Dec. 19, 2013
I’m a bit behind in my posts about the trip and this post interrupts the sequence of events somewhat, just because I’ve not felt that well and that has dominated my thoughts about what to write. Basically for a week or two I’ve had varying degrees of bellyache and it’s not been fun. Instead of feeling the gratitude and excitement I’ve felt since being here, I’ve spent a lot of time wanting to curl up in the corner and just be… well… somewhere else.
Of course this was bound to happen at some point. Even if I had stayed at home, there would have been some point in the next five months where I would feel just as terrible. Maybe not physically, but definitely mentally - there is nothing so tiring as trying to maintain the facade of being alright when you’re not. In fact, that may be the reason why I’m so obsessed with writing about it now - because up until Lima I genuinely felt as though the old Matt had melted away somewhat and I was just getting used to being, if not a new person, then at least a better version of the person I always was.
Today I am in Cuzco. It took us fifteen hours to get here - well it took me fifteen hours to get here as I’d stayed behind in Arequipa with our driver Alfonso who was looking after me (my recent troubles came to a head on the last night in Arequipa so I missed a trip to Colca canyon, one of the things I had most looked forward to). Arequipa to Cuzco was a bum-numbing trip but all the way it was beautiful. It was about 500km but because it was through lots of Andean plateaus and on some of the more terrible roads we have encountered it just dragged. The general rule seems to be that the prettier the scenery is, the longer the journey. It’s been a great journey for my camera.
Cuzco is at altitude. The fuzziness of the head has worn off now but it is really cold. Actually I don’t know about really cold but it is certainly the coldest I have been on this trip - it certainly feels like it is December at last. I’m not going to do much today and I may even come back to this terrible pc (running windows xp and internet explorer 7 - AGGGHHH!) to write up some more posts. It’s sunny and an orientation walk is imminent so I may end up changing my mind.
I’ll wrap up here though I did also want to write a few words about how great it is to be travelling with a group in situations like this and also about whether being on this trip really brings you closer to the places you visit. Perhaps I will get the chance to do that later.