I did not take my own advice and start probiotics two weeks before I came to Havana, and from midnight yesterday to this moment I’ve felt like I was going to die because I’ve been so sick – Like the kind where you shiver from fever and your whole body hurts and you can’t even get up because the room spins… I seriously contemplated the Cuba medical system for a while. But instead I slept for about 15 hours and sipped water when I could manage it, and by golly, I think I’m going to survive. Good thing, because tomorrow I meet up with Ernesto Guevara, and I would feel pretty stupid if I threw up on his bike. I pulled myself together to come out looking for a pharmacy, which are all closed. But a nice security guard gave me some chewable tablets of something that tastes like an antacid – so I gave him a buck and didn’t have the heart to tell him I’m well past the antacid stage. Moral of this story – even if you are only eating in restaurants, take probiotics before 3rd world countries. I didn’t this time, and it’s the first time I’ve been sick when traveling in a decade. And it sucks.
