Your travelling experiences

[The Fun Factory]

On 29/03/2023 at 19:06, robby b said:

This street name in Bolivia caught my eye, it's nearly great, missing just one letter. Ooh close!

Yeah but its also telling you to keep right on.

[robby b]

I've been in Bolivia for a month now and have just moved from a small town in the countryside to a city. One of the reasons is because there were loads of cockerels on the loose, doing as they pleased, wondering about near my hotel sometimes and waking me up some mornings extremely early, at about 5am, at the first light of dawn (there was also a mad one that woke me up two nights in a row at 1am! What the?!)

Anyway, so I check into my new hotel, in the centre of the city, at lunchtime today. I'm unpacking my things when suddenly to my horror I hear a really loud... cockadoodledo!!! At 1.30pm. In the middle of a city?! Who owns a ******* cockerel in the middle of a city?! 

It has reminded me of that episode in Friends with Joey's duck and goose in his appartment.

And it has got me wondering this: in the UK is there any law that would make it illegal to have a cockerel in your appartment/house in a city centre? 

[blandy]

6 hours ago, robby b said:

And it has got me wondering this: in the UK is there any law that would make it illegal to have a cockerel in your apartment /house in a city centre?

The deeds for my red brick Victorian terraced house expressly prohibit the keeping of livestock inside the property. So back in 1895 it was frowned upon.

[robby b]

Today's travelling experience, here in Bolivia, was one of my worst nightmares coming true finally: getting properly attacked by dogs! My dogs luck finally ran out, a case of fifth time unlucky as this is my fifth time in South America and for the first time in my life a dog properly bit me, on the calf, drawing blood.

There were two of them, medium sized, I don't know what breeds. One had sneakily sneaked behind me and suddenly bit the back of my thigh... this was painful and distracted my focus from the one that was in front of me, which then sunk its teeth into my calf. They ganged up on me very well! Thank goodness the owner then ran over and intervened, wielding a spade and shouting at them, phew! It was scary enough but I dread to think how it might have been if he hadn't been there. :s

I now have a great cresent moon shaped imprint of dog teeth on the side of my calf, made up of cuts and bruises, about 15cm long. But of course nowhere near as bad or as big as an injury from Jaws, looking on the bright side ! 

And my last rabies shot was 11 years ago but I think 8 years is the recommended limit. (I hadn't originally planned to come to Bolivia when i left the UK, the trip was supposed to be just Chile and Argentina). I'm more worried about septicemia though. I just read that a blood infection can take up to about 14 days to appear, great. I was on a country walk and it was a few hours till I found a health centre and got the cuts washed with soap and had antiseptic applied... by two really kind dentists, who were the only staff there at the time! I made them laugh saying "well it is to do with teeth so it is your area".

Edited May 18, 2023 by robby b

[il_serpente]

Did the owner apologize or offer any help?   Culture surrounding such things is different everywhere.   Were you near their property where they might have been thinking they were protecting their territory?

In the US, chances are the owner would be scared of being sued and bend over backwards to apologize and help, depending on where it took place.   On the other hand, the owners of asshole dogs are the most likely to be assholes themselves and deny fault or justify their dogs’ actions.

[TheAuthority]

On 04/04/2023 at 01:41, blandy said:

The deeds for my red brick Victorian terraced house expressly prohibit the keeping of livestock inside the property. So back in 1895 it was frowned upon.

Wow you're getting on a bit Blandy!

[TheAuthority]

25 minutes ago, robby b said:

Today's travelling experience, here in Bolivia, was one of my worst nightmares coming true finally: getting properly attacked by dogs! My dogs luck finally ran out, a case of fifth time unlucky as this is my fifth time in South America and for the first time in my life a dog properly bit me, on the calf, drawing blood.

Its mate had sneakily sneaked behind me and bit first, at the top of the back of my thigh... this was painful and distracted my focus from the other one who then suddenly sunk its teeth into my calf. They ganged up on me very well! Thank goodness the owner then intervened wielding a spade, phew! It was scary enough but I dread to think how it would have been if he hadn't been there. :s

I now have a great cresent moon shaped imprint of a set of dog teeth on the side of my calf, literally from one side of its mouth to the other, made up of cuts and bruises, about 15cm long. Not as bad as an injury from Jaws, looking on the bright side.

And my last rabies shot was 11 years ago but 8 years is the recommended limit. I'm more worried about septicemia though. Apparently any blood infection can take up to 14 days to appear, great. I was on a country walk and it was a few hours till I found a health centre and got the cuts washed with soap and antiseptic applied... by two really kind dentists, who were the only staff there at the time! I made them laugh saying "well it is to do with teeth afterall".

Hope it's all benign. Try and get a rabies shot as soon as you can though.

