Weekly Photo Challenge: Carefully Climbing with Chikungunya

The Weekly Photo Challenge is Careful.
 Ron and I planned a 40th wedding anniversary trip to Guatemala. The morning before we left, we both had a relapse of Chikungunya. I won’t go into all the debilitating details. You can read my post on Chikun…What? However, let me say that we both mastered the ‘walk like a zombie’ for Halloween. We tried to change our airline tickets, but it was prohibitively expensive. So, we sucked it up and hobbled to the airport with delicate painful baby steps.

Guatemala, is not a place to visit with Chikungunya. The cobblestone streets of Antigua were painfully difficult for our swollen ankles. We calculated every step carefully.

We laboriously climbed stairs and steep hills around Lake Atitlan.
Then, the storm arrived and our prudently planned vacation with Chikungunya terminated in a hellish ride over the mountains.

The morning we left Lake Atitlan, it was pouring rain and thick fog blanketed the mountains we had to pass over to get back to Antigua.
We had meticulously cared for our painful and swollen joints, but were sorely unprepared for the trip over the bumpy and steep roads. These photos were taken a few days before our final trip when we visited a market in Santa Clara along the same road. It was impossible for me to get any photos the day we left for Antigua.

I stopped counting at 32 switchbacks in the dreadfully bumpy and foggy roads. I would have bitten my fingernails, but with Chikungunya, my knuckles refused to bend.  Anxious and fretful, I put my life in the hands of the driver, whom I hoped was careful and conscientious. This is the best photo I could take to show our ride.
After three and a half hours we arrived safely, if not a bit disheveled, in Antigua thanks to a thoroughly experienced and professional driver.
We successfully climbed carefully with Chikungunya, but we really hope we never have to do it again. It was an interesting vacation with Chikungunya. Yet, in the words of Gertrude Stein, “If you are too careful, you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.” We stumbled a lot, but I am so glad we went. Guatemala is a beautiful country, but best traveled without Chikungunya.