3 Sarahs, 2 Germans and a bout of altitude sickness

  Oh hey. So I didn't think I'd be updating this until Sunday/Monday when I got back from Machu        Picchu, but apparently not. Instead of trekking in the Peruvian Highlands (which is what Steph is currently doing), I'm sat on the floor of a hostel in Cusco.

me and some of the beautiful scenery -
 I'm smiling but inwardly I'm dying

This is because apparently my body can't cope with the altitude here, and my heart has decided that when I was even 5 metres, it will start beating like I've just ran 2 marathons. It leaves me breathless even walking up the stairs. So I managed to do a day of trekking at about 3800m, but had to come back this morning because I would have definitely passed out/been sick/died if I'd have carried on. So woe is me really. Although I did manage to see some AMAZING scenery yesterday and coming back today, I am gutted that once again my body has failed me and I've had to change my plans. Even just sitting here writing this has left me breathless

No Corrs, it isn't the time or the place.

So anyway, the part of the trek that I have done was amazing - the Peruvian Highlands is the most beautiful thing ever. In the day there are crisp blue skies and lovely breezes, and at night everything gets cold and where we were camping you could see the difference between the part of the mountains that the sun hits and the mountains that it doesn't. On one side of the camp site was a huge desert-covered mountain, and on the other was one completely covered in snow (as you can see from the above picture) Even Cusco is such a beautiful city. It's so much nicer than Lima (mainly because of the fact it has blue skies) and the buildings are so much more colonial and old school, which I love! As well as this I've really been able to speak the language because not many Peruvians speak a lot of Spanish - this has helped me through a lot of situations. So Cusco is amazing, but the altitude really isn't!

Sarah 1 and Sarah 2 

Oh yeah, so the title of this post. Well I've explained the altitude sickness (stupid stupid stupid), but the other two things. Well, for the first time in my life I've been around other people called Sarah (both spelt with an H at the end; the proper way!!). The first was a lovely Canadian girl who was on the trek. Canadians really are the most caring people by the way!! The second I met about 2 hours ago. She's from London and is staying in this hostel with me, and she's also on her own which is cool! We're hopefully going to explore Cusco tonight if my pathetic heart doesn't fail me. And the Germans - as well as Sarah, there are 2 German guys staying in my hostel room. They didn't come together, they just met here which I found funny because I haven't met any other Germans in my time here. So they're really nice too! It's so so easy to make friends when you're staying in hostels, because I guess everyone's in the same boat! Also learning about other people's countries are amazing, we've met Germans, Canadians, French and Australian so far - maybe by the time I leave Peru I'll be able to say I've met someone from every country! So it's all good really, apart from the obvious altitude problems. I must go anyway, because I reckon typing this I've burned at least 700 calories :P I'll put some more pictures of the time I've spent in the Highlands below - the scenery really was breathtaking.

Hasta Luego, Sarah x

me and steph

so worth nearly having a heart attack for

p.s - i'm still going to Machu Picchu, no worries - I'm just going to get a train/car to Agua Calientes (a nearby town) to meet the trekking team on Saturday then we'll go up on Sunday morning!