Me Siento Enfermo

The first thing people told me before going to Peru is not to drink the water and be careful what you eat. Me, being the cautionary and worrisome person I am, have drank only bottled water and was careful with what I ate. However, even being careful, I still ended up getting sick and spent two nights in the hospital due to contracting a parasite.

It started two days ago, the official celebration of the Festival of the Sun here in Cusco. Ben and I checked out of our hostal and walked around to find breakfast. Even at 10 o’clock in the morning, there were hundreds of people filling the streets of Cusco, eating and drinking in celebration. I even got to hold an adorable baby alpaca!

It seemed like the start to a great day, until we sat down for breakfast and like an intense wave I felt fatigued and cold. The minute my breakfast came out, I had lost my appetite, only eating a piece of toast and some scrambled eggs. I had a chill inside me that not even my coca tea could warm. Thinking it was the effects of the high altitude hitting me extra hard after a night of drinking, I drank as much water as I could. Ben booked our next AirBnB and promised he wouldn’t be upset if I took an hour or two to lay down and feel better.

Once we got to the room (Ben would probably like me to mention that he carried both of our backpacks to our AirBnB because he’s just the sweetest) I climbed right into bed and covered myself with blankets. We were even lucky enough to have a space heater put in the room. I took a two-hour nap, hoping I would wake up refreshed and ready to get started with our day. Unfortunately, I woke up to feeling worse and colder than ever.

Now, it’s very rare for me to have a fever, so when I have one I know. Ben ran to the pharmacy and asked for Tylenol, or something similar, and brought it back for me. Hoping it was just a simple sickness that a pain reliever and fever reducer could heal, I popped the pills and went back to sleep. Not wanting to ruin Ben’s day, I told him to go to the festival and enjoy Cusco; I would call him if I needed anything.

Later that night I woke up and felt worse than ever. Still shivering with an intense chill, even though Ben claims our room was the hottest room he had ever been in, I knew something was wrong. After taking my temperature and finding out it was a whopping 102 degrees, Ben called a doctor for me.

In Peru, the doctor will come right to you. In just 40 minutes, a physician came up to our room and did a physical examination in which he then concluded that I should be taken to the hospital. They already had the ambulance outside and ready, I just had to pack a bag and come down. It was all very impressive the swiftness of events that took place that night. From climbing into the ambulance to being rolled through a hospital in a wheelchair to a room already prepared for me, to being hooked up to an IV and put on oxygen, to diagnosing me with a parasite and an ear infection just a few hours after I arrived, I was impressed. In just an hour of being in the hospital, Ben claims I looked 100% better.

A special thank you to Ben for discretely taking pictures

This was my first time ever being in a hospital, but to tell you the truth, I wasn’t scared at all. Having Ben by my side and such friendly nurses who spoke English very well, I was glad to be there. Throughout the night nurses came and went checking on me and replacing fluids and antibiotics. The room itself was amazing. It was private with a hospital bed for me and a queen sized bed for Ben. We had our own bathroom as well as a TV with access to Netflix. Something that could have been a very scary experience, turned out to be easy and comfortable.

After spending two nights in the hospital under watchful care I was ready to get out of there. Mostly, I was ready to get the IV out of my arm. Not being one for needles, knowing that one was inside my arm freaked me out. It will take a few days to finally feel completely normal. With a strict diet of which I can eat bread and pasta (yay!) for the next three days, hopefully we will be able to make our trek to Machu Picchu soon and head back to Lima where we can breathe again.

Acclimating – Cusco, Peru

It’s hard to breathe 11,000 ft above sea level. We had read about altitude sickness and the effects of being at such a high elevation, but never thought the effects would so strongly inhibit us from our everyday travels. Right as we stepped off the plane, we noticed we were having trouble getting lungfuls of air and it wasn’t because we were exposed to a breathtaking scenery of multiple vast mountains surrounding us. After walking up a simple ramp in the airport, we had to stop for breath. The first two days in Cusco, walking up a flight of steps or up a hill was demanding of us. It was alarming the first morning we woke up in Cusco to find that both of our lips had turned slightly blue.

