How I was brutally assaulted by tap water

As previously mentioned in Linus’ post, I ended our trip back from Machu Picchu by sprinting out of the bus and puking on a Cuzco street.  This blog post will be dedicated to telling this unfortunate story.

            I cannot pinpoint exactly what forced this plague upon me.  When I was on a trip to Senegal during my sophomore year of high school, one of my classmates came down with the same sickness after ingesting tap water, so I am going to assume that this is what happened to me.  I had brushed my teeth and cleaned my retainer with tap water (instead of bottled water) the night before for the first time this trip and woke up with an upset stomach.  I was not going to miss our tour of Machu Picchu, so I sucked it up and dealt with it.  I felt good enough throughout the day until we boarded our bus in Ollantaytambo (below Machu Picchu) that evening.  At this point, my stomach started to really hurt.  Still, I just pinned it on indigestion, popped some Tums, and boarded the bus. 

Things soon took a turn for the worst.  My body got incredibly hot and my stomach started to feel queasy.  I tried my best to stay still, hoping the feeling would go away, but I was soon forced to ask the driver to stop the bus so I could hop out.  I did not puke at this point and the fresh air made me feel a bit better, so I assumed that the worst was over.  However, 20 minutes later, I found out that this was not the case, as I was once again forced to stop the bus, this time in Cuzco.  This time I did puke, all over the sidewalk.

I was able to make it back to the hotel, but was soon met with more feelings of uneasiness and vomiting, which lasted the entire night.  Moral of the story: avoid the tap water at all costs or you will end up like me.

A Cuzco street that probably looks like the one I got sick on