Sickness and Machu Picchu

So, our plans had been to leave at 330am on Saturday June 10th to hike Machu Picchu, however our bodies had a different plan in mind. Due to an unexpected sickness, we found ourselves hugging the toilets that morning instead.

After my last update I was headed to dinner with Laura in the town of Aguas Calientes. We had ordered pizza and pasta, intending on eating carbs before our big hike the next day, however we may just as well have eaten candy bars and icecream. We both got extremely sick, most likely from something we had eaten a day or two before. The sickness hit Laura first, on our walk home from dinner, as she threw her purse with me on the counter at the local pharmacy and ran to the bathroom. We had a meeting that night about our hike and at this time we were still intending on heading to Machu Picchu the following day, in hopes that Lauras sickness would pass quickly. We were playing it by ear, but as long as she was done vomiting we figured we could take the safe route and take a train to the ruins instead of hiking up there. Little did we know, neither one of us were going to feel up to doing either option, especially not at 330am!

After the meeting we set our alarm for 330 and both got ready for bed. Right as I got into bed, I realized Laura was not the only one that Peruvian food had got the best of, I was going to be just as sick! And so it began, 12 straight hours of puking and 24 hours of laying in bed! Thank God we happened to be in a hostel where we had our own room and bathroom. We have been sharing dorm rooms with anywhere from 6-20 other people on parts of this trip, but having our own room that night was a life saver! We were literally taking turns in the bathroom, the poor toilet had to have been flushed 100 times! There was a point where we both looked at eachother and said "I just wanna go home." The stomach pains were unbearable and even worse, the thought that we were going to miss our Machu Picchu trip the following morning, which we had invested a lot of time and money into was killing us. We went to sleep, telling ourselves that it was out of our control and we would somehow make things work.

Our alarm went off at 330 and without even talking to eachother we knew the hike was not going to happen. So, we went back to bed. Nothing we could do about it at that time of day. We woke up again around 8 or so and realized we needed to start asking a lot of questions to try to salvage our 5 different tickets we had for that day. In our package we had an entrance ticket into Machu Picchu, a bus ticket out of Machu Picchu, a train ticket out of Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, a van transporatation out of Ollantaytambo to Cusco that evening and one night in our hostel, which was now turning into two. We somehow had to get all of these things changed, while still feeling completely sick and exhausted and in hopes that it would not cost us a fortune. We made some phone calls explaining our situation and made a couple short walks to the bus and train stations, as we really had no energy to go too far. After hours of waiting around for answers and taking naps in between, things started to come together for us. Turned out our entrance tickets were good for 3 days, as well as the small train back down the mountain. Our van transportation was changed for free and our train ticket was changed for $8.00. So besides having to pay for another night in the hotel and the small fee to change our train ticket, things went in our favor. The one thing that was killing us was the fact that we had already booked a bus into Bolivia for Saturday night, which we were now forfeiting and our trip was pushed back 3 days, making us wait until Monday night (tonight) to head to Bolivia. At this point we had no other option, we had come way too far to not see Machu Picchu! We rested the rest of the day/evening and woke up the next morning at 3am, this time knowing we were going to conquer the mountain!

At this point I was still undecided as to whether I was going to hike or take the bus up, as I still felt sick and a little weak, having nothing in my body but some gatorade and a little bread and fruit I ate for breakfast, but as we approached the bus stop, tickets in hand, I decided I could not make Laura do the hike alone; I had to do it! So we began our torturous hike up to Machu Picchu around 415 am. With only the light of the flashlights we had in hand to lead the way, we started the trek. We were told the general direction of where to go, a couple bridges to cross and that we would see watchmen about a half hour into the walk. So far, so good. We were following the footsteps of another guy, who was attempiting the early morning hike as well, in hopes of seeing the sunrise and being the first 400 people to the site, therefore getting tickets to climb Wyna Picchu, a mountain at Machu Picchu that gives you a fantastic overview of the ruins. (This was the reason we were leaving so darn early, not just because we're crazy!) We did take a couple wrong turns but realized it sooner than later, not causing us to lose too much time. About 30 minutes into the hike I was beginning to regret my decision to not take the bus. The steep steps were never-ending and the quick shortness of breath at this altitude was not helping, especially after being sick. Laura and I wantet to give up but realized we had made it this far and could not turn back now. At this point there were many other hikers on the trail, which was good motivation for us, as we needed someone to push us at times. About 2 hours later, we knew we had to be close as we could hear voices just above us. Sure enough we arrived at Machu Picchu right around 6am! What a feeling of success! We made it!!

