The No-Tell Motel

Several of you have asked about where I have been sleeping over the last 92 nights. Most of those nights have been spent in youth hostels, which range from the seediest of the seedy (Paraty, Brazil) to the downright luxurious (Cusco, Peru). Although most places have averaged about 10 dollars a night, the cheapest was 75 cents (Nepal) and the most expensive was almost 20 dollars (Rio). Of course, sleeping under the stars was the best (riverside in Chapada Diamantina, Brazil and on the beach in Ilha Grande, Brazil).

I can guarantee you that 4 out of 5 doctors at the American Medical Association would not approve of this trip. I have gone long long stretches without taking showers (a nearly two-week span in Peru and another 12-day stint in Nepal). I have sh*t in the most unhygienic of places (explosively on the trail-side up to Machu Picchu, hovering exhaustedly over a pop-a-squat in a Sherpa cottage, and quite comfortably, actually, between two cold boulders in the Cordillera Blanca). I have eaten more fried, but delicious, food than I can recall. I have been served food from Bangkok street vendors. And considering the number of mosquitos that have feasted on me, I am amazed that I haven't contracted malaria, dengue fever, or Japanese encephalitis.

That said, I am off to sleep on my 1/4" mattress, under a mosquito net, in a 90 degree room, shared with 8 other people. Thankfully, if needed, I can wake up tomorrow and get my chakra rebalanced at one of The Sanctuary's "healing sessions."