There is a lot to catch up on in the past three days. Thursday night I was supposed to go out with my host mom to a concert of a friend of hers that plays typical Inka music at a lounge... I laid down to rest as I was exhausted & it hit me pretty hard that I was not feeling good...so I didn´t make it back out of bed Thursday night. Friday only got worse. I am NOT used to being sick- especially when it isn´t just feeling run down but actually illness.... so that´s what I´ve been battling the past several days. I came to the conclussion that I´m not eating ANYTHING for a few days. After not eating (or trying a few bites a few times and having a horrible outcome)- this morning I tried to eat some bread and it was a no-go.... so I´m sticking to water and gatorade for the next few days to try and get this out of my system. The sound of food just repulses me as every time I try to eat something it makes me feel awful. Some small bug living in my stomache I suppose.... I have no idea where I picked it up.. but I´ve convinced myself it was from the cuy I ate on the street :) (guinea pig). I´m sticking to that... In fact I think I´ll call this little bug in my belly "cuy". I´m not one to turn down trying things but I did the deed and tried the guinea pig and came to the conclusion (this one´s for you G)... Good idea= have a guinea pig as a pet. Bad idea= have a guinea pig for dinner. Lesson learned :)
Now that I´ve gotten the bad out of the way.... this weekend was amazing despite feeling ill. On Friday Willy´s cousin, my best peruvian friend, Efrain came from Lima and we hung around Cuzco and did some sight-seeing and ran around the city. He was so patient with me as every 10-15 mins I´d have to sit down and let my stomach settle down. But we got quite a bit in. We hung out in the plaza and did some people watching- it is the best place I´ve been to people watch. Lots of foreigners here- but not many from the US. Most are from Argentina (LOTS), Chile, Brazil, Columbia.... all over. I was surprised that there aren´t more people from the States here- very little English speakers around Cuzco... which is good for me and my Spanish. The people from Argentina are crazy though. Friday night we got some dinner- but I only had one bite and was done. After we made plans to travel the next day to Machu Picchu... the adventure I´d been waiting to take!
It was good to be traveling with a Peruvian bc the way I was going to do the trip and the way that the peruvians do it is quite different & I ended up saving lots of money. Early Saturday morning we got a taxi to a city called Ollaytaitambo. If you haven´t heard of it check it out online.. pretty amazing. It was about an hour an a half from Cuzco. From there we caught the train to Aguas Calientes- The little town you stay in when visiting Machu Picchu. On the train my mouth was wide open seeing the views- this HUGE mountains that look NOTHING like the mountains in CO. Just unreal... Reminded me of a movie.. something like Lord of the Rings- amazing scenary.
When we got to Aguas Calientes we explored the little town- it was sooo cute... lots of little hostels and restaurants built around the train tracks and a fast paced river that runs through the town. Tiny place that once you´ve seen it you´ve seen it- but worth seeing. All day we walked around- again stopping every 15 mins- but I was so excited to be in a new place I tried not to let it slow me down. So much to see and explore! We had dinner at a little restaurant and I had a few bites of a pizza made on a thin crust...looked delicious... but was done pretty quick... and after trying that was bed-riden for the rest of the night. I felt so bad for Efrain as it was his first time going to Aguas Calientes as well... but he was chill & once again patient about "cuy" living in my belly.
It turned out to be a good thing that we went to bed early because we woke up at 4:30 yesterday morning to catch the bus to Machu Picchu. I was SO blessed to have a gap that I felt good (well better) for the day- and we went HARD for our time in Machu Picchu. We got up there about 5:30 am and once we got in we went straight to Wyannapicchu.... a HUGE mountain that you can climb that is the highest point. This is another experience that I´ll struggle to write about.... UNREAL. When you get to Machu Picchu you are already up in the sky in the clouds... but at Wyannapicchu it feels like you are above the WORLD. There was a line to get into the mountain & it is dangerous to say the least.. but such a rush. They only allow 400 people to climb a day... and there are sessions. We were numbers 97 & 98- you have to sign in to climb and sign back out to say you exited (aka survived). I had no idea what I was getting into- but it was going up these steep rocks for over an hour... there were parts you had to hold on to a cord and pull and it was wet and slippery. Lots of work to get up... but at the top was worth it all.
I struggled with energy a bit just as my body has been SO exhausted- but when we got to the top it was so cloudy you couldn´t see anything. We waited about 10 mins and it cleared completely and there was a perfect view of Machu Picchu from WAY above. Incredible. Wow. Wow. Wow. That is all I can say. I am going to see if I can put some pics later today. We enjoyed being on top of the world for a little while and started the trek down. Too much to see in one day. The accent was easier...but even more dangerous- but when we got back to the bottom and looked at where we´d been it hit me pretty hard. The rest of the morning we ran around Machu Picchu trying to soak it all in- see everything. Incredible (did I say that already?). Can´t really describe it more then that.
We went back to Aguas Calientes after enjoying one of the wonders of the world and hung out and walked around a bit more before the train came. The train was a good experience.... we had to travel in seperate cars- as he was a resident of Peru and I was a foreigner.... to me that seemed like descrimination... but what can a little gringa do about a system they have set? I ended up sitting by a guy from France who was traveling with a friend of his who is peruvian as well- so they were seperated also. We struck up some conversation and after seeing the sights from the train we were back in the city where we got another mini-van taxi back to Cuzco. Home sweet home. We returned with a bunch of bug bites, a splash of sun on our skin and we were pretty dirty and tired. BUT well worth it all!
