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The train to Machu Picchu town leaves at six in the morning and they don’t have heat on these trains so its miserable freezing going through the mountains as the sun comes up, the views are gorgeous but it’s hard to appreciate when you’re shivering. It warms up in the last hour of the trip, thank god, and by that time we’re descending to about one mile elevation and the landscape changes completely, the arid clay and sparse high-elevation flora replaced by lush jungle green densely covering the stone cliff sides of the river valley. Everything feels so much more alive. I think human beings are attuned to changes in the biodensity of their surroundings, we feel the humidity on our skins, hear the birdcalls and insect songs, smell the flowering trees and plants that cover every surface that’s not vertical rock. Our lungs expand, our pupils dilate, our pores open to breathe in the atmosphere of the living earth.
And I get sick. A couple hours after we check into the hotel I start feeling weak and shaky, the thought of food or drink makes me nauseous, I can barely shuffle my feet along, it’s pathetic. Couplingchaos and Nepenthe and Canongrrl go out for hiking and food, I crawl into the hotel bed in all my clothes, trying to get warm, trying to sleep because it’s so miserable to be conscious.
The next morning I’m fine. I don’t know what kind of bug or exhaustion had overloaded my system, but one night of staying warm and sleeping and I seem to have kicked it, so that’s a relief. Speaking of relief, a notable fact about Peru is that you’re not supposed to flush toilet paper down the toilet. There’s a small covered trash can by the toilet, and once you’ve used the toilet paper you wrap it in some more toilet paper and put it in there. I’m guessing the sewage treatment plants aren’t built to handle all the paper or the plumbing and water pressure aren’t able to deal with added cellulose, I dunno. What I do know is that I find the used-toilet-paper-in-the-little-trash-can thing very very bothersome. Call me a fussy gringo priss, but I would like the poo to leave the premises entirely, thank you very much. Eew.
And I get sick. A couple hours after we check into the hotel I start feeling weak and shaky, the thought of food or drink makes me nauseous, I can barely shuffle my feet along, it’s pathetic. Couplingchaos and Nepenthe and Canongrrl go out for hiking and food, I crawl into the hotel bed in all my clothes, trying to get warm, trying to sleep because it’s so miserable to be conscious.
The next morning I’m fine. I don’t know what kind of bug or exhaustion had overloaded my system, but one night of staying warm and sleeping and I seem to have kicked it, so that’s a relief. Speaking of relief, a notable fact about Peru is that you’re not supposed to flush toilet paper down the toilet. There’s a small covered trash can by the toilet, and once you’ve used the toilet paper you wrap it in some more toilet paper and put it in there. I’m guessing the sewage treatment plants aren’t built to handle all the paper or the plumbing and water pressure aren’t able to deal with added cellulose, I dunno. What I do know is that I find the used-toilet-paper-in-the-little-trash-can thing very very bothersome. Call me a fussy gringo priss, but I would like the poo to leave the premises entirely, thank you very much. Eew.
