We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. We had the local and traditional rice and beans with cheese which was lovely.
On the flight from Manchester I had noticed my throat getting itchy and I was anxious that I might have some sort of bug. It had got worse and I had started with a bit of a fever and headache so the temperature was making me feel even worse. The comfort of air conditioning was disguising my symptoms.
We took our bike boxes to reception as they are going to look after them for four weeks until we return.
Just getting the tandem down in the lift my shirt was soaking it was so warm at 0800.
Once we got outside it was even hotter, after about 20mins our shirts were dripping.
Coming out of Liberia is not pretty, there is litter etc that you see in every city.
We started to climb up getting closer to the national park and I was feeling worse and worse.
The arm sleeves we wore so happily in Canada to protect us from the sun just baked you in the close heat. Hats just warmed your head. There were not many places to get a bit of shade or even stop for a breather. I was feeling dizzy and just needed to stop.
We knew there was a little village in the distance and there were options for cabinas. We found a house that would put us up in a very basic one.
Once we were in the room we dumped the bike and walked up to the supermarket and got something to eat. We then walked to a place where we planned to get tea, but I was feeling too ill and just wanted to lay down so we went back to the room.
Rachael set up her mosquito net but I don’t think it was required as the room was surprisingly free from bugs of any sort.
The family that we stopped with could not have been more welcoming. They kept on coming down to cabina giving us more items to make the room more comfortable.
I woke this morning feeling a bit better, but during the course of the day I get worse. We got our breakfast of rice and beans at the local soda and made a plan for the day. I suggested that we detour and enter the national park to find a hotel. The plan is to stop at the hotel a couple of nights to recover from this bug.
This is the hotel Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin & Adventure Center
And what a place to recover. It has hot springs, not sure if that is a good thing in this heat but we will find out. But it has a nice cool pool and from here we can walk to various waterfalls etc.
So that is where we are now. By the pool writing this update.
We are here a couple of nights and that gives me time to plan a suitable route to get back on track.
