PERU&Machu Picchu

Hello dear ones,

The adventure in Peru has now been going on for a week, and I've experienced so much again!

I'm really enjoying my time here, although the culture shock is significant.

Cusco is a very beautiful, lively, and colorful city, but also incredibly dirty, poor, and loud. In the past few days, I've been exploring the city a lot and checking out the main squares. For instance, I visited the large market, where you can buy souvenirs, as well as fruits, vegetables, and meat! It wasn't very appetizing, as the meat isn't refrigerated or stored hygienically. Speaking of meat, there are not just beef and chicken available, but also specialties like guinea pig, frogs, sheep, and alpaca to buy :)

I strolled through the streets, and the smell is not pleasant. However, everything is incredibly cheap here; the currency is Soles, where four Soles equal one Euro :) A meal in a restaurant costs about 20 Soles, which is approximately 5€.

Additionally, my project on the animal farm started this week, which is really fun. Besides alpacas and bears, there are many parrots, condors, and even small monkeys. It's a sort of rescue center/zoo with rescued animals from all over Peru. Many of the parrots, for example, were confiscated by customs after being discovered at the airport, as they were illegally smuggled animals.

And the monkeys, who were kept illegally as pets for a long time. The stories are very sad, but the animals are better off now and well cared for.

My task mainly involves a lot of cleaning and then playing with the animals; I get to feed them and take them out of their enclosures.

However, I was only at the project for two days last week because I was already heading for the last big highlight of my trip that weekend on Friday. And that was to Machu Picchu🤩

I had been looking forward to it for a long time, and we booked the tickets almost a month in advance. Unfortunately, the trip didn't go as I had wished. On Friday, Cédric, my travel companion from Belgium, wasn't feeling well because he had a food infection. He had to vomit all night - guess who caught it next!

The journey was still quite calm; we were first picked up by a bus and then traveled through the beautiful mountain landscape on a very luxurious train.

We arrived in a small village, which was very touristy but still quite charming. Since Cédric was still feeling unwell, he stayed at the hostel while Oz and I went out for a delicious lunch. That was my last meal on this trip, after which we went to the so-called hot springs, which were quite cool.

Back at the hostel, I also realized that I felt really nauseous, and from then on, it went downhill!

Unfortunately, I also had to vomit frequently, and nothing stayed in my stomach. Since my symptoms were similar to Cédric's, we believe that I caught it from him; he had eaten some not well-cooked chicken a few days ago, and that's likely what caused the salmonella that affected us both.

With the hope that I would feel better the next morning, we went to bed early. We had to wake up early since we bought tickets to Machu Picchu for 6:00 AM. Initially, I was still feeling okay.

However, once we got to the top, I unfortunately couldn't do anything anymore! The effort of climbing up the steps completely exhausted me, and I almost vomited in corners multiple times :)

My stomach cramps got worse, and ultimately I had to abandon my tour out of frustration; the guys continued a bit longer, but Cédric wasn't feeling great either. While waiting for the guys, a very sweet street dog came over and comforted me a bit.

Back in the city, after almost 40 minutes of winding roads, we rested and I managed to return to Cusco!

I spent Sunday very quietly and slept a lot, now I’m feeling better :)

What an experience!

Today is Monday, which means I have four more days here in Cusco! I want to make the most of them and hope that I can travel home healthy and happy :)

Enjoy the beautiful pictures from Peru&

Make sure to cook your chicken well!!

hasta luego 💞

Paulita