Sick day in Cusco

Today I woke up feeling fine but Alyssa was suffering from the stomach issues that I had two days prior. I decided that while she slept, I would go out in search of the bus station so that I could purchase our tickets to Puno for the following day. I mapped out the route to the bus station before leaving and headed on my way. The first half of the directions went fine but all of a sudden, I couldn't find any of the street names I had written down. I asked one of the traffic cops how to get there and he pointed in the opposite direction that I had been walking and said I would need to take a cab. Disheartened, I turned around and tried to follow his directions. I ended up stopping at a few travel agencies to get directions and surprisingly, no one seemed to know how to get to the bus station. Finally I gave up and headed back towards the Plaza de Armas.

I had not yet eaten breakfast or lunch so I stopped at the "Bagel Cafe" and got a veggie bagel and a pineapple juice. I still wasn't feeling 100% but I was hungry so that was a good sign. I got an extra bagel sandwich to go in case Alyssa felt like she could eat it but also picked up some chicken soup in the event that the sandwich was too much.

Once back at the hostel, we watched a movie on tv and hung out with two girls from the UK that were also staying at the hostel. I looked up the bus station again, but it appeared that there were conflicting reports online as to where it was located so decided to just head to a travel agency to purchase the tickets there even though I knew they would be $60 soles instead of $40 like they would have been at the bus station.

Alyssa was able to eat the bagel part of the sandwich but not much else. She didn't want to move from the couch (and I didn't blame her) so I headed out to get dinner on my own. I went to a restaurant called "Los Perros"; Katie and I had gone there previously and I remembered it had great food. Since I hadn't eaten much in recent days, I let myself order the burger which was absolutely delicious! Seriously, I would seek that burger out in the US it is so good.

I hung out there for an hour of so, writing postcards and catching up on my journal before heading back to the hostal.

 

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Manchu Pichu!

Antibiotics are miraculous! I woke up feeling better and was confident that I could make it to Machu Pichu. Alyssa had purchased tickets for the bus the night before so that we would not have to do the 2 hour climb up 3000 stairs at 4am (I did it the last time and damn is it a lot of stairs!). We arrived at the bus station right on time but as we waited in line to board, Alyssa realized she'd left the tickets in her luggage at the hostel. She ran all the way back to get them and then we boarded the bus. Once in our seats, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I was going to get another Machu Pichu stamp in my passport because I'm afraid I will run out of space. Alyssa looked shocked and asked if we needed our passports. Of course we did! But hers was back in her luggage. We got off the bus and she ran back to the hostel for a second time. Finally we boarded the bus and made the 20 minute journey up the mountain.
I had been worried about rain since the clouds were thick and you couldn't even see the ruins but as we stood there, the clouds parted and the sun came out, illuminating everything. It appeared that our tour guide had been late as well, so it was no big deal tht we were 15 minutes behind. We began with a two hour guided tour.

I had been on a guided tour here two years ago so I was expecting a lot of information about the different temples, what the parts of the city were used for etc. Sadly, I thought our guide completely wasted our time and was more concerned about people pronouncing Cusco correctly than anything else. Because our time was limited and needed to be back down in Aguas Calientes by 1:00pm, we left the tour early and walked around by ourselves.

There are tons of alpaca just roaming around and they don't seem to mind if you pet them (although this one looks like it wants to bite Alyssa's face off). The grounds of Machu Pichu were monitored much more than they had been in 2011. Parts of the area were roped off so that you couldn't walk through and there were security guards everywhere making sure you didn't touch things or sit on the walls. I was a little disappointed by this because I loved how natural it seemed before but I understand the need to preserve the site.

I had wanted to take Alyssa up to Waynapichu (which is the big mountain over looking Machu Pichu) because you get such an amazing view of the ruins. Unfortunately, you had to buy the ticket to Waynapichu weeks in advance and they had been sold out by the time we got to Cusco. We did buy tickets to the "Montana", which is the mountain on the other side that is supposed to have good views as well. When we got to the Montana, they told us it was an hour and a half climb and I knew I was still in no shape to complete such a task. I told Alyssa to go ahead and leave me if she wanted to go to the top, but she had hurt her ankle the day before so all of the stairs weren't helping.

