Dec 27, 2010
Day 4 Cusco
Imagine this. You planned a trip to Peru to hike the Inca Trail. In preparation, you bought new gear, you climbed the highest peak in your state to test your reaction to altitude, you trained by replicating the mileage of the hike for 4 days running for 4 weeks before the trip. Then, after making it to Peru, the day before the trip you got so violently ill that you were certain you would not be able to get out of bed, much less hike.
Yes, that’s what happened to me.
Cusco is at 11,150 feet. It is really hard to breathe, and most people experience headaches and nausea. So when i woke up on day 4 feeling sick to my stomach I chalked it up to the altitude. We had a nice breakfast and since it was raining we set out to tour 4 museums in Cusco: the museum of contemporary art, the museum of regional history, the museum of popular art, and the Oorikancha site museum.
After that we stopped at Limo for some soup, but I could not keep it down. That began a 12 hour vomit marathon that felt like someone was squeezing my stomach in a vice. John was very sweet and got me medicine, water, even a snack I thought I could keep down but that came back up almost immediately. He got a tank of oxygen from the front desk, which offered a small amount of relief from the cramping, but not from the vomiting.
I vacillated between thinking I might die, to wondering what I would do if I could not make the trek bus the next day at 5 am. I made John promise he would hike without me and I tried to think of how I could get down to a lower elevation to stay 3 days while he hiked. Every doubt you can image one might have in this situation went through my mind. Even if i could make the bus, how could I manage the hike having been so sick and weak?
I tried to sleep, but the cramping was so bad i could only curl up one way for a few moments, then curl up another way. John was up all night tending to me. He said that we would decide what to do at 4:30 am when the alarm went off. He packed my bags in case I felt better at all. Then we turned out the lights and waited.