Last night I went back to my host family... sad to see my puruvian amigo leave as we had such a great time. I will get to see Willy´s family again on the 14th of Feb. so I´m looking forward to that.
Today is back to work... classes and spanish. My Spanish class was hard today- which was good as I had been challenged, but not really pushed last week. I feel awful right now- thinking of getting to a doctor (could be interesting) sometime this week if I´m not feeling better. As long as I can dodge food I should be good to go. About to head home to my house for "lunch time" so this should be interesting................ I´ll keep ya posted :)
Now that I´ve gotten the bad out of the way.... this weekend was amazing despite feeling ill. On Friday Willy´s cousin, my best peruvian friend, Efrain came from Lima and we hung around Cuzco and did some sight-seeing and ran around the city. He was so patient with me as every 10-15 mins I´d have to sit down and let my stomach settle down. But we got quite a bit in. We hung out in the plaza and did some people watching- it is the best place I´ve been to people watch. Lots of foreigners here- but not many from the US. Most are from Argentina (LOTS), Chile, Brazil, Columbia.... all over. I was surprised that there aren´t more people from the States here- very little English speakers around Cuzco... which is good for me and my Spanish. The people from Argentina are crazy though. Friday night we got some dinner- but I only had one bite and was done. After we made plans to travel the next day to Machu Picchu... the adventure I´d been waiting to take!
It was good to be traveling with a Peruvian bc the way I was going to do the trip and the way that the peruvians do it is quite different & I ended up saving lots of money. Early Saturday morning we got a taxi to a city called Ollaytaitambo. If you haven´t heard of it check it out online.. pretty amazing. It was about an hour an a half from Cuzco. From there we caught the train to Aguas Calientes- The little town you stay in when visiting Machu Picchu. On the train my mouth was wide open seeing the views- this HUGE mountains that look NOTHING like the mountains in CO. Just unreal... Reminded me of a movie.. something like Lord of the Rings- amazing scenary.
When we got to Aguas Calientes we explored the little town- it was sooo cute... lots of little hostels and restaurants built around the train tracks and a fast paced river that runs through the town. Tiny place that once you´ve seen it you´ve seen it- but worth seeing. All day we walked around- again stopping every 15 mins- but I was so excited to be in a new place I tried not to let it slow me down. So much to see and explore! We had dinner at a little restaurant and I had a few bites of a pizza made on a thin crust...looked delicious... but was done pretty quick... and after trying that was bed-riden for the rest of the night. I felt so bad for Efrain as it was his first time going to Aguas Calientes as well... but he was chill & once again patient about "cuy" living in my belly.
It turned out to be a good thing that we went to bed early because we woke up at 4:30 yesterday morning to catch the bus to Machu Picchu. I was SO blessed to have a gap that I felt good (well better) for the day- and we went HARD for our time in Machu Picchu. We got up there about 5:30 am and once we got in we went straight to Wyannapicchu.... a HUGE mountain that you can climb that is the highest point. This is another experience that I´ll struggle to write about.... UNREAL. When you get to Machu Picchu you are already up in the sky in the clouds... but at Wyannapicchu it feels like you are above the WORLD. There was a line to get into the mountain & it is dangerous to say the least.. but such a rush. They only allow 400 people to climb a day... and there are sessions. We were numbers 97 & 98- you have to sign in to climb and sign back out to say you exited (aka survived). I had no idea what I was getting into- but it was going up these steep rocks for over an hour... there were parts you had to hold on to a cord and pull and it was wet and slippery. Lots of work to get up... but at the top was worth it all.
I struggled with energy a bit just as my body has been SO exhausted- but when we got to the top it was so cloudy you couldn´t see anything. We waited about 10 mins and it cleared completely and there was a perfect view of Machu Picchu from WAY above. Incredible. Wow. Wow. Wow. That is all I can say. I am going to see if I can put some pics later today. We enjoyed being on top of the world for a little while and started the trek down. Too much to see in one day. The accent was easier...but even more dangerous- but when we got back to the bottom and looked at where we´d been it hit me pretty hard. The rest of the morning we ran around Machu Picchu trying to soak it all in- see everything. Incredible (did I say that already?). Can´t really describe it more then that.
We went back to Aguas Calientes after enjoying one of the wonders of the world and hung out and walked around a bit more before the train came. The train was a good experience.... we had to travel in seperate cars- as he was a resident of Peru and I was a foreigner.... to me that seemed like descrimination... but what can a little gringa do about a system they have set? I ended up sitting by a guy from France who was traveling with a friend of his who is peruvian as well- so they were seperated also. We struck up some conversation and after seeing the sights from the train we were back in the city where we got another mini-van taxi back to Cuzco. Home sweet home. We returned with a bunch of bug bites, a splash of sun on our skin and we were pretty dirty and tired. BUT well worth it all!
Last night I went back to my host family... sad to see my puruvian amigo leave as we had such a great time. I will get to see Willy´s family again on the 14th of Feb. so I´m looking forward to that.
Today is back to work... classes and spanish. My Spanish class was hard today- which was good as I had been challenged, but not really pushed last week. I feel awful right now- thinking of getting to a doctor (could be interesting) sometime this week if I´m not feeling better. As long as I can dodge food I should be good to go. About to head home to my house for "lunch time" so this should be interesting................ I´ll keep ya posted :)
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