My Solo Trip Where Everything Went Wrong

When you travel alone, you quickly learn you have to adapt: adapt to your environment, adapt to the culture, adapt your attitude if things don’t go as planned. Adapt. Adapt. Adapt.

Early last year, I traveled to South America for a month long trip. I successfully made my way through Colombia and Ecuador before arriving to Peru. My younger sisters had already visited Peru and told me about their experience, so I had some idea of what to expect.

The first day upon arriving to the city of Cusco, I was ready to explore. I had arrived too early to check in, so I left my bags at the reception and went off to explore the town. It wasn’t until I was able to check into my room that I noticed a discomfort coming from my legs. A few days prior, while horseback riding through the Ecuador mountain ranges, I had been bitten by mosquitos.  Walking throughout the city of Cusco seemed to have caused some weird soreness to my legs.

My legs from the knee down were swollen. The city of Cusco lies 11,152 ft above sea level. Even though I felt fine and was lucky enough to not get altitude sickness during my entire trip, I don't think it helped my bug bites. To this day I don’t know if it was an allergic reaction or what exactly was wrong with my legs. The swelling got worse the next day. It was a pain that felt like my circulation was being cut off, almost like there was a rubber band tied multiple times right below my knee. My legs felt like they would burst. I couldn’t even stand. I was now worried. The bug bites seemed to be irritated and blood red, so I decided to be bedridden for the day. I used all the pillows in the room to elevate my legs, and I spent the day looking up my symptoms on Google, just scaring myself because we all love doing that. In the evening, I finally decided to go out and look for an ointment. I was annoyed I had wasted a day and decided to book a tour for La Montaña de Siete Colores because I couldn’t let this stop me from continuing my trip.

I had seen photos of La Montaña de Siete Colores (Vinicunca or also known as Rainbow Mountain) on the internet and it looked phenomenal. I read the hike was challenging due to the high elevation(17,060feet). Due to my job, I am pretty immune to any sort of altitude change, the only thing I felt was a little light headed at some points. Locals recommended chewing  cocoa leaves to help with altitude sickness. This was the least of my worries that day. That morning, I had texted a friend who was an Ecuador native. He told me to wear layers because the top of the mountain was chilly. I had not planned on wearing a jacket because in the photos, the mountain looked sunny. I figured if I was hiking I would get warm. Luckily, I took his advice and wore a jacket. I was in utter shock when the rain from the early morning turned into snow as we approached the mountain. 

Snow, the entire hike would be in snow. I merely had on sneakers, thin leggings and, thanks to my friend’s advice, a jacket. I quickly made a friend who was kind enough to lend me one of his walking sticks. Even though initially I was annoyed that the man tried to look after me—being the independent woman that I am—I eventually was so thankful. He was always making sure I was nearby and lending a hand when it got slippery. He ended up being a pretty awesome person, traveling with his daughter and her fiancé; they were from Peru but a different city. The snow came down gently, but the water from the melted snow had already penetrated my sneakers. It was cold, and I couldn’t feel my toes, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. The hike was absolutely breathtaking. I felt like I was in one of those movies where they have to hike in the snow for survival. People along the hike had to take breaks and even paid the locals along the way to use their horses, some even required medical assistance which was readily available. Although when I reached the top, I saw no colors, it was still a view I had never seen before. As we made the climb down, some of the snow started to melt, revealing a little tease of what was underneath.

After surviving the harsh, cold conditions of the hike, I woke up the next day excited for my next venture. A long 7-hour bus ride to Aguas Calientes, where I would be going to visit Machu Picchu. As soon as I woke up, I felt a burning sensation on my face. My face felt hot and tingly. I looked in the mirror and was appalled to see my face was bright pink and swollen. My face was so puffy, I was mortified. I couldn’t even put any makeup on because of the discomfort. I couldn’t believe I had gotten so severely sunburned. The hike hadn’t even been sunny at any point. That is when I realized because of the elevation and how white the snow was, the reflection had caused my face to burn. This was more than a sunburn it was sun poisoning. I was stuck in a 7-hour shuttle completely puffy faced. I felt like everyone was staring. I immediately purchased some aloe vera cream on the first pit stop. Reapplying every hour or so until the burning sensation had subsided. Seven hours later, we arrived to Aguas Calientes.

4:30am sharp, the next day, I headed out to start my way up from town. We had 1hour and 30minutes to hike from the town (Aguas Calientes) up to the entry of Machu Picchu. There was a bus you could take, but I wanted to do the hike. It was pouring that morning. It was also so dark that the flashlight on my phone wasn’t any help. I finally rushed to a group of people who had a real flashlight and tried to stay in close proximity. The hike was steps all the way up. I felt like I was on the stair master. I ended up leaving the group with the flashlight because they took too many breaks. Once I had reached the meeting point, I noticed what I thought was a rainproof jacket my little sister had lent me, was in fact not. My jacket had been soaked through. I didn’t feel it until I entered Machu Picchu. During the whole tour, I couldn’t stop shaking. I was cold and wet. I couldn’t even pay attention to what the tour guide was saying because all I could think about was having to hike all the way down the mountain afterward and how cold I was. After a quick tour, the tour guide gave us 2 more hours to explore and take photos. I was already ready to leave. I sat in a sheltered area until I gathered myself to go down the mountain. I ended up buying one of those plastic bags—I believe they’re referred to as ponchos—and putting on the only dry thing in my backpack, which was an alpaca fur sweater. Both were a godsend.

My troubles were far from over. After hiking down the mountain, I still had an additional two hours of walking on rocks before I finally made it to where the shuttle had originally dropped me off the day before. I waited with a crowd of people for my specific shuttle. Shuttles came and left, picking up people until finally a few hours later we were told no more shuttles were coming because of the rain. There had been a giant rock slide in the mountain, preventing anymore shuttles from coming down. We were to hike to a new point where the shuttle could safely pick us up. It was another hour's worth of hike up the mountain. There was no hiking trail. At this point, everyone was just irritated and exhausted. I ended up leading the group because I was so over it. I somehow got the energy to reach the final point. Although I slid a few times due to heavy mud and had to grasp on twigs and bushes to help me up, I made it to the top. Everyone was quiet on the shuttle ride home lol. 

That was my wonderful experience in Peru. Call me crazy, but I do want to go back to explore other cities.

 

xoxo,

Guadalupe♥️