China. Maybe One Day #8: Low Points and Highlights – Peru

By: Jeremy Taylor

Low Points and Highlights

Tim ended up staying in hospital for two nights. Still, at least he got some of
the best food I have seen in Bolivia. Nice, simple stuff like cooked chicken,
boiled potatoes and vegetables. No bloody chips or fried food, the lucky
git.

Anyway because we where both ill on the day we missed our cycle ride down
“the most dangerous road in the world”. Oh well, at the end of the day it is
just a big bike ride.

On the Friday morning Tim came out of hospital so to treat ourselves we went
to the best restaurant in La Paz. Apparently all the embassy staff, and TV
stars go to the place. Guess what we had for dinner? Yep, fried chicken and
chips. Still cost less than a Big Mac meal at home though.

Next stop was Copacabana. Once there we sorted out a day trip to the Isle
del Sol. Apparently the Incas believed that the world was created there, or
something like that. We had to get up early in the morning to go there and I
had not slept very well the night before, so I was not feeling too good when
I went down to get breakfast. I’m not sure if it was the breakfast or
something else, but when I went back up to the room to collect my bag, my
stomach did a somersault and required an emergency evacuation. It’s not that bad, I
thought, I can still do the trip. It was that bad. After two
hours sitting on a boat I was dying for a toilet, but there was none on the
island where we landed. So I had to walk for 40 minutes uphill to visit
an old Inca village. Still no loo. After another half hour, I just wandered
off and found a nice rock.

The next trial was a three hour walk over the top of
Isle del Sol. This wouldn’t have been so bad if I had not started vomiting
10 minutes into the walk. With the boat already gone, there was nothing for
it but to walk for three hours over the top of this island. Every half hour or
so I would have to stop and vomit up the water that I had been drinking.
This was in addition to the crippling stomach cramps that affected my
complaining guts. I could do nothing for that as there aren’t that many big
rocks when the path takes you along the highest point of the island.

When I finally climbed down the Inca steps at the other side of the island I was so
exhausted I couldn’t even sit on the ground. I had to lie down and
concentrate on keeping my eyes open. Whilst waiting an hour for the boat
home, the only time I did manage to sit up was to vomit again. But by this
time I was too tired to even move my legs and feet out the way. On the boat
home I lay down and only managed to move to vomit over the side of the boat
occasionally.

Once safely back in my bed at the hostel, I took packets of
rehydration fluid, and drank loads of water between trips to the bathroom. I
also dosed up on Paracetamol because of the fever I was getting, and drank some
of Tim’s left-over medicine. Took another packet of weird tasting, “good”
bacteria for my stomach and a couple of vitamin pills. Remarkably, when I
woke up in the morning I was feeling fine again. A bit weak admittedly, but
much better than the day before. The swiftness that my illness came and went
has convinced me that it was a bout of altitude sickness. The next
day we arrived in Puno, and after a good meal, another vitamin tablet, and a
good night’s sleep I felt as right as rain.

We had arranged a two day tour of the islands of Lake Titicaca the previous day, so it was another early start. After only an hour’s boat
journey our first stop was the strange, floating islands. These islands are
made out of reeds by the people who live on them and require constant
maintenance to keep them above water. To this end none of the houses on the
islands are secured to the ground. This means that whenever a new layer of
reeds need to be added they just pick the house up and lay the reeds
underneath it. The other advantage of this system is that if you
don’t like your neighbours you just pick your house up and move it to
another island.

After taking visiting the island for a while it was back on
the boat for a three hour journey to the island on which we would be staying
the night. After arriving we were assigned our houses for the night and told
to meet back in the village centre in a couple of hours. Typically, our house
was right on top of the hill. After being fed we walked back to the village
centre and then proceeded to hike up the biggest hill on the island to visit
some Inca ruins.

That night after supper we had to get dressed up in traditional island
costumes and go to the village hall for a party. It was quite fun. The music
was traditional and the dancing seemed to consist of just forming a circle and
dragging everyone around the dance floor. The next day we woke up early, said
goodbye to our hosts, and caught the boat to another island.

After finishing the island trips we caught a bus to the city of Cusco. The
bus ride was very comfortable and we had opted to take a tour. This meant
that we stopped at various archeological sites along the road to Cusco and
had a guided tour around them. It was very educational.

Wednesday, November 13^th we arrived in Cusco. It is now the 24^th of
November and I am finally managing to leave the city. Why have I stayed here
so long? Well, it’s simply a great place to hang out. By that I of course
mean get drunk and stay out dancing till 5am in the morning. I have managed to walk the Inca Trail
though, and that was fantastic and I would recommend anyone to actually take
three days to walk to the site. As you reach the top of the last hill and walk
through the Sun Gate, the early morning view of Machu Picchu is
breathtaking. Despite its name, “dead woman’s pass” isn’t that
difficult to climb over. It’s also named after the shape of the mountain, not
because anyone has died there. I actually found the third day harder,
because the first thing you do in the morning is walk straight up to another
high pass. At least on the second day you get a big buildup to the high
pass.

Tim and myself have parted company. Not because we have had a
falling out, but because he only wanted to do a two day walk to Machu Picchu
and then shoot up to Ecuador and try to go around the Galapagos Islands. I
really can’t afford to go there, so I said I would head slowly back
down the coast to catch my plane from Santiago.