Mate de Coca

Thank God for the coca leaf. The coca leaf has been used for many centuries by Andean natives to cure altitude sickness symptoms. It can be chewed or brewed into a tea. Many drug stores, small grocery stores, and herbal medicine stores sell the leaves and tea for very cheap. At first, Ben and I tried chewing them. It’s not actual chewing, it’s more of rolling up some leaves and putting them in your cheek while your saliva moistens them. It’s incredible how helpful these leaves were. Most restaurants sell coca tea, which tastes very similar to green tea. Whenever we felt the side effects of altitude sickness, these leaves helped us tremendously.

Our first day in Cusco, we decided to take it easy and acclimate to the high altitude, until we stumbled upon some steps that didn’t stop until we reached the top of a mountain with a famous statue called Christo Blanco. You would think after reading about resting the first few days in Cusco, we would have listened. However, curiosity got the best of us. Don’t get me wrong, we had to stop many, many times before reaching the top. It was definitely worth the hike though. From the top, we were able to see the city center of Cusco along with more mountains in the distance. Not only was it beautiful, but I swear after that hike, the altitude rarely affected us.

Cusco is an absolutely beautiful city and it may just be one of my favorites. It is over 3,000 years old, making it the oldest city in the Americas. With old, narrow cobblestone streets and intricate stone churches, it feels like I have stepped into a history book. There are plenty of plazas where vendors sell goods and food and are surrounded by restaurants and stores. These seem to be the most popular places to go in the city. This is the kind of city you can walk around and be amazed at what you see when you turn a corner. That is my favorite kind of city. Lima, I felt, lacked the history and architecture I was used to in Europe and wasn’t surprised by walking around.

People look different in the mountains compared to on the coast. Their skin is darker and they look more indigenous, representative of the Incas. They are also much shorter than Americans. It’s also common to see older women and some children wearing traditional style clothing. There are so many colorful ponchos, hats, and sweaters, I may just come home with a rainbow in my backpack! It’s amazing to see how different the culture is in Cusco compared to Lima.

I thought the food in Lima was good, well the food in Cusco is even better. If we spoke before I left for my trip, I’m sure you learned that guinea pig is a delicacy in Peru. I’m here to tell you that it is DELICIOUS! Now, I couldn’t bring myself to order the roasted guinea pig, but I had it wrapped in bacon with some vegetables and it was fantastic. I also tried some alpaca steak, which was good, but not as good as the guinea pig. Yesterday, we walked through Plaza de San Francisco and found the square full of street vendors preparing and selling roasted cuy (guinea pig), which inspired me to try it at a restaurant.

This weekend is the Festival of Sun, the most important festival in Cusco. Today there were thousands of people visiting from all over Peru and the world to witness a parade and the carrying of statues of saints to the Cusco Cathedral. I’ll write more about it tomorrow!

Ariba Peru! – Lima, Peru

Peru is amazing and I’m never coming home. Just kidding, but it really is amazing here!

We arrived in Peru in the early hours of the morning after our flight was delayed thanks to a crying (screaming) baby. Exhausted, we ordered a cab from the airport and went through the most terrifying car ride of our lives. First off, Peruvians who live in Lima don’t know how to drive. Are there rules of the road? No. Their horns are extensions of their voices. Driving on a two-lane road? Wrong. You are now driving on a newly dubbed three-lane road by the taxi drivers. Walking around the city and crossing the street is another story I will save for another day. Just know that stop signs are more of a suggestion than a law.

Ben and I stayed in Mira Flores, an absolutely beautiful part of Lima. Our AirBnB was just two blocks away from Parque de Kennedy, which is a gorgeous park with blossoming flowers and tons of stray cats roaming around just waiting for Peruvians (or American tourists like me) to adopt them. If you know Ben, you know he hates cats. So, while sitting in the park enjoying the weather you can imagine his reaction when a stray cat climbed into his lap and prepared for an afternoon snooze.