We decided to stop at the first view point, which was 30 minutes up the mountain, to take some pictures. There were tons of other people there and it looked like everyone else had also decided not to go to the top. We did talk to a couple who had made it all the way and they said it was so cloudy up there that you couldn't even see anything. That made our decision for us and we decided to head back down and walk up to the sun gate. The walk to the sun gate was a bit easier but we still only went half way, stopping at the best overlook. We decided to go back down and walk around to ruins for a bit before we had to head back.

Once back in Aguas Calientes, we needed to collect our bags from the hostel and head to the train station. I still hadn't eaten a proper meal in 2 days and felt that I should eat something after all of that walking but sadly we didn't have the time. We got on the train just in time and it whisked us off to the hydroelectric station.

From the hydroelectric station, we caught our bus back to Cusco. It was a 6 hour drive but I didn't care; I was so happy that I wasn't feeling as badly as I had the day before. As we drove, there were huge rockslides that had covered the road in rocks. We maneuvered around these fairly well but when we reached the first river, it had definitely flooded the road and covered it in rocks. The driver didn't hesitate and plowed through the water. I wasn't too worried since growing up in Tucson, I had often floated my car through rivers covering the road during monsoon season and knew what a car could handle. Then we came upon the second river. Cars on both sides had stopped and people had gotten out of their cars to take stock. This river was really flowing! And the road was covered in boulders throughout making it impossible to cross. The driver got out and looked at it for a minute before getting back in, starting up the bus and hitting the gas pedal. Everyone on board started screaming for him to stop, certain that we were going to get swept over the side of the road and down the cliff that the river ran over. Thankfully, he manuevered his way through and we made it safely to the other side. We all rewarded him with huge applause since we didn't really want to be stuck sleeping in a bus on the side of the road.
When we arrived back in Cusco, I was starving and wanted to get some food. Alyssa and I got into a bit of an argument over the fact that she had purchased some this for me (Gatorade, ritz, etc) and I had not yet paid her back. I felt like she was being absolutely crazy and was exhausted by the past few days, so I went to dinner by myself. I headed to "Nick's" which is a popular restaurant in Cusco that I had been to with Katie two years earlier. I ordered a quesadilla although I wasn't able to eat much of it since my stomach still wasn't feeling right. I headed back to the hostel hoping that Alyssa and I could just put the fighting behind us. We were obviously both sick and tired and I'm sure we were irritable more because of that than anything else.

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Bus journey to Agua Caliente

I woke up an hour before my alarm because of an intense pain in my stomach. As it turns out, I had been hit by a bout of travelers food poisoning. Of all the days!! I immediately took all of the prescriptions I had with me in hopes that thy would make a difference but since our bus was supposed to pick us up in an hour, I was pretty much screwed. Once Alyssa woke up, I told her I wasn't sure that I would be able to go. I didn't want her to have to go by herself but being stuck on a bus with no bathroom for 7 hours didn't seem like a great plan. Finally after much debate, I decided I was going to go and I would just have to figure it out. Alyssa had gotten me a Gatorade and some ritz crackers since there was no fluid left in my body but I couldn't bring myself to drink a sip. Luckily, I got a window seat on the bus which meant that I could control the air circulation. It was freezing outside but the air blowing in my face was the only thing that kept me from puking (much to the dismay of the two girls freezing behind me). We stopped two hours into the drive at Ollantaytambo for a very welcome restroom break. I basically felt like I was dying so I sat in the grass and basked in the sun for a while. When I'm sick I tend to like to lie on the ground- something about being more connected to the earth that makes me feel better. While we were there, I watched the locals plowing their field using oxen and a plow. I know they obviously can't afford a tractor but I was still fascinated that they were doing their farming this way.

