Day 4- Lima-Ollantaytambo-Aguas Calientes, Peru

The morning began bright and early, or should I say dark and early, at 4am. I had slept decently although the hostel guests were serenaded by some street cats getting into a huge hissy fight around 3am. It was actually pretty hilarious to listen to. Anyways, our cab showed up and we had a surprisingly calm ride to the airport. Unfortunately, my illness was back with a vengeance! Poor John had to wait in all the airport lines while I ran off "mysteriously" for 2 minute spans. After paying the random "airport tax" we got onto a very tiny baby plane and I sat next to a Canadian couple. I talked to the guy, and he told me he had been in South America for 3 weeks already, and gave me some advice about the rainforest. Basically I bought those shoes in Lima unnecessarily because most companies give you boots for hiking since it is "rainy season" currently, a.k.a. summer, in South America. I felt pretty sick the majority of the plane ride, so I had to give my free food away to John. During the flight we saw our first glimpse of the Andes mountains, and then we arrived in Cuzco/Cusco (In Spanish it is spelled with the "s" but for some reason English speakers are too cool for "s" and so we use a "z"?).

We got our luggage, and took an over-priced cab from the airport to some alleyway that was also the location of the bus company we needed. After the workers chucked our luggage onto the roof of the little bus we set off on our journey! John and I were the only tourists on this bus, which he of course loved. The drive ended up being incredibly scenic as we drove higher and higher into the mountains. We got to see a lot of local small towns and some really beautiful Andean landscape. Since I was feeling queasy I thought the driver was going crazy fast and taking the turns a bit too hard, but John assured me that we were fine. After about 2 hours we arrived to a small mountain town called Ollantaytambo (between Cuzco & Machu Picchu on the above map). We got there much earlier than the time our train was departing, so we had about 3 hours to kill. Luckily I wasn't feeling it yet, but it was only inevitable before the soroche, or altitude sickness, would set in. We started out by eating breakfast. John had his beloved empanada and I successfully ate some bread and butter-I was pretty excited about it. We spent the rest of the time people-watching, taking photos, bartering, and playing a trivia game I brought. I bought Rachel a colorful woven purse from a really nice lady who also sold John this cowboy/Indiana-Jones style hat (you will see it in most of the future pictures since he fell in love with it!) We didn't have a place to put our backpacks so we had to carry them with us the whole time. This wasn't a problem until it started raining, but luckily we snagged a sheltered bench just in time. By the time our train was close to arriving the little street had gotten very crowded with tourists.

When the time came, we got on the train. For some reason the train is set up so that 2 seats face inwards towards 2 other seats. A Brazilian couple sat across from us and the man across from me wasn't exactly petite, so there wasn't really room for my legs. It was kind of awkward so I tried sitting sideways etc. After the train departed Ollanta the Brazilian woman suggested we switch seats, it was nice because now John and I could both see out the window. The train ride to the city of Aguas Calientes was really scenic, it followed the river, and being able to look up and see the Andes mountains and the surrounding landscape was great. We saw waterfalls, and some small local schools and homes too. It was a nice relaxing train ride, and definitely very beautiful. When we arrived into Aguas Calientes (the most touristy town in all of Peru) we looked for a person holding a sign with John's name on it. I saw a sign from Pirwa Backpackers that said "Jhon Weiold", and I thought "hmm that is pretty close to John's name.. Probably us." It indeed was. After we waited for them to rally up some more of us tourists we followed our hostel-person into the small town.

The town is centered around the Urubamba River, and it almost is like a semi-waterfall because it runs slowly downhill through the middle of the city. You can only access the city by train so the town has no cars or anything. The rushing water is fairly loud but it makes you feel relaxed and "away from it all" since you get to listen to the water instead of cars honking. To get to our hostel we had to cross a bouncy rope-bridge and walk uphill on cobblestone streets. Our hostel was a nice place right next to the river, so there was always the relaxing running water sound. After dropping off our backpacks we went out into town. Our first stop was the ticket office to buy our entry into Machu Picchu for tomorrow. It was the most expensive thing I've bought on the trip so far! After that we got in line for a bus ticket from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. They only let you pay for this in US dollars randomly? We then spent some time shopping. They have a crazy amount of vendors and shops and open air markets selling anything and everything you could ever need in the souvenir department. The most repetitive items were things like vases, necklaces, sweaters, snow hats with llama designs on them, and colorful woven blankets, scarves, and purses. I bought a Peruvian style snow hat, some shot glasses, a magnet and postcards. For dinner we walked down the steep street that the majority of restaurants were on and within seconds we were swarmed! All the servers come out in the street shoving their menus in your face and telling you about free drinks, happy hour, their set menu, etc. It is a bit overwhelming and hard to choose with how pushy and desperate they are for you to eat at their restaurant. I never know how we end up deciding which place to eat at, but we ended up somewhere where I could eat a pizza, since I was craving one. I actually ate it but then once we left the restaurant I started feeling extremely sick. I convinced John to let me take a nap in the hostel while he went out and explored the less tourist-infested parts of the city.

When he came back I still wasn't feeling any better, but we had one thing left on our agenda- The natural hot springs! In English the name of the city Aguas Calientes means "hot waters", and so it was only natural that we should want to visit the source of its namesake. I was feeling very miserably sick and told John I didn't want to go, but he more or less forced me by saying I would always regret it if I didn't go, and that saying no wasn't an option! I agreed with this, and I somehow changed into a swimsuit and dragged myself up the hill to where the hot springs were. It was actually a neat walk because it was dark and with the running water it felt all mysterious and cool. When we got there we thought that the various pools would have different temperatures, but we realized they were all the same. We tried out a bunch and finally settled in and relaxed at one. I was hoping the water would calm me and make my intense nausea go away, but it had the reverse effect. I was sitting there relaxing, enjoying the hot water and then suddenly I jumped out and ran to a nearby isolated flower bush. Getting sick in public is not fun but is something I have to get used to for this trip apparently. I started pathetically crying because I was feeling both sorry for myself and guilty for ruining John's fun. After that incident we went back to the hostel and even though the international call was crazy expensive I caved and called my mom. She had been talking to some doctor friends about what I could do, and she gave me the spanish name of a strong anti nausea medicine. The doctor who told her the name frequently went to Peru on medical mission trips and said the drug was over the counter and very popular all over the country.

After I reviewed the page in my Spanish phrase book about medical symptoms, John and I went to find a pharmacy. We fought our way down the restaurant street and I am glad I knew how to say "we already ate", because it would have been a lot worse otherwise, haha. We arrived at a pharmacy and I, (be proud) in Spanish, explained my symptoms and told them what my US doctor had told me. The pharmacist said she had never heard of this supposedly popular drug, but recommended something else called "gravol" that I could take every 8 hours. We went to another pharmacy to see if they had heard of the meds I was supposed to find, but they also did not know what it was. It was frustrating for sure, but I ended up trusting their judgement and, after price comparing, went back to the first place and bought the gravol. I didn't really feel any difference after taking it, but I could at least keep down water. I had a miserable time falling asleep because I felt extremely nauseous and had really bad cold chills almost the whole night. I just kept praying that I would be okay for the next day because tomorrow was Machu Picchu! It has been my life dream to go there for years and I did not want to let some stupid illness ruin the experience for me!