MPC Chapter 7 - Machu Picchu in the Time of Diarrhea

There ain't no love and there ain't no cholera, but there is Machu Picchu and loads of diarrhea so Gabriel Garcia Marquez would be happy with that I think. Initially, we thought it was the altitude...especially because I got so ill the first day of the trek when we were over 4,000ft above sea level so that can have an impact, but at this point in time, we believe it to be some horrific parasite that I picked up somewhere (mostly considering that I am still wrecked with diarrhea at this point and it has been about 3 weeks in Peru now). The diarrhea has been endless since entering Peru...honestly, we have travelled to so many other places I would have thought might have impacted me viscerally, but Peru has taken the gold medal for abuse to my stomach. The entire time we hiked, I had explosive diarrhea up one side of the mountains and down the other. Of course, no one else seemed to be impacted which I am totally used to by this point in our travels and just in my life generally.
I must say though that hiking with explosive diarrhea and little nutrients absorbed in your body poses many intense challenges that must be overcome, because as we all know a group is only as strong as it weakest link and I did NOT want to be that link...a link I am too familiar with. So, I refused to allow this to derail me and kept up with the group the entire time, but it was rough and I was exhausted so when our final day, the most important day in relation to speed of hiking came around, I was ready to take it on...Hoo Yah (I picked that up from the military youngsters).
We all were sleeping by 9:00pm that night and had a plan for the morning. Not everyone had flashlights, something they neglected to put on the list of what to bring on your trek, so we needed to be strategic about who would hike with whom. Alex and I set our alarm on the mobile phone for 3:45am to be out by 4:00am to race down the hill through the town to the bridge where tey check your ticket before you cross for the mad scramble to the Machu Picchu entrance. There were dozens and dozens of eager travellers getting geared up for the ascent at 4:00am just like us, which caused me some major stress...especially when I saw those military kids...yikes.
I bucked up my laurels and just headed down that hill, through that town, over that bridge to the start of the 2,700 steps to the top. I must note that it was pitch black darkness making the uneven stair climb extremly percarious. It is also important to note that there were two times in which they allow the 400 to climb Huayna Picchu...7am and 10am. Abraham told us to book the 10am time slot, as the mist often covers Machu Picchu in the early hours of the morning, but usually clears by the 10am time slot so the race was on. It wasn't long before the faster members of the group (Gav, Mick and Tom) had raced to the top leaving me (and Alex by default because she was with me) and Gubby (and Fraser, again by default because he was with Gubby) behind in the darkness of the morning. Honestly, I felt like we made good time and there were so many people on those steps that wanted to abandon the whole thing and not even make it to Machu Picchu...we left them all behind and plowed ever forward until we emerged from the last step to a long cue of very dry, clean people. How could this be? How had they made it up that trecherously painful 2,700 step ascent to the top? Then, we saw another tour bus of clean dry people unload and get into the line. We raced to our place in the line being starred at and gawked at like your local group of homeless bums the entire time and we just stood there in silence at the betrayal of our leader who neglected to tell us about the bus rides to the top.
Honestly, we would have climbed up the stairs regardless, but they should really split the cues into those that climb up and those that bus up to get your stamp to climb Huayna Picchu, as it is only fair to give first dibs to those that trek up! Honestly, I cannot believe that I even felt like getting into an argument about hiking and trekking up yet another mountain after what we had just been through, not to even mention the previous 3 full days of hiking that we had already endured. We made it to the front of the line and we got our stamp, but we would be hiking the 7am and the others got the 10am hike. The group would be split for the first time in 3 days, but at least Al and I would get to hike Huayna Picchu with our dear friends Fraser and Gubby so we were atually alright with the whole thing...and you know what, they closed the cue for Huayna Picchu immediately after we got our stamps...we were the last ones...we made it!
We met the rest of our group at the entrance gate along with Abraham who took one of those buses to the top...cheeky...and then we entered the park all together. Whoosh...a surge of overwhelm crashed into me and washed through me like one of those tsunami waves...what was this that I was looking at...what was this place that was built so many years ago sprawling over thousands of metres of mountainside...so grand and mysterious with all the nooks and crannies to explore? It was like another, bigger, better more exhaustive playgroud for adults so rich in history and stories. The shimery mist just added to its' intrigue and gave me shivers up and down my spine. My eyes could not take it all in...and we were all smiling from ear to ear with sheer excitment at the magnitude of this place. Abraham took us around on a introduction to Machu Picchu tour that just added to our eagerness to be let loose on this treasure of a place...all the winding stone walls and labyrinthe-like passageways and rooms and buildings. Before too long, the four of us had to race over to Huayna Picchu for our 7am hike time so we bid adieu to Abraham, gave our compulsery cuddles and arranged a time and place (1:00pm/Temple of the Sun) to meet the rest of the group later that afternoon when they completed their 10am trek.