We continued the five hour drive to Santa Theresa where we would stop for lunch. As we climbed in elevation, we were completely covered in clouds and couldn't see out any of the windows. Our driver was absolutely insane, going much faster than he should have been and passing trucks as we were rounding corners. It was a very narrow one way road with no guardrail and an incredible drop below us (if you've ever driven on Fish Creek Hill in AZ, it was way worse than that). I kept averting my eyes as we neared the side of the cliff so that I wouldn't make dramatic gasping sounds, lol. We finally made it to Santa Teresa and the group piled into a restaurant for lunch. The idea of eating or drinking anything was revolting to me so I sat with my head on the table while everyone ate. Finally we piled back into the van to complete the 40 minute drive to the hydroelectric station.

Once at the hydroelectric station, we needed to walk two hours to Aguas Calientes. I had done this walk two years ago so I knew it was an easy trail along the train tracks and I was confident that I could do it even in my condition. We had assumed that a guide would be accompanying the group but they dropped us off, pointed in the direction we needed to go and were gone. The group was astonished. Some of the people hadn't even been told that they would need to walk so they were really confused. Seeing how uncomfortable everyone was, I assured them I had done this before and led the way to the train tracks.

As we walked, we got to see the train that takes the passengers with money to Aguas Calientes, lol. It was a slow moving train but in my delirium I was desperately wishing they would offer me a free ride.

I knew it was a two hour walk and that since the driver had dropped us of at 4:30pm, we would be doing the last part of this walk in the dark. We had been told that we would arrive in Aguas Calientes before 4:00pm and I had been looking forward to showing Alyssa some of the city but since it was dark, I knew that would be a lost cause. Alyssa and I were the only people who had brought flashlights, so we led the group through the dark jungle path which was wet and treacherous without proper lighting. Overall I felt ok but the last part of the walk to the city is all uphill and that was my undoing. I fell behind the group and struggled to take each step. When we arrived at the hostel, Alyssa insisted that our guide give us our room first since I was clearly not ok. Of course, they saved us for last and then told us that we were in a different hostel than the rest of the group and of course ours was way across town. The guide walked us to the hostel but she didn't know exactly where it was so we circled around town, walking up and down the same steps countless times. I was on the brink of losing it when we finally arrived. I told Alyssa there was no way that I was going to the dinner where they would give us information for the following day, so she went without me. I got into bed, forced myself to eat a few Ritz and prayed that I would feel better in the morning.

 

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Walking tour of Cusco

The free breakfast at our hotel went until 10:00am which always makes me happy (I love breakfast and I love free breakfast even more!). Flying Dog had a great spread of coffee, toast, oatmeal and tons of different cereals. Unfortunately as much as I wanted a bowl of cereal, I can't get over the fact that they do not refrigerate their milk and so I settled for oatmeal instead. After breakfast, we walked around town for a while checking with different travel agencies to see who had the best prices for a two day trip to Machu Pichu and a 4 day trip to the Amazon. Everyone said that Puerto Maldodano was the best jungle tour from Peru but unfortunately the local gold miners were on strike and were blocking the tour buses from entering that area so we had to abandon the jungle tour idea. We did end up booking our Machu Pichu tour and decided to go with the bus instead of train. The bus only cost us $130USD for a two day, all inclusive trip vs $250USD for the train.
After we had our plans sorted out, we met a walking tour group in the Plaza del Armas hoping to get a little historical info on the city. I really love Cusco- there's something about it I find so beautiful and charming though I'm not 100% sure why. Unfortunately we didn't learn much history from our guide since he admittedly had ADHD and was all over the place but I did learn about Tupac Amaru who was the leader of the indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru. Apparently Tupac Shakur's mother was a member of the Black Panther Party and renamed him Tupac Amaru Shakur after the Peruvian revolutionary. I found that very interesting, lol.

Our tour guide took up to a music shop where they played the local Peruvian instruments for us. It was interesting to see, especially the instruments that had been used even by the Inca people. They had made some maracas out of llama toe nails and even a guitar out of an armadillo shell.

As we continued the walk, we did get some great views of the city from the hill side. We kind of wanted to abandon the tour since we weren't really learning anything but decided to stick with it since it was only a 2 hour tour.

The tour ended with a lesson on how to make Pisco sours. I still can't believe that they use raw egg whites in the drink...somehow it tastes frothy and good but it is still strange.

After the tour, we went on our own tour of the city checking out the parts of the city we hadn't visited yet. After checking out Qurikancha, the Incan temple to the sun god, we stopped at a bakery across the street for some chicken empanadas...mmmmmm.

