a strange and not so pleasant pattern has emerged in my time in south america: every time i get to a capital city i seem to fall ill. it began in montevideo in uruguay when i remember spending two days in bed feeling like crap. buenos aires was the most persistent as i picked up a different illness on each of the three visits that i made there. i'll admit that whenever i didn't feel so good in asuncion it was usually self inflicted due to my excessive alcohol intake and irregular sleeping patterns - but it still counts. la paz was a particularly unpleasant place to catch a cold, due to the high altitude and low temperature. that was one of the worst times i've been stuck in bed in south america. lima was a close second, i think i caught something in cusco but it really stuck in the peruvian capital and that was another week where i couldn't do anything but rest and wait to recover. in ecuador most of my fluness was in latacunga but there was an overlap when i made it a few hours north to quito. in fact from memory i think santiago and bogota may be the only two exceptions. i only spent a few days in the chilean capital, and i think i managed to trick colombia as i didn't fall ill once in my 3+ months there. it must of had a word with venezuela as i've now been suffering for the last week with another goddamn cold. this time it's not in the capital, caracas, but a small village a few hours west called choroni. but this is where venezuela has been particularly sneaky. y'see i've decided that i'm not going to travel to caracas, a combination of high prices, not much money, questionable safety and not so amazing sights has put me off travelling there. i think my capital-city-curse took this into account and decided to fuck with my act of defiance. i'd admire this tenacity if i had the strength and energy to give admiration to a malevolent spell. alas i only have the energy to feel sorry for myself and wait for my shitty immune system to gently whirr back into life. man it's boring being ill.

here's the original

a strange and not so pleasant pattern has emerged in my time in south america: every time i get to a capital city i seem to fall ill. it began in montevideo in uruguay when i remember spending two days in bed feeling like crap. buenos aires was the most persistent as i picked up a different illness on each of the three visits that i made there. i'll admit that whenever i didn't feel so good in asuncion it was usually self inflicted due to my excessive alcohol intake and irregular sleeping patterns - but it still counts. la paz was a particularly unpleasant place to catch a cold, due to the high altitude and low temperature. that was one of the worst times i've been stuck in bed in south america. lima was a close second, i think i caught something in cusco but it really stuck in the peruvian capital and that was another week where i couldn't do anything but rest and wait to recover. in ecuador most of my fluness was in latacunga but there was an overlap when i made it a few hours north to quito. in fact from memory i think santiago and bogota may be the only two exceptions. i only spent a few days in the chilean capital, and i think i managed to trick colombia as i didn't fall ill once in my 3+ months there. it must of had a word with venezuela as i've now been suffering for the last week with another goddamn cold. this time it's not in the capital, caracas, but a small village a few hours west called choroni. but this is where venezuela has been particularly sneaky. y'see i've decided that i'm not going to travel to caracas, a combination of high prices, not much money, questionable safety and not so amazing sights has put me off travelling there. i think my capital-city-curse took this into account and decided to fuck with my act of defiance. i'd admire this tenacity if i had the strength and energy to give admiration to a malevolent spell. alas i only have the energy to feel sorry for myself and wait for my shitty immune system to gently whirr back into life. man it's boring being ill.

here's the original