Off we marched to Huayna Picchu and another 1000+ stairs to the top of the mountain overlooking the back of Machu Picchu. It's funny how the pain in our feet and backs kind of lifted and the true understanding of trekking up yet another tall mountain sort of vanished from our psyches and we raced off to the top...don't get me wrong, there were moments of moaning and aching (on my part mostly) and there were some stomach upset moments, but we made it to the top...the tippy tippy top literally and were we ever rewarded with views that are almost indescribable.
The mist that Abraham told us might ruin our views only added to the mystery of the place and provided a perfect background for those spooky pictures you can take when the sun has just risen and it is still a bit horror movieish. It added drama and suspense to an already dramatic and suspenseful view. We sat there for a long while snapping every sinlge angle humanly possible and just breathing that Huayna Picchu air...it is really fresh and crisp up there. We ventured off down a path that led us up some very percarious 'stairs' leading us even further up some jagged rocks, through a tight cave, to a ladder and then up even more piles of boulders to the tip of Huayna Picchu...we made it. We really made it...and just when we thought it could not even get any better, Fraser looked down and saw a crisp 50 soles bill hidden between two of the rocks. He yelled out to Al, who grabbed it and we put it towards our farwell dinner/drinks that night.
We stayed up there as long as was allowed and then had to leave with heavy hearts and make our way back down. Many people may say that going down hill is so much easier, but I am just not so sure. My knees were creeking and crunching all the way down and then it hit me...the stomach parasite that was napping inside of me for the morning allowing me to get through the two uphill treks just woke up and it was angry. The problem was that there were dozens and dozens of travellers going up and down Huayna Picchu at the exact time I needed to tuck into a hidey hole to explode. Basically, Al kept watch with Gubby for those coming down the mountain and Fraser kept watch for those coming up the mountain and I tucked away with about a 5 minute window to diarrhea that mountain up...and boy did I ever. It was bright yellow too, not a natural colour really. Then Gubby screamed, "someone's coming, hurry!" Oh, the panic...and it turned out to be a guide, and Gubby told me that he was looking at me and giving me the evil eye, as if he knew what I had done. Oh the shame and horror of it all. Of course it was me and only me with the runny tummy throughout this adventure...no one else seemed to have even a touch of stomach illness...there were some sniffles though.
So back down towards Machu Picchu, we saw the rest of our gang heading up...they looked so excited and eager. We shared our stories and some photos and off they flew up that mountain. Honestly, the exhaustion of the past 3 days and this early morning jaunt up thousands of uneven Incaish stairs took its' toll and we were pooped. We kind of all sat around in the shade leaning on one of the millions of walls twisting around this mountaintop to just relax. Fraser and Gubby eventually made their way back to the front entrance, while Al and I napped percariously on a wall top overlooking the Temple of the Three Windows. I really like how they named all of these Machu Pichu sites...so self explanatory.
When we awoke, we had a few hours to kill before meeting the rest of the group to tackle the 1 1/2 hour hike to the Sand Gate and then the Inca Bridge. Honestly, if you did just take the bus up the hill and were released into Machu Picchu full of energy, dry, having slept in a clean and lovely hotel and having showered regularly, spending the day in Machu Picchu would still be exhausting in and of itself, but if you add to that 3 full days of hiking, a 4am wake up call to hike thousands of steps, diarrhea, malnourishment and blisters a plenty hiking around Machu Picchu can be an experiment in tourture. You take one wrong turn then you will find yourself climbing up and down endless stair cases and hills that seem neverending...and this happened to us numerous times. We spent some time with the alpacas to break up never ending stairs all around Machu Picchu and the time just seemed to escape us and it was time to meet the others.
Getting back to the meeting place was a tiny bit of death. I could not move so I sent Alex down to the meeting place and I screamed for them all to wait, while spying on them through the zoom lens of my camera...real classy stuff. I was a bit giddy when I discovered that the rest of the group was too exhausted to hike anywhere else and honestly just wanted to sit and do nothing. We managed to muster up enough energy to take a series of photos on the rock platform seruptitiously placed directly in front of Machu Picchu and so began the series of jumping pictures...eventually we agreed to walk to the Inca Bridge, as it was only a 15 minute commitment plus we still had our descent back down Machu Picchu to the town below and a 2 hour train ride and another 2 hour bus ride back to Cusco.
I am glad we went to see this bridge...it has been cordened off though, as a tourist fell off of it to their bloody death, as it is literally a tiny thin wooden plank leading up to an even thinner wobbly rocky cliff-like edge wrapping around the mountainside. But despite this, the views were amazing and this was Abraham's favourite place on Machu Picchu so it demanded a visit really, as he has seem this site hundreds of times. We all walked back to the front and said our goodbyes to the great Machu Picchu, got our passports stamped with a very touristy and appropriate blue stamp with the date and picture of our visit and hobbled back down the 2,700 steps back up the hill into the town and decided to spend that 50 soles on some pizza and beer for our one last horrah before we were all to be scattered to the 4 winds on our own travel adventures around the world, but not until after our last night together.