After some more walking around, we headed back to the hostal to get things ready for our trip the next day to Machu Pichu. We would be leaving our big bags in storage at the hostal so we needed to pack our day packs with just the necessary essentials: flashlight, toothbrush, change of clothes, rain jacket. After we were ready to go, we headed out to get some Indian food at "Korma Sutra". It was almost impossible to find even though we had mapped it out before we left and had the address. It should have been less than a 3 minute walk from our hostal but we got so lost we had to circle back to our hostal to look at the directions again. Even on the second try we wandered around for a good 10 minutes before finally finding the place. But the effort was well worth it. It was an adorable little place with an open kitchen so that you could watch your meal being prepared. The food was great and we are always thrilled to mix up the kinds of food we are eating so that we don't get too sick of anything.

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Flight to Cusco

We woke up at the decent time of 8:30am so that we could get packed, eat breakfast and figure out how to get to the airport. Alyssa set off to pick up her laundry and get some fruit at the grocery store, while I finished packing and triple checked the room for anything we might have left behind. We asked the guy who worked at our hostel what the best way to get to the airport was and he said there was a bus that would take you there for $2.50 soles. Considering we had read that you needed to take a taxi and that it could cost up to $40 USD, this was great news! He said that he (and his dog) would walk us to the bus stop and show us which bus to get on. He was so nice! We grabbed our stuff and walked the few blocks down to the street where you could hail a bus. He stopped the bus for us and made sure they knew where to take us. We were really appreciative of this since it would have been a much bigger hassle for us to try to figure out on our own. This was a bus that local people take to get around town so naturally they didn't have any space for our big bags. We managed to awkwardly hold them in the seats with us, rearranging as people got on and off the bus. The bus ride was about an hour but we got to the airport with no issues.

Once at the airport, I immediately remembered where everything was. Katie and I had spent a night in the chapel/walkway of that airport the last time I flew to Lima and it all came rushing back to me like it was yesterday. We had plenty of time to grab some lunch and wander around before our flight.

Once we arrived, we headed outside hoping that our hostel had sent their van to pick us up as we requested. Sadly, there was no van for us so we negotiated with cabs for a while, trying to get them down from $40 soles. Alyssa negotiated a cab driver down to $32 and we were on our way. When we arrived at "Flying Dog" I was a little concerned because it was on the complete opposite side of town from where I had stayed in Cusco before but it ended up being in a very convenient area. The hostel was very nice with a big kitchen, large living room and nice bedroom.

It was very cold in Cusco at night which I hadn't expected since during the day it is almost hot. I was also suffering from altitude sickness for the first time on our trip. I was extremely dizzy, out of breath and always had a headache. I resorted to drinking a lot of coca tea which is supposed to help but it didn't seem to have much effect.

Alyssa really wanted to eat some local food so I let her pick the restaurant- she chose "Don Thomas". At first I was unsure about the place since it seemed pretty expensive but after walking around and seeing the prices at other restaurants I realized they were all expensive! The most popular local food is cuy (guinea pig) but I just couldn't bring myself to eat one since I had once had one as a pet. They serve them as a whole fried guinea pig, teeth and all! Instead, we decided to try alpaca. The meal started off with an appetizer of roasted corn kernels that reminded me a lot of corn nuts, lol. They have something like 800 different varieties of corn in Peru so it is a big staple for them.

Alyssa got a Pisco sour but I couldn't make up my mind on what to drink. The waiter recommended a drink for me that he said was made from a fruit so I decided to give it a whirl. When it came out, it tasted exactly like a mud slide. This was not what he had described to me so I called him over and explained that this drink was made with chocolate not a fruit. He laughed and went over to the bartender to get something. He came back with a fruit paste that had the consistency of fig but did taste a lot like chocolate. It was actually delicious!

Alyssa ordered the alpaca so we could try it and I ordered the lamb which I still am getting used to eating (I've only had it a few times before...poor tasty baby lambs). The lamb was amazing! The alpaca was a bit chewy and reminded me of an overlooked steak so although we were glad that we tried it, we decided we wouldn't order it again.