We spent an hour or so just relaxing and taking in the scenery, while at the same time catching our breath and stretching our leg muscles. At 8:00 we had a scheduled tour with a guide where he took us around the whole site explaining each monument, ruin and the history of it all. It is such an amazing place and I felt so fortunate to be there for the second time in my life, as most people never will get there. After the tour we had the rest of the day to explore on our own. We walked around a bit, ate some snacks and took tons of pictures. Laura decided she wanted to hike Machu Picchu mountain that provided a spectactular view from above, similar to that of Wayna Picchu. I decided not to do it, as I was still not feeling 100% and I did it last time I was there. We were told it would take about 3 hours to do so I sent Laura on her way and I sat in the outdoor cafeteria at Machu Picchu where I had a delicious lunch and got to enjoy watching the final World Cup game with hundreds of tourists from all over the world. It was such an amazing experience! I was sitting by a couple from Spain and a group of young backpackers from Holland, so as you can imagine it was quite the crowd! The game ended and Laura finally worked her way back down the mountain, 2.5 hours later than planned. I had a sick feeling of worry in my stomach as we had chosen a meeting place and I had been watching for her for nearly 3 hours at this point. When I finally saw her I was so excited, as I was sure I was going back down the mountain without her if she didn't hurry up; the site was closing in about 10 minutes. Being we got there as they opened and were some of the last ones there, I guess you can say we definitely got our moneys worth!

We headed back down the mountain, walked to town to get our belongings from the hotel, thanked them for taking such good care of us and then headed to the train station to catch our late train back to Ollantaytambo. The train ride was amazing, as it was nice to sit, rest and listen to the peaceful Titantic tunes they were playing on the speakers. We arrived in Ollantaytambo with transportation waiting for us. Three hours later, after a crazy, scary and dark ride back to town we arrived back at the Loki hostel in Cusco. It was so nice to get out of the van as the driver had nearly killed us a couple times and all I wanted was a nice bed to sleep in! I couldn't have picked a better place than the Loki, as this had been our favorite spot so far..... however to our surprise they were completely full and had no space for us. How stupid that we didn't make a reservation! We asked for the hostel nearest them and headed that way, walking down the steep Cusco streets at midnight- tired, crabby and carrying everything we owned!

We approached the hostel and I instantly wanted to run. It was dark, small, dirty and had no feeling of comfort to it. It was so late and we were so tired that we just decided to suck it up, as it was only one night. We were with another guy who was also denied at the Loki so the 3 of us shared a room. I took the covers off my bed to find dirty sheets, a bug on the dirty sheets, and no pillowcase on what was obviously a well used, century-old pillow. I immediately got grossed out and covered myself from head to toe with clothing. I put on socks, tucked my pajama pants into them, put on a tank top tucked into my pants and then ended with a sweater and a hood! I used a t-shirt as a pillowcase; there was no way any of my skin was touching this bed! To make matters worse, the guy we were sharing a room with tried to shower and we had no running water. Apparently they only have water from 4am- 4 pm or something, how ridiculous?! They also had no water in the toilet, no toilet paper nor soap (which Mom, you know was a problem later, haha!). Luckily I had rinsed off back in Aguas Calientes. I went to bed that night watching music videos, hoping no part of my body touched my bed, and anticipating an early morning where I could get the hell out of this dump!

We made it through the night, paid for our 'luxury' experience, and immediately grabbed our bags and walked over to the Loki to shower and have breakfast. They have so many people coming and going that they didn't realize we weren't actually paying guests this morning. We have actually spent the whole day here, and everything has been great! We are finally headed to Bolivia tonight via bus at 10! We will be crossing the border in Puno, Peru and then ending in Copacabana, Bolivia, where we will be spending the day on the islands of Lake Titicaca tomorrow! We then will spend a day or two in the capital, La Paz before heading down to see the salt flats of Uyani in the south! It is then off to Chile!! It feels great to finally be leaving Peru, simply because we have spent way more time here than expected, and we both have already been here. Bolivia here we come!!!