Huanchaco to Machu Picchu

To leave beautiful Huanchaco, we decided to take an overnight bus to Huaraz, which was about 9 hours. So we had to simply get on the bus in the evening, fall asleep, and then wake up and *poof!* we would have arrived in Huaraz, home to all kinds of fun tourist activities. Sounds like an easy trip, right? Well, in the end, it was definitely the most difficult trip I have ever had to take… First of all, Kait was feeling a bit ill a few hours before our bus left, and I felt really bad for her since we were about to make such a big trip. However, once we got on the bus and started moving, I started to feel more and more nauseous after about 30 minutes.

Shortly after, I made my first trip to the bathroom to relieve myself of my lunch and dinner, a trip I would soon get used to. Luckily, our seats were very close to the bathroom. I had only to get up out of my seat and open two close doors in order to reach the bathroom. Unluckily, the bathroom was occupied during two of my trips. (In total, I had about 8-10 trips to the bathroom!) Since it was occupied, I had to relieve myself in the hall just outside of the bathroom. Once I reached the locked bathroom door, the scene sounded something like this:

Me: *KNOCK KNOCK!* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!* *BLEH!* (on the floor…)

I was glad that there were no seats anywhere near the bathroom that weren’t at least separated by a door. I did regret, however, the bus attendant, upon finally noticing how violently ill I was, helping me clean up my mess on the floor. She ended up giving me a small plastic bag to use for the next time.

Once we arrived at the bus station, we were to meet a friend from couchsurfing. (We call all of the people we have never met from couchsurfing friends because, well, they’re some of the nicest people we have ever met, and that’s how they act towards us.) We were both so weak that we could barely stand up, let alone carry our backpacks by ourselves. Apparently our faces were pretty ashen as well. So our friend hefted our bags and aided us to a taxi which took us to a hostel run by one of his family members. (They gave us a nice discount on the rate and some tea to help our stomachs.) It was at this point, however, that we realized that our ailments were far from finished.

Both Kait and I had to make many trips to the bathroom – for a different reason than when we were on the bus. I knew that I had to keep drinking water, especially since I noticed I was a bit sicker than Kait, but after about three or four hours of this, I realized that the water was simply not staying in my body long enough. In this moment – about noon that day – that I decided we should take a trip to the hospital.

It seems that normally when people think about hospitals in foreign countries, they think of inadequate, dirty conditions that don’t hold a candle to North American or Western European hospitals. However, this one was really very good. Sure, there were a few things that weren’t perfect about it, such as having porous concrete floors or lacking soap or TP in the bathroom, but for the equivalent of $30 USD to get four IV bags to hydrate my and to rest on an emergency-room bed for about four hours, I’d say I had very little to complain about. All in all, after our time in the hospital, Kait and I felt much better, albeit still far from completely healthy. Upon emerging, we feebly made our way to a restaurant where we ordered the simplest soup we could find on the menu. (We continued this process for the next five or six meals.) Then we rested for the next two or three days by sleeping a lot in our hostel and watching some dubbed TV, like The Simpsons or Terminator 2.

Needless to say, we didn’t end up doing much in Huaraz. We did a little shopping, but then we made our way to Lima, but this time, it was via a day bus… I still wasn’t ready to take on another overnight adventure like the last one. Anyways, after making the trip easily without incident, we found our way to a nice backpacker’s hostel. We wanted to do some adventure tourism here, but we found that it was way over-priced, especially since the original prices we saw were from a guidebook that was three years old. It really is amazing how quickly the prices go up for various activities. So Lima was a nice place to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and catch a movie at the local theater.

Then began our next overnight bus trip to Cusco. This time, the trip was 23 hours, and I was prepared with some sleeping pills that I had purchased at the local pharmacy. (Unlike Kait, I lack the ability to fall asleep, cat-like, in almost any circumstances.) So we embarked in the late afternoon, and by about midnight, I decided to go ahead and take one pill because I was not feeling sleepy at all. The effect was fairly immediate; within what seemed like thirty minutes or less, I was completely knocked out and happily asleep for the entire night. However, a problem arose the next morning when Kait started trying to wake me up. The scene went something like this:
Kait: Hey sweety, we are almost at the station. Can you get everything ready?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble.
Kait: What sweety? Hey, can you get up for me?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Snore.