After dinner, we headed to "Paddy's Pub" to get a drink. Luckily it was still happy hour so we could get two Pisco and sprites (called "Chilcana") for $10 soles, which is a great deal. We hung out for a while but since it was Thursday, not much was going on and we headed home around 12:00.

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Day in Lima

I woke up at 9:30, determined that although I hadn't slept, I would get free breakfast. Alyssa had realized that I was up all night and was trying to get me to sleep in but sleep be dammed, I was having breakfast! Sadly breakfast was only instant coffee and bread but I was glad I came down anyways. I had been going back and forth about whether I wanted to see the Nazca lines in Peru and really needed to make a decision. I finally decided that we wouldn't go to Nazca because Alyssa had absolutely no interest in it and it was expensive and out of the way. I thought it would be really interesting to see but it's a lot of hassle for a 25 minute flight in a prop plane. I would probably be able to see them better if I just looked them up online. We decided that we would fly to Cusco then instead of taking the bus because it is a 22 hour bus ride for $64 USD or a one hour flight for $92 USD. After how we'd been feeling the past few days, $30 was a small price to pay to avoid an overnight bus. We were unable to book the flight online because of some "verified by Visa" issue that apparently wasn't working on the airline's website, so we decided to walk down to the airline ticket office to book them there. Of course once we got to the ticket office, they wanted to charge us $30 more to book in person than to book online. I was exhausted and SO annoyed by this. We explained the issue with booking online and she agreed to wave the $30 booking fee for one of our flights but not both. We finally agreed so that we wouldn't have to deal with the issue any more.
After purchasing the flight, we went back to the hostel and I laid in bed for a little while resting. Finally, I felt well enough to go get lunch, so we went to this big grocery store called "Wong's" which is like a giant Whole Foods. We decided we would get sandwiches since they sliced up fresh rotisserie chicken for your sandwiches and it looked delicious. Alyssa's sandwich was made perfectly with plump chicken breast, but when he made mine he was picking small pieces of bloody meat off of the bone that he had just cut Alyssa's meat off of. This probably wouldn't bother most people, but anyone who knows me well knows I have HUGE issues with food. And this put me right over the edge. Alyssa saw that I had completely checked out and walked away from the situation so she tried explaining the issue to the sandwich guy. He didn't seem to understand but luckily another patron got it and explained it to him in Spanish. He sort of fixed the problem by adding some chicken breast to the pile but by then I was over the entire sandwich and though I had already paid for it, I was prepared to throw it straight into the trash. Luckily the meat didn't bother Alyssa at all so she gave me her sandwich and ate the other one. I know I'm crazy but what can ya do?

We headed back to the hostel so that I cold lay down again and Alyssa went out walking around the town. I was very happy that we were in a nice place on a day when I needed to spend more time in the room, otherwise I would have been even more miserable.

Hours later, we ventured back into town for dinner. Alyssa wanted Italian food, so we stopped at a restaurant that we had walked past many times throughout our stay in Cusco and was always busy.

I ordered the cheapest pasta they had since I wasn't very hungry which ended up being the hugest bowl of pesto noodles I've ever seen! I've had pesto a few times on the trip since these countries love Italian food, but they never really get it right and the pesto usually ends up tasting like broccoli. Alyssa ordered lasagna but what she got was noodles with ham, cheese and red sauce...lol! I had read something about a martini bar that was next door to this restaurant, so we decided to head there after dinner since we both love a good martini. Sadly the place called "Martini" did not have any martinis on the menu...I don't know why I expect any different, lol. I ordered a tequila sunrise since I am still trying to force myself to drink tequila and Alyssa got a maracuya sour (which is passionfruit, Pisco and egg white). I assumed my tequila sunrise would be made with orange juice but instead they used orange soda- it was awful! But I drank the whole thing in protest since Alyssa was chastising me for ordering like an American. I can't help it, I am an American! But I decided to only order local drinks from now on...then you know they can make them well.

