Cuzco, and a parasite decides to spoil the fun
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2008
1
10
28
Trip End
Nov 20, 2008
Cusco,
Peru
Monday, July 28, 2008
After sorting ourselves out at the hotel we wandered around Cuzco for the rest of the day. It´s a really lovely city and was once the heart of the Inca Empire
Street we are staying on
. There are still lots of original stonework all around the city, they´re amazingly designed and have withstood many earthquakes, pretty impressive. There are lots of cobbled streets with white-washed buildings and blue paint work. There are also more souvenir shops than we can possibly visit and Dom straight away got stuck in with haggling and spending. As we went to bed I had a bit of a fever but just put it down to another long bus journey and my body not liking the move from hot (Nazca) to cold (Cuzco). I thought I would sleep it off...no such luck. The next day I felt pretty bad and had to stay in bed. I kept thinking that sleep and paracetamol would sort it out but it didn´t. Then I started getting an awful backache and terrible stomach cramps. At 6am the following day we got a bit scared because I was getting worse so we called a Dr out. He very quickly determined that I had a parasite. Eek! I felt like Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix" when he gets that thing in him at the beginning of the film! He prescribed some very strong antibiotics which have definitely done the trick. I shall spare you the gory details but I can honestly say that I´ve never been that ill in all my life, it was truly awful, very scary for both of us and definitely the low point of the trip. Dom was lovely though and looked after me very well.
However, I am happy to say that after 3 days in bed I´m very well again now. We have done some serious thinking about whether the 3 days of hiking on the Inca Trail (which we start tomorrow) is a good idea but we´ve decided to go ahead. We took some advice with the tour company and they are happy I go. We also went for a long walk around Cuzco today, up and down as many steps as we could find, and I´ve been fine so I´m confident I´m ready for the challenge
Main square
.We´ve been pretty surprised at how expensive Cuzco is, though it´s obviously the most touristy place in the whole of South America. It´s been very hard to stick to our budget here and we´ve had to pass on a number of museums. Can you believe that they charge almost 6pounds to go into the Cathedral! So in hindsight this was probably the best place for me to be ill and stay in bed and watch TV! Although we want to do everything we have to keep an eye on our budget as it is dwindling slightly faster than we were expecting.
Today was Independence Day and it was disappointing in that there were no street parades or fiestas. There were lots of Peruvian tourists and families having a day out but no official festivities. Apart from fireworks going off every now and then which do make you jump out of your skin!
Today we have to done a bit of shopping and sorting ready for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and we´re hoping to meet up with some friends in the afternoon. Sorry that this installment hasn´t been that exciting but parasites and high costs have meant that we haven´t been up to much recently. I´m sure the next installment will be much more interesting! Hope you enjoy the photos of Cuzco though.
Glad to hear you´ve been getting good weather back in the UK, hope you are all enjoying the summer.
Lots of love, G xx
Comments
Howdy
Best of luck for the inca trail.
Hope you are feeling better now, Im normally very envious of you, whilst I read your blogs, but it must be pretty scary being ill and thousands of mile from home. keep up the good work on the Blogs. maybe you could get Dom (or maybe a llama in a woolly hat?) to carry you up the inca trail?
Bets of luck
Alexx