Apparently, the pill I took was really, really strong, and I was unable to become fully conscious. Once the bus stopped, I forced my body to walk outside and grab my stuff, but I was pretty dizzy and had a strong desire to sit down (and sleep). I don’t remember how we got to the center of the city, but once there, we tried a hostel that tried to charge us twice the normal rate of a room with a double bed. (This is the norm in Cusco since it is so close to the famed Machu Picchu.) Kait, realizing that I would be the opposite of helpful in trying to find a new hostel, asked the owner if she could “leave my husband here” while she looked for a new hostel. The owner, a sweet old grandma, had no objection. In fact, seeing my discomfort, she ended up giving me some tea, which I thought was really nice of her.

Eventually, Kait came back, and took me to our hostel. Immediately, I crashed on the bed and fell asleep, which I did off and on for the remainder of the day. Kait came back at one point and woke me up, at which time I remarked, “I didn’t realize I fell asleep!” even though I had been sleeping for probably three hours. In the end, I pretty much lost an entire day due to sleep, and then I slept some more during that night, which I didn’t feel I really needed, but I did it anyways.

Our next trip was from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the pueblo that abuts Machu Picchu. Aside from the shockingly overpriced everything, we had a good time perusing the town before going to bed early in preparation for waking up stupidly early to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu the next morning.

MACHU PICCHU!
We woke up at 3:50am, grabbed our pre-packed breakfast, and waited at the bus station for about an hour and a half before the first bus was scheduled to leave – and we were still by no means the first people there. The bus ride to the top was windy but thankfully pretty short, and once there, we joined another line to the entrance. Once inside the gates, we hiked along, photographed a bunch of llamas, and continued along the trail. At about the time we saw the llamas, we saw some structures, but it was so foggy that we could not see past them. Apparently, that was where Machu Picchu was! But, being the over achievers that we are, we hiked well past that point up the MOUNTAIN of Machu Picchu, which is completely different than the city/ruins under the same name. Being with a crowd of other people, though, we had no idea.

Eventually, some Japanese tourists figured it out and started to descend, but after we met some savvy travelers named Raphael and Tereza, we decided to continue ascending with them. We hiked along some awesome stone stairs and passed through the sun gate, and after much effort (my legs are still sore; I am not allowed to even touch Kait’s calves…), we made it to the top. However, our view was completely obscured by clouds; even the top of the mountain was covered in a cloud, so we decided to wait for a while in order for things to clear up. That was okay, though, because this gave us a chance to get to know the other travelers. After a couple of hours, we were afforded some really great views of the site, even if it was still partially cloud-covered. We took way too many photos here and hung around for a while longer waiting for the intermittent views of the ruins.

We decided to descend once we had had our fill, and made our way to the ruins which were no longer covered in fog. We didn’t mind that we had accidentally missed the ruins the first time because it was so shrouded at the ground level, and once we returned, we had great fun in taking way too many photos once more.

Before arriving at Machu Picchu, I had been developing the impression that the site in general was overblown, especially compared to some of the other ruins we saw – like Kuelap – that were grandiose and impressive in and of themselves. However, being at Machu Picchu made me realize that it really was a special place. The geography and the quality of the ruins combined even with bad weather provided us a breath-taking view that left us feeling very lucky that we had the opportunity to make it.

Plans for the near future:
We will travel from here to Puno, which is next to Lake Titicaca, and we will relax there for a few days. My flight home leaves from La Paz on the 15th of February, but I recently realized that there is a $135 fee just to enter Bolivia! So I might end up back-tracking all the way to Lima where I have a connecting flight and then just catch that for cheaper than it would be to enter Bolivia. In any case, I will be home on the morning of the 16th, and after that, I will start looking for a job either as a temporary teacher or a substitute, depending on what I can find. Wish me luck!