April 26th, 2019
Today, we had to rest and explore Cusco and set up our tours to decide what we wanted to do with our next 10 days here. As I mentioned before, there is SO much in Peru to do, you really have to pick and choose if you have limited time. Last night I started to get sick with a stomach bug like Brendan had in Lima. I was hoping it would be slight enough not to even mention in the blog, but it turned out to put me down more than I hoped. The only positive was that Brendan was already much better, and it was really short-lived for him. I started looking it up and the CDC rates Peru (along with Nepal and Haiti) as one of the highest risk countries for bacteria such as E. Coli, Shigell, and Samonella which can cause the dreaded traveler’s diarrhea. On top of that, I had a sore throat, runny nose, and body aches. I felt very fortunate that so far on the trip, I had not been sick at all and actually feeling the best I have in a while. I guess my luck had run out! Fortunately, all we had to do today was make our reservations and didn’t have to do anything too strenuous.
I pulled Brendan away from school to come with me to book tours because I was feeling so crummy, I was afraid I couldn’t do it by myself. We walked to the Central Plaza of Cusco and made a game plan. This was super exciting as we booked 2 single day tours and then were able to book a 5-day trek on the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu! I was really hoping to be able to do this trek. As amazing as the Inca trail would be, I learned you must reserve it FAR in advance and even then, it is very expensive. The Salkantay is less traveled and supposed to be incredible. National Geographic rated it in the top 25 of the best hikes in the world. Although I was feeling under the weather, making our plans was really exciting. We booked in a way to give us the most time to climatize to the altitude and for me to hopefully get back to a 100% before starting a “difficult, high altitude” marked trek.
I had read about renting a motorcycle and exploring the Sacred Valley on our own for a day. I was glad Brendan came with me because he completely surprised me. I thought for sure this would be a really cool thing he would be excited about and one of his favorite activities. The roads are very winding with really awesome scenery and looking into this option, it was even going to be cheaper than an organized tour with transportation on a bus. The lady laid out both options to us and I looked at him to choose fully expecting him to say motorcycle, but he said guided tour because he thought we would get more out of it and learn more of the history if we had a tour guide! Crazy, right? So, I told him that was fine and that we can find another time on our travels to do the motorcycle thing when the history isn’t such a key element and we wouldn’t be missing out on it. After booking our tours, I was totally spent so we made our way back to the hotel, so I could rest, and Brendan could catch up on school before all of our big activities.