it happened again here in Cartagena it was clear to me that it was stress related. “Don’t worry Bruce, its all in your head!”. 🤕
There have been several times on the farm when I’ve been stressed. I’ve done simple breathing exercises to lessen the headaches - take a deep breath through my nose, holding it as long as I can (during this time the pounding in my temples stops), then slowly release my breath through my mouth. I never really associated travel with stress, but the same symptoms are showing up in my body while traveling.
So for the last 15 minutes I’ve done those same breathing exercises and my headache has started to fade, almost 48 hours after landing in Cartagena. I’m glad I’ve found a way to feel normal, though I feel kind of embarrassed about the whole thing.
[two hours later]
Once I was feeling better I went out and had a late lunch at Zistaki Cocina Árabe y Mediterránea. Nice healthy food.
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Tomorrow I’m going to visit the Historic Center and, among other things, try to find some information for my friend Teresa who wants to take a cargo ship through the Canal de Dique (shown in red below) to the Magdalena River. It sure is ambitious, I’ll give her that! But then again this is a woman who recently did anthropological field work on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (!?!).
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