When I first came back from Peru, I would wake in the middle of the night and not know where I was. I would stare and stare into the darkness of the bedroom and swear that the walls were made of adobe and the doorway to the bathroom was really a stone hallway leading somewhere. This morning when I woke, I wondered what day it was, and realized that it was two weeks ago today that I rose at 4 am to wonder the ruins of Machu Picchu, the evil...
The Pisac ruins were built sometime during the Inca Empire (between the 1440s and when the Spanish conquered Pisac in the 1530s). The tombs of the mummies dotting the hillside were raided long ago, but the waterways are still flowing after more than 500 years. The stones, carefully carved and place so as to not need any mortar stand strong, except one gap caused by a large earthquake.
I woke at 5 am with severe stomach cramps and diarrhea and proceeded to spend the next two hours on the bathroom floor, chewing Pepto Bismal, suddenly dreading the upcoming 5-hour bus ride that would signal the beginning of trek through the weaving villages in the central Andes. I spent most of the bus ride with my head pressed against the seat in front of me willing the contents of my guts to “Be Still,” sort of like how Max tamed the Wild Things with that trick of his....
We arrived late in the evening in Lima and were escorted to a hostel in Miraflores, about 45 minutes from the airport. The Hostal El Patio was charming and musty. The rooms were arranged around a courtyard filled with lush, flowering plants and brightly painted walls. Our flight to Cusco left Lima at 10 am the next morning, which meant little sleep since we didn’t get in until after midnight the night before. We had no time to explore Lima but were excited to be heading straight to the...
