thankfully i am back in lima. the andes mountain areas were very bad for me. very bad. there is such a thing as altitude sickness and i learned about it the hard way.

immediately upon arrival to cusco, i was incredibly tired, as i hadn't slept much in 24 hours, which is a big bad situation to begin with. so i went straight to bed at my lovely 'garden house' inn. very wonderful place with sweet people. i slept for a few hours, but i wanted to have dinner in cusco and see some of the city before i went to sleep. so i did, and just became more and more tired. my head hurt. and every step i took was three times the energy usually needed. the altitude takes away so much energy. i went back to my inn, slept, but had to wake up at 5am to catch my train to aquas calientes which is the town at the base of machu picchu. the train was wonderful. but i was exhausted once i arrived there and i immediately took a nap. i wanted to catch the last bus up the hill to machu picchu so i could see it a bit that night, and then return again in the morning for a full day of it.

but i was incredibly weak. very very weak. and my stomach was needing to explode. i got to machu picchu and the first thing there is a series of stairs and stairs and stairs up. i didn't think it was possible as weak as i was. and it pretty much wasn't. although i made it up to the top, i became violently ill at the top, violently, violently ill, at the top, where i was going to take a picture of myself at the top overlooking machu picchu. all i could do was find a rock that allowed me to sit next to a wall and try to breathe and try to relax. but it was no use. i couldn't even imagine heading back down the hill to go home, let alone trying to see machu picchu in its entirety. i managed one or two pictures, but i couldn't do much more. i was so sick, violently, did i mention violently?, yes violently, and it was a horrible experience i was to try my best to forget completely.

upon arriving back at my hotel, i slept for nearly 24 hours. i did not go back up the next morning as planned. i could not even get out of bed. i was so weak and tired. the only thing that got me out of my bed was needing to catch the train back to cusco that afternoon. and i did so, eating only a few crackers and drinking lots of water. i made it back to my inn in cusco where they were so sweet and took care of me. it's an inn run by two sisters and they considered me their son and treated me very well. they put me on oxygen several times, gave me tea, gatorade, and some toast, and put me to bed.

thankfully i am back in lima where i feel like i can breathe again. i feel much better. not completely, but much better. and i plan to take the next day pretty easy here in lima, resting in my suite (free upgrade!) and limiting food to chicken soup and stuff like that.

never mention machu picchu to me again. awful awful experience. it's not the place's fault. just a horrible experience for me. very sadly...