I’m sure you’re all wondering how the food is here. There is no word to describe it except delicious and cheap. The Peruvian currency is definitely a friend to young Americans who want to travel. Ben and I have been eating at some great restaurants in the heart of Lima daily, usually totaling around $25 for both of us, including cocktails. Another thing, Pisco Sours are amazing and will definitely get you tipsy if that’s what you’re looking for. We tried some traditional Peruvian food, one of the dishes being ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish soaked in a citrus juice and served with onions. It’s absolutely delicious and I wish we had it in the States.

During out time in Lima we saw (and touched) the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Ben even took his first surfing lesson in it! We went on a night bus tour of Lima and took a tour of the San Franciscan Monastery and Catacombs, where we made two backpacking friends and grabbed drinks with them. We went to a chocolate museum where we learned about the process of how chocolate is made and ate an amazing chocolate lava cake. Lastly, we went to the zoo, which reminded me of how much I hate zoos and how bad I feel for the animals.

Overall, Lima was great! It’s a major city with about 10 million residents. There are some bad neighborhoods that we wandered into and some beautiful neighborhoods we toured. The people were extremely friendly and helpful when we asked for directions or advice. The city itself was incredibly clean (take a note Philadelphia!) and had a ton of culture. I would definitely visit Lima again, however I am ready to move on to the next leg of our adventure: Cusco.

A Peruvian Adventure

It’s been a year since backpacking through Europe. Now Ben and I are on another backpacking adventure, but this time it’s around Peru. A lot has changed in the last year since coming back from Europe. I graduated from Temple University with my bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing, I started working in real estate, and have become more comfortable with online writing. Not only have I advanced academically and career-wise, but have also come to know myself a little more over this past year.

 

But now it’s time to embark on another adventure, this time, on a new continent with a very different history and culture than Europe. It all started with a 2 am phone call over winter break. Half asleep, I answered a call from Ben, whose excitement took me by surprise. Eyes still closed I heard, “I have an idea, but I need like a month or two of your time over the summer.” I already knew this wasn’t going to be a conversation I wanted to have in the early hours of the morning. “For a graduation gift, I want to buy you a plane ticket to Peru.” It was a sweet and romantic gesture that I couldn’t possibly appreciate as much as I should have because of my drowsiness.

“That sounds great, but can we talk about it in the morning?” were my answering words. His excitement didn’t suppress as he talked about all the things we could do and how great it would be. Eventually, he agreed to talk about it in the morning and back to sleep I went.

 

It only took a day to figure out if Peru was the right place to go and when to do it. After a few more phone conversations, the decision was made. The next step: telling my parents. They hadn’t been too thrilled about our backpacking in Europe at first, so I was nervous to tell them that we had decided to go on another international trip. We bit the bullet and told them over Christmas Eve after a couple glasses of wine. Once again, they weren’t thrilled, but knew that they couldn’t do anything to stop us. And so the tickets were bought and we only had to wait six months until our trip.

 

Which brings us to today. We leave for Peru and will be there for three weeks. Just two days before leaving, we uprooted our original plan of spending most of our time in Lima (Peru’s capital) and traveling to Cusco and Machu Picchu for a few days. After talking to some people who have traveled around Peru, they recommended to spend most of our time in Cusco and not to plan anything. So, I’m sorry Mom and Dad, after June 19^th, we are completely winging the rest of our trip and I don’t have an itinerary to send you.

 

At first, the upheaval of our plan to relax and stay in one city made me nervous. I also was really looking forward to not backpacking again and being able to have a suitcase with more than four outfits. If you ask Ben about that night and conversation, he would tell you I was acting like a crazy person, which admittedly, I was. Now that we are packed (with just five outfits and two pairs of shoes) I’m ready to be a backpacker again! I have mentally prepared myself for wearing unwashed clothing multiple times and carrying all of our stuff. I’m ready! Unlike Europe, this trip has no concrete plan, so I’ll just let the wind take hold of us.

 

From Peru With Love

xoxo