About That Time A Dog Bit my Butt, and I Gained a New Family

Hi community! My name is Angeline, and I am excited to be here with you on steemit! I am new to the Blockchain sphere, but I’m happy

A little about myself? I am a 21 year old girl from southern France who is in a three-way love affair with traveling and NGOs. In fact, my dream job is that someday I would be to travel the world and open non-profits that help the local population. I hope that by then, that job would exist by then.

Today I wanted to share with you a small story about one of my most profoundly emotional adventures while I was traveling in the Tinajani canyons, near Cusco, Peru.

I hope you like it:

We arrive at the canyon at 5p.m right before dusk, at first our priority was to find a good place to sleep before nightfall, but those concerns immediately took a back seat to the breath-takingly marvelous landscape surrounding the canyons.

Sleeping under the stars on its own is mesmerizing on its own, and with such a magnetic landscape in front of us, we couldn’t have wished for a better trip.

On the drive by we decided to take a hitchhiker with us, in this case it was an elderly lady who seemed defenseless at first sight. But out of nowhere she started to warn us about some mysterious disappearances that apparently were a common theme in the area, according to her, mostly backpackers like us. She kept telling us stories about some tourists that went on a similar trip and never came back…

Oh, god! And just like that went from unique guests who had the exclusive beauty of canyons all for ourselves, to suddenly resemble those plain and predictable characters of a cheesy 80’s slasher where some college kids go on camping trip and then out of the sudden, they start to disappear one after the other. Always the blonde was first to go. The problem is:

I was the blonde.

Then she started to tell us all kinds of stories, about the Devil’s cave, about the misfortunes that awaits the adventurous tourists, about the evil spirits that inhabited the canyons…

Bad spirits my ass!

I didn’t even get to finish that thought and the Thunders started!

Ok, maybe we spoke too fast, maybe the old lady was on to something here. Maybe those evil spirits of darkness were in fact real and conspiring against us. Thunders and whatnot.

Soon after, we left the old lady at her home, and we started to look for a place to sleep under the stars, at first we didn’t seem to agree on a place, and then out of nowhere we started to argue with each other, get into each other’s faces almost.. Where did that come from?

With the unforgiving thunders compiling, open air was no longer an option, and so we started to search for a spot to take shelter from the impending storm that was upon us. We kept searching, anything that resembles four walls and a roof, maybe even a cave.

Just gotta hope it’s not that Devil cave she just mentioned.

As it turns out, cave hunting is not as easy as it sounds. But we were lucky enough to spot a little farm among the plains. My friends Marion and Carlos walked over there to ask them permission to sleep inside the empty cave nearby.

The kind ladies on the farm then started to generously suggest various options to us, the cave, the barn, or even inside the school that was located in the area.

Walking back to the car to get the rest of our stuff, we walked by a little barn where they raise their stock, we passed by sheep, goats, Alpacas and a lone horse. We stopped next to the kitchen to observe their little daughter gently petting their pooch in the cutest way possible.

That was so incredibly adorable!

Out of nowhere, another dog jumped behind me and bit me in my butt.

Evil spirit biting my ass!

He didn’t want to let go at first, it felt as a prey to a crocodile’s teeth. From the time I realized what was going on to when I really started to feel the pain, an entire minute probably has gone by.

I started panicking, it felt like having a panic attack, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t breathe properly, I was crying inconsolably for a good while. I was afraid that the dog had rabies, that I could contract it too, and mostly I was afraid because the closest hospital was several hours away.

What scared me the most was entertaining the thought that I had to interrupt my trip and go back to France just to receive the rabies shot. I know it sounds stupid, but one of my travel companion Laurence, was insisting that there was absolutely no possibility of getting anti-rabies shots in Peru, so going to the hospital was just going to be a waste of time anyways.

As it turns out, she didn’t know what she was talking about, she just didn’t want to ruin the beautiful trip that we have planned, and it also turns out that they had treatments for rabies in Peru, Obviously.

Luckily for me, the women in the farm assured me that all stray dogs are vaccinated by a veterinarian that comes every year for that sole purpose, and that there was no real possibility of contracting rabies. Finally, I was able to calm down.

Looking back at it, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved in my life.
The entire evening was rich in emotions. First it was shame, as I had to lay face down on the bed in my underwear in front of everyone as the house had only one room/kitchen.

I lied there watching them cleaning the wound with rubbing alcohol, iodine and egg whites, also applying some viscous matter from the egg shells which they claimed had anti-scarring effects.

After that, we shared a warm-hearted meal with Inocencia, her daughter Gladys, and her 12 year old grand-daughter Nicole. The mother had so many emotional stories to share with us.

She brought tears to our eyes, when she was explaining how much she loves her land, but she’s worried about and her daughter’s future, and the world we leave to our children and grandchildren,

« Yo soy orgullosa de mi pais, yo soy orgullosa de ser peruana, de ser campesina. Hay que cuidar a nuestro medio ambiente, me pregunto qué sera el futuro, qué vamos a dejar a nuestros hijos y a los hijos de nuestros hijos. » She said.

I am proud of my land, of Peru, of being a farmer. We have to take care of the environment, I ask myself sometimes how the future would look like, and which future would we leave to our children and grand children.

Sleeping Like a Princess in a Barn

If you’ve never slept in a barn, I have to tell you it’s quite the experience, especially when you’re being hosted by two wonderful women such as Gladys and Inocencia.

They just kept piling blankets and sheep skin covers on the hay filled floor, we couldn’t stop thanking them, telling them we’re warm, cozy and comfy, but they just kept bringing more.

Their generosity was incredibly touching. We even gave each other hugs, before wishing good night.

Besides us were sleeping a little calf, that was the regular guest of the barn before we crashed in his crib.

In the morning, we woke up with a spectacular view to the canyon, the view was absolutely magical.

After breakfast, we went to milk the cow and spent most of the day taking pictures with Alpacas. In case you’ve never seen one before, you’re messing out. Funny animals the Alpacas, they make funny noises, pose with you in the pictures… Great memories indeed.

After that went on a three hours hike in the canyons with Gladys and her daughter Nicole, which by the way was the first time that the little one has been there. At the top, a magnificent landscape was waiting for us, as a truly beautiful epilogue of an unforgivable adventure.

Saying Goodbye

Then comes the hard part, the farewell moment, which deemed harder than I previously thought. Gladys told us that she wasn’t expecting to see any one at all in the area, but how great of surprise it all turned out to be. She told us she was really happy to share all those nice moments with us. I think it was truly a fantastic experience for us and them both.

Except from that part where I was bit in my behind of course.

Gladys and Inocencia are absolutely incredible women, they have almost nothing, but they gave us everything. The little they had they shared with us, they treated us like their own children from the first time we’ve met.

Although we spent only one day together, it was a little hard to leave them. Personally, I wanted to stay a little more with them. And then Gladys told Nicole that we were her godmothers and godfather.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I am happy to be here and I’d love to keep sharing with you my little adventures as they unfold. I will be traveling most of South America for eight months and I think that there will be a myriad of interesting things to report back here. For instance, I will soon be crossing the Amazon River from Brazil to Colombia by boat, and I’m sure there will be many stories to bring you along the way.

I’m just hoping no more bite marks.