The Jungle

I got internet at the inka terra lodge (45 minutes away from my site)..
The only comment I have thus far is that I was wrong about having an encounter with a massive bug in Puerto Maldonado.  I was so 100% wrong. I thought what I saw was massive. My opinion has now changed. 

Puerto Maldonado

So last night I embarked on my journey into the amazon (11 hour bus ride) and I have arrived safely in Puerto Maldonado "The Gateway to the Jungle" and I am now waiting for my boat trip down the Madre de Dios. I have already had my first encounter with an absolutely massive bug and I have also seen some very unique birds. Wow! This is going to be an amazing week. There is no internet once I am out of Puerto Maldonado so I'll make a post when I'm back in Cusco!

Here are two photos of where I am right now.

Peruvian Cats

Home Sweet Home!!

The last few days have been quite fun-- I'm still very tired and getting the occasional headache, but Dad and I still managed to see a few sites in Lima. We walked around Parque Kennedy-- a park with beautiful flowers and so many cats that just meander. It was tough to not touch them! We also have wandered around some nice stores as well as the Larcomar mall which was very American.

We went on an afternoon bus tour (very good for me as walking a lot just exhausts me right now) that took us through downtown Lima and showed us many unique historical buildings and parks. It also included a tour of the San Francisco monastery-- it was very interesting... especially the catacombs-- so many bones!

We went to a huge market and bought some Peruvian goods.
The seafood is incredible in Lima and we enjoyed some absolutely delicious meals-- ceviche is dad's new favorite! 

Last night I returned to Cusco-- finally! It was great to get back and my buddies greeted me at the airport! It felt like I was coming home, Gabriella made a special chicken dinner and was so happy to see me :) A group of us went out for non-alcoholic beverages and it was exciting to visit with all my friends again-- and tell them of my hospital adventures!

Machu Picchu Photos!

Machu Picchu

Day 1

Lil, John and I left Cusco at 6am to begin a long and bumpy car ride with our group to get to the starting point for our mountain biking. The countryside was absolutely phenomenal and even though I'm not a morning person I forced myself to stay awake to see the views. On our way up the mountain we ran into a fairly serious landslide which forced us to start biking sooner than we had expected-- The entire road was blocked by a giant mass of rock but we expertly manuevered it on the bikes. Unfortunately the weather was awful (very cold and wet) when we began our descent into the jungle but after freezing our butts off for over an hour the humidity and heat of the jungle warmed us up (almost like a hot tub). After 4 hours of windy mountain road biking we came to our end destination-- a small jungle village where we picked up some beers and snacks for the road, got back on the bus and drove to Santa Maria for lunch. Lunch was a delicious Peruvian classic--lomo saltado-- it was nice to get some warm food after a very damp morning. The next adventure on the agenda-- white water rafting-- another cold and wet one! Having never been rafting before, I wasn't sure what to expect. We went on level 4 rapids and I fell out of the raft (on purpose) -- it was exhilarating and the jungle river was gorgeous. After finishing this excursion we had to change quickly and get in a cramped taxi to Santa Teresa that took us on a hair pin turn, roller coaster mountain road that was terrifying. Thank goodness it was dark! We had alpaca steaks for dinner along with refreshing pisco sours! What a feast!

Day 2

Another very early start but this time with chocolate banana pancakes-- yum! We headed out to the ziplining place and started our zipping which included 6 lines and a suspension bridge. The scenery was incredible-- mountains, the jungle and a beautiful river valley. A few of the ziplines were a bit scary because of the height! We stopped for lunch in a small town and then began our 12km trek to Aguas Callientes. The hike was through the jungle and along a river-- we saw many waterfalls, orchids, and different birds. Upon arrival in Aguas Callientes all of us napped and rested at our hostel until dinner-- no hot showers unfortunately. After dinner we went straight to bed because at 3:30am the hike to Machu Picchu began!

Day 3

- 2,000 stairs at 4am to Machu Picchu

- 3,000 stairs at 11am to Machu Picchu Mountain lookout

Crazy climbing, this was the most challenging hike of my life! Steep and narrow stairs that went straight up-- had our calves and thighs burning after a few hours.

Machu Picchu-- what a wonder-- it was phenomenal! Indescribable! We had a lovely tour with our guide (Ronny), learned about the site and explored-- it was gigantic!

Medical Update

As Arnold would say, "it's not a tumor"-- or menigitis-- or tuberculosis. It's a miracle! Unfortunately my condition was much worse before any improvements-- After a week of not eating, many needles (13 to be exact), multiple cat scans, MRI's, migraines, pain killers, exessive vomitting and two lumbar punctures-- I'm pretty exhausted but happy to be out of the hospital and continuing to recover (here in Lima) with my Dad-- they let me keep the scans as a souvenir (see photo). It was a pretty rough experience BUT my neurologist told me today that I'm doing better than him and my Dad-- haha!

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers. I recieved so many emails and notes that were very encouraging and really helped me (and my family) get through this unexpected "adventure".

I will now go back to my usual blogging! :)

(Happy Thanksgiving-- I'll be missing the turkey dinner this weekend)

Everything is OK!

As many of you know,  I've been in the hospital here in Peru. I'm getting much better already but they're still figuring out what is wrong.  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers :) I'll post about my machu picchu adventure soon!