Hahaha, I am a friend of the leeches too. What can I say, they must like my sweet blood. LOL!
Barefoot is actually not as bad as you think....besides, I only did it on the paved / tarred paths. The mud and and would be too ambitious, not to mention dangerous.
Actually one of the caretakers was going around on his bike and he stopped to check on me, he wasn't too impressed with my hairbrained idea of course, but he left after making sure I wasn't in too much pain. hehehe.