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Seeing the sights of Lima

I woke up at around 9:00am when I heard Alyssa moving around. I was concerned about how she was feeling and didn't really care that I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. She was still in pain but feeling a bit better after getting some rest. We had missed the free breakfast at the hostel (it goes from 7:00-9:00am which I think is because they know no backpackers will be up that early) so we decided to head out to get some breakfast. As we were about to leave, the lady at the front desk asked us if we would be spending another night. We said yes, since when checking in we had asked for two nights (that was even written on our paperwork) but she said we had only asked for one night and she had already reserved our room for another guest. Great. Now we had to be packed up and out of the room within the hour and had to find another hostel. We had a hard enough time finding a private room the day before and with my lack of sleep and Alyssa being so sick, I was less than pleased to have to do this. But I kept on a good face so as not to upset Alyssa (normally I'd have flown off the handle) and we packed up and went off in search of another place to stay.
As we walked, a guy on a bike asked us if we were looking for a hostel. There were no other hostels around the area that we knew of, so when he said he owned a hostel and that they had private rooms available, we were more than happy to check it out. He was very nice and escorted us to his place to make sure that we didn't get lost; he even let Alyssa ride his bike, lol! Unfortunately, the room was twice as expensive as what we were willing to pay ($60 USD) but there was a place across the street that we had heard of called "Inka Wassi". We went over to check it out and luckily they did have a private room available. They were also expensive but when we asked them if they knew of any cheaper places in the area, he dropped the price $20 soles so that we could afford to stay. Unlike Condor's House which had been built like a shack with absolutely no insulation (I could literally see through the wall joints to the street outside ), Inka Wassi was a lovely three story place that felt just like someone's home. We had a nice room with double beds, real curtains and our own bathroom with hot water. After the previous night with Alyssa being so sick and us being so cold that I went around the dorm stealing blankets off of other peoples' beds (sorry other people, things were serious and I'm sure you were shacking up with another backpacker anyways and could use their body for warmth), I had woken up and researched rooms at the Four Points Sheraton- regardless of the cost! Luckily though, Inka Wassi was very nice and we felt much more relaxed.

We decided to venture out in search of coffee and food. After traipsing around a while, we came to a cafe called "Delicass". We ordered coffee but unfortunately so many countries still don't understand quite what Americans want in a coffee. They brought us large cups with shots of espresso in them and a pot of hot water to dilute it as we saw fit- oh well, close enough!

After coffee, we decided to walk around and see some of the sights of Lima. I had flown into Lima a few years ago on my way to Cusco and we hadn't left the airport after reading that it was such a dodgy town but actually the Miraflores area was really nice (Miraflores is about an hour drive away from the airport; where the airport is located IS extremely sketchy). I was surprised how clean the city was and how modern it seemed. We walked down to the beach which reminded us a lot of the PCH along the beach of Santa Monica. There we watched the surfers in the freezing cold water and the paragliders floating overhead.

We also went to check out the "Parque del Amor". It was a nice park complete with a giant statue of two lovers united in an intimate kiss.

After walking around for a while, we headed back to the center of Miraflores to get some essentials. I was completely out of facewash and hesitant to change the brand I was using for fear of retribution from my face. Sadly Cetaphil is considered a behind the counter pharmaceutical product in South America and costs $20 USD! I reluctantly agreed since I really had no other option. I also got a new pair of cheap headphones since we had stopped in the Apple store and they do not sell just the little ear piece I needed separately for my broken set.

We headed back to our hostel to rest for a while and then get ready for dinner. We had seen an Arab restaurant as we walked through town that looked good, so we decided to try it. Thankfully it was amazing!

After dinner, we headed to an Irish Pub to have a beer and play trivia. It was a packed house of English speakers which is some times a welcome change!

We headed back to the hostel to get some sleep but unfortunately I wasn't very tired even though I hadn't slept much the night before. I finally fell asleep around 1:00am but was awoken at 3:30am but terrible pain throughout my entire back and the urge to vomit. I couldn't figure out what could be wrong! I spent a while lying on the bathroom floor, trying not to throw up but finally had to resort to sitting in the hot shower with the water hitting my back in an attempt to alleviate the pain. Once I ran out of hot water, I got back in bed and tried to will myself back to sleep. It seemed like we were slowly falling apart and I couldn't figure out why.

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