Perú - Passionate People, Pollution and Parasites

Many travelers have fabulous experiences in Perú.  And many parts of our experience there were wonderful too.  For this post we are compelled to write about the not so wonderful side of our adventures in Perú.

We were very happy to leave Perú.  Although we only saw a fraction of the entire country our impression was not a good one and we’re not anxious to return.  It would be impossible to revisit every area that’s on our itinerary, so fortunately we’ve found a few such a places they all just happen to be in the same country.  To us, Arequipa, Cusco, Aguas Calientes and the portion of the Inca Trail we hiked seemed very polluted and inexcusably dirty.
Look closely at this picture.  It is of a guy urinating in a very public place. In Cusco, we saw this happening over and over again and smelled it just as frequently.
















Grand volcanoes surround Arequipa.  Unfortunately during the four days we were there they were shrouded in a layer of smog.  It reminded us of Los Angeles in the 1970s.









Perú is relatively poor, we realize, but we think that a high poverty rate is not an excuse for it’s population to throw garbage in the streets and rivers.  The views from the Inca Trial were stunning but the condition of the streams in this area of the high Andes is pathetic.

500 people hike the trail every day and there are only a few filthy bathrooms, so instead of using the bathrooms the trekkers and porters are “doing their business”  on or near the trail.  500 people a day!  This happens every day of the year, except for 30 days when they close the trail for maintenance.  Let’s see; 500 people x 335 days is 167,500 people a year relieving themselves somewhere along the trail.  All of the dishes and pots and pans are washed in the nearby streams.  And drinking water for everyone is collected from the streams near where 500 people a day are relieving themselves.  We thought it was absolutely dreadful.  More litter than you’d think was scattered along the trail as well.  Given the passion the Andes people have for their Inca history and all their spirituality towards mother earth, Pachamama, it was really depressing to us.
Below is a rock representation of Pachamama at a museum dedicated to her.

Passionate Peruvian people:

It seems that the politicians (the government controls the trail) should stop putting money in their own pocket, give a few people a job to regularly clean the bathrooms and as a result have healthier rivers and streams.  The 700 year old Inca bathroom below is not much better than the 'modern' versions along the trail.

We highly recommend Machu Picchu and the other Inca ruins, but not the Classic Inca Trail.  Find another way to the spectacular Machu Picchu.

By this time of our trip, we’ve both learned to say both “no gracias” or “solo estoy mirando (I’m only looking) over and over throughout the day.  Or, better yet, to ignore street vendors completely.  In Cusco the pushy vendors crossed the  proverbial line of harassment.  It was amazing how aggressive they were.  Amy sprained her ankle while quickly dodging a vendor when one stepped in her immediate path about 6 inches in front of her.  We were offered massages no less than 30 times per day.  The aggressiveness was nothing we’ve seen so far and we hope it is the worst.  We did succumb to a couple of really cute kids.  They were selling hand puppets, spoke perfect English and recited the past 6 presidents of the US.  We were impressed.  A soft hearted moment.  We now are proud owners of a llama, a vicuña, and an Andean condor.

We were warned - don’t trust the water in Perú.  Friends and strangers told us to be very careful.  For example, in Cusco we were told to boil our water for a minimum of 20 minutes before using it for cooking.  And we heard story after story of fellow travelers getting very sick.  So, we drank bottled water, didn’t eat fresh fruit or vegetables, and we didn’t eat any food from street vendors.  We were extremely diligent.  Or so we thought.  Our worst nightmare came true.  We got terribly sick.  The timing couldn’t have been worse.  We become violently sick to our stomachs after the first day of our 26 mile Inca Trail trek.  For the remainder of our trek, we forced ourselves to eat and drink.  All of our energy was in our guts and there was very little left for our legs, but we prevailed.  Machu Picchu was waiting.  Luckily our major muscles kicked in to high gear and powered through to the bitter end.  The terrain was steep.  Up was hard, focusing on the steep descent was harder.  We made it.  Barely.  And then we collapsed.
On the left is Amy on her worst day trekking.  It was the day we had to go over two mountain passes, one at nearly 14,000 feet.  She did not think she would make it.

Her hero is on the right, our guide, Raul.  He carried her pack and encouraged her the entire day - un poco a poco - little by little.  When appropriate he sang for her, waited for her and felt sorry for her.  He was the reason she made it all the way.  Oh, and the fact that all transportation was on strike during the time she would've turned around and given up.  

Poor Steve felt so terrible that he slept on a bench while we waited for an earlier train to get us to our next hotel.  Luckily Amy was able to hold it together enough to make the arrangements.  We only had to wait a mere 5 hours which seemed like an eternity.  It was the first time that we longed for our bed in the worst way.



We made it to our next hotel and slept for 2 days.  The strange symptoms persisted and we started to worry about our health and decided to seek expert advice; in Ollaytantambo, a high Andes town of 2000 people.  We went to the local clinic and talked to a doctor that fortunately knew a few English words.  For a measly 13 dollars we were told we had Giardia lamblia, a parasite in the intestinal tract that can be found in the water and on animals.   He advised us on the medicine to take and after just one pill we both felt 10000% better and we were able to eat and drink again without gagging.
Was it something we cooked prior to starting our trek????

As an example of the water situation, many Peruvian people, especially those that live in the Andes, never have a solid stool.  It is what keeps their life expectancy relatively low.  It seems like a rectifiable situation.  We have a hard time understanding why water purification isn’t more of a priority.  It’s probably a highly complex, bureaucratic situation but it’s water.  Isn’t water the source of all life?  Come on Perú - help your local people and your tourists be as healthy as possible - give ’em clean water!  Until then, we'll think twice before returning.