reliving the scariest day of my life

email to my father
(no subject)
May 26 8:19AM

first off, i am COMPLETELY safe now. in cusco. about to take first hot shower in two weeks. then i wrote an explanation of yesterday, pòssibly scarier.

´"i spoke too soon. the stomach worsened and i wasnt abole to keep any
food or water down for 3 days. really scary. no hospital around. of
course the border is closed due to protestors, but i wanted to get to
peru asap for a good hospital. but we had to take this 9,5 hr refugee
style boat across the lake to puno. it was so crazy, they led a big
group of us down to a marshland, no dock, set up a immigrations
desk in the tulles and at 7am a boat showed up. all the while i was
tooo weak to lift my backpack couldnt even think, crying. THANK GOD there was a doctor in line by us who gavce me a pill and within an hour i kept down sips opf water, the first in 3 days, my mouth hurt from dehy,
then puffed rice and a half banana. it no longer felt like someone with
sharp fingernails was wringing out my stomach like a washcloth.
obviously still didnt feel great, but didnt think i was dying. 9.5 hrs
later we arive in puno, a city full of 10000 protestors. great. all
the roads are bloackad and stores closed. the protesters march by our
hostel about once an hour. but were safe in here and i feel completely
mostly better and am feeding myself. and have another one of those pills in case. ate a full pesto ravioli dinner and big breakfast and am feeling good. now we have to get out of this city. love you"

at immigrations in puno we had to bang on a metal opverhead for 10minut4es until they let us in. scary protestors, throwing stones, concrete. all day and night. all streets out of town blockaded. everyone said no way out. we climbed a huuuuge steep hill for over an hour in the 4000m altitude trying to see f we could walk out. got to the to p and were told we weer in unsafe area there was no way out and should turn around. found a group of police officers who we bribed to take their friends cars to take us out, but we had to pay kind of alot and convince them since it was likely their windows would be smashed. we drove off roading and around blockades, ducking. then we hit the real blockade of the main highway. they were going to let us out, saying there would be more cars on the other side then we saw the blockade moving they were running towards our two cars. then they were sprinting, throwing huge blocks of concrete. i thought we were going to die. the cops turning on the car and spun off into a country farm road well not a raod, but a path thing. we watched the protesters through the rear window still runninf towards us throwing the concrete and holding huge sticks. we drove on the dirt farm roads for about an hour, asking evey country person we saw where the roads we safe o get to juliaca, the next own where there would be buses to cusco. finally we made it to julicaca. got on a bus for 8hrs driving through a beautiful lightning storm, and got here to cusco, at 3am where we are safe, fed and my belly is well. no injuries. i honesly cant believe the amount of luck that was involved in this. but also feel we were very smart in the decision making, the protests were supposed to be worsening and the protestors had announced they wanted a few dead people. wouldnt an american death be a priz. going to tootle around cusco today and just relax and enjoy the feeling of being alive and healthy. then to sacred valley maybe in a couple days. train to macchu piccu on the 1st. . love you, em
so much
glad to be safe and feel me made some very good wuick decisions, helped with luck lovelovelove em