Partying while abroad? Use caution

while in Peru, I accidentally drank some dirty tap water and, of course, got very sick. No, I didn’t drink this water on purpose – I’m not so needy as to ingest the cramp-cocktail for sympathy. Needless to say, I could hardly eat anything, but with the help of my new super girlfriends, I made it from Arequipa to Cusco without dying on our night bus.

And so the adventure begins for these three super girls. Upon arrival, I curled up into a little ball on my hostel bed and prayed for death while the girls got ready to go out and party. I was in too much pain to feel even an ounce of jealousy.

While I’m usually the one who insists everyone stay out and keep partying until the wee hours of the night, I got slightly concerned when my sistah friends hadn’t arrived home when I awoke at 7 a.m. Fortunately the girls strolled into our hostel room an hour later. Exhausted, they dropped onto my bed to tell me what had happened.

All three of the girls had decided to dance on the bar at a club. One of them lost her balance and fell, face first, into the cement. People in the club crowded around, but with the help of some sexy Peruvians, they managed to carry her to two hospitals until they found a place that would stitch up the nasty cut on the side of her face. In fact, when she took off to her next city, she still couldn’t feel the right side of her face. Suddenly my violent water pains don’t seem so bad, right?

The moral of this story? It can be dangerous to party without me, anywhere in the world. In all seriousness, try not to get carried away while you’re abroad. Although you’re far from home and may get more wild than you normally would, don’t go overboard. Be careful and keep yourself safe. If necessary, drink the water to keep yourself out of trouble like I did!

I came across many places throughout the rest of my travels in South America that encouraged people to get up and dance on the bar. I now better know due to the cautionary tale of my face-planting friend, and without being too much of a ‘Debbie Downer’ I try to encourage others to just think about their choices before jumping up there after twenty beers.