[robby b]

17 hours ago, il_serpente said:

Did the owner apologize or offer any help?   Culture surrounding such things is different everywhere.   Were you near their property where they might have been thinking they were protecting their territory?

In the US, chances are the owner would be scared of being sued and bend over backwards to apologize and help, depending on where it took place.   On the other hand, the owners of asshole dogs are the most likely to be assholes themselves and deny fault or justify their dogs’ actions.

Yes, I was near their property but in the road and the two dogs just ran straight up to me barking angrily. The owner didn't apologise or offer to help after the attack. Perhaps I should report the situation to the police really, maybe I will. But will they do anything about it? I did have a go at him for a minute, I told him there should be a fence to keep them away from people !

In any case I don't know if there's any law in Bolivia regarding dog owners controlling their dogs. And if there is it doesn't seem to be implemented! I've seen so many properties out here in the outskirts of towns and cities with no fences or walls (or rubbish fences or low walls with big gaps). And several times big agressive dogs have just run out of front gardens into the street and up close to me, barking angrily. It's very scary and I'm just really fed up with it. I was angry about this situation today as you can imagine.

And two years ago in Uyuni (in Bolivia), in a residential road near the now famous train graveyard, an alsation scared the hell out of me. I heard a loud bark and noticed it at the front of a house, it then approached me barking very loudly and started to follow me. I walked away, not fast and trying to seem calm despite feeling very scared, but I made the mistake of not walking backwards in order to keep it in view and suddenly I felt it nip the back of my heel. Luckily it didn't draw blood, there was just slight pain and a little bruise a bit later due to the force of its teeth. Not nice though !  : <

And then there's the problem of strays in Bolivia, there seem to be a lot. Some of them have also really given me a fright, a few times (also coming towards me and barking angrily), this year, in 2021 and in 1998. 

It's a wonderful country in various ways, with amazing nature, but... I don't intend to come here again in future, partly due to these dog dangers !

Edited May 18, 2023 by robby b

[robby b]

I don't have sepsis, hoorah ! 

It's nine days since my two dog bites and the cuts and bruises seem to have healed ok, phew! Hardly any pain anymore.

I was reading in the evening after I was bitten that one in five dog bites lead to sepsis/septicemia... However, I also read that of these people quite a lot recover from the sepsis fairly quickly as long as they're treated promptly in hospital. Anyway, I'm just relieved not to be one of the one in five people !

And I've been reading a lot online about what to do and what not to do when faced with an agressive dog threatening you. There seem to be two conflicting schools of thought: 

1) raise your arms above your head or raise an arm with a long stick/pole, or pick up a stone and raise it above your head as if about to throw it, and shout at the dog.

2) the opposite of 1), i.e. don't threaten the dog back as this may well just make it even angrier as it will perceive you as even more of a threat/danger. So don't shout. And keep still and try to appear calm. Don't make eye contact with the dog as this equates to a challenge/threat... Instead, look at a different part of the dog (chest/body) in order to keep it in view and slowly move away from it (so this means moving sideways or backwards, so as to not lose sight of it, in case it does suddenly run right up to you and attack).

I'm totally going with number 2, the non-confrontation approach, it makes much more sense to me.

Edited May 26, 2023 by robby b

[abdomlahor]

Anyone been to Sicily? Looking at visiting Palermo for a long weekend next year and wondering if anyone has any experience/advice.

[bickster]

18 hours ago, abdomlahor said:

Anyone been to Sicily? Looking at visiting Palermo for a long weekend next year and wondering if anyone has any experience/advice.

My last holiday in that abroadia was in Sicily (Pre-pandemic), we flew into Palermo Airport.

The only things I'd say about Palermo are that it is a bit of a hike from the Airport to the City (about an hour on the bus iirc) and that it was pretty much like a mid sized city on the Med, I wasn't there long enough to have an opinion as we caught a train from there along the North Coast to Cefalu, which I would recommend but not for a weekend as it's a lot of travel time to get there via bus and train.

Sicily in general is great though

[blandy]

19 hours ago, abdomlahor said:

Anyone been to Sicily? Looking at visiting Palermo for a long weekend next year and wondering if anyone has any experience/advice.

Some posts in reply to this

 

[choffer]

Not a travel experience as such but it wasn't that long ago that there were all sorts of horror stories about how long it takes to renew passports. I was initially worried as I knew I'd need to renew mine before going to the US in June but was already committed to a few trips this spring. 

So, on Wednesday last week, I applied for a new passport. On Thursday, I posted them the expiring one. On Friday I got a message saying they'd received both and has started the process. Yesterday morning, my new (blue) passport arrived. Shocked and stunned. 

The only drawback is I'd promised to take herself to Paris for the weekend and with the passport uncertainty, I thought I was off the hook until much later this year. She's already looking at restaurants now and thinks we are going in May!