The first few days here in Huari were relatively uneventful. We had a couple lectures, got to know each other better, and made frequent trips for snacks to the center of town. I thought I was adjusting pretty well. Our group anxiously prepared to leave for our first week of camping on Tuesday, June 28. Well, maybe I was the only anxious one. But that's because I have the most stuff to carry and the least camping experience (despite who my dad is and what our family business sells).
We embark on the hour and a half long drive up the mountain. The view was great, but I didn't want to kill my phone battery or get car sick, so I don't have any pictures from that drive.
We arrive at the campsite, which is actually a school yard, surrounded by a brick wall. The walk up for me was pretty difficult, but I really attribute that to the air at 14,000 feet. It feels like nothing. Like three deep breathes aren't enough to help you catch yours. I was already struggling.
As the last one into camp, I fully expected to have the last pick of sleeping tents, which was fine with me. But for that night, it was decided that all the girls would sleep in one of the school houses. So we all set up our sleeping pads and sleeping bags side by side in the middle of the room. In theory, the more people huddled together, the warmer it was going to be for us.
The group then embarked on the walk to the actual dig site, where our leaders would perform a ritual to honor the spirits of the Inca we would be studying. That walk was even harder than the one before it. I watched as the whole group trickled out of site, and I was wheezing and puffing to take twenty more steps. In the back of the line I was accompanied by Bebel (our main teacher/guy who runs the site)'s wife Margurite and her younger boy (she has two). She made me feel a lot better about my much slower pace, and said there's no way to know who is going to struggle with the altitude and who isn't. She also told me to let her or Bebel know right away if I started to feel sick.
We arrived at the actual site, it looks kind of like a house layout where the boarders are made of rocks. I thought it was pretty basic looking until someone pointed out to me the exact places where they found bodies, then I started to feel the excitement.
The ceremony began, and I don't remember too much of it. It involved candy and liquor and cigarettes and animal crackers and coca leaves. During most of it, I was thinking about how crappy I felt, and how it was slowly getting worse. I figured I was just hungry, and was excited when Bebel invited all of us to enjoy the treats he had laid out (literally everything I just listed before). I grabbed an animal cracker and bit into it, and man, my stomach just dropped. I pretty much knew at that point something wasn't quite right, but I didn't even have the chance to say something to anyone because Margurite came up to me and told me I looked really pale. She suggested I drink lots of water and she gave me these mineral pills for under my tongue.
The walk back didn't feel as brutal as the walk up, and I even had the thought to snap this pretty picture of the setting sun over the mountains:
You can kind of make out where the tents are and the wall of the school. I'll hopefully remember to take a better picture of the layout once I'm back up there.Anyway, I get back to the school and immediately go lie down. I didn't get all the way into my sleeping bag, because I knew once I did there was no getting out. But it was so damn cold. I don't think I'd been that cold since the time I didn't bring a winter jacket to Poland in early March (which I never blogged about, sorry Dad. Do you still want me to?). I somehow had the will power to change from one pair of pants to two pairs of leggings. I literally did nothing during this period of time except keep my eyes closed and shiver, I was not feeling well. I don't really know what everyone else was doing at that point, but eventually someone came and told me it was time for dinner.
Luckily part of dinner that night was just plain rice, but even that didn't sit too well with me. Margurite gave me more of those mineral pills, and also mentioned that if I continued to feel bad from the altitude, she, Bebel and their kids would be heading back down the mountain the following afternoon. I wasn't happy at that idea, but also I felt like such crap I knew I couldn't rule it out.
A bonfire was built and I stayed up for a little bit, I even thought I was starting to feel somewhat better. And then I went to bed.
Despite all my layers and extra liners and even taking two melatonin, I could not fall asleep. It was impossible. I tossed and I turned and I pretty much kept my eyes closed the whole time, but sleep eludes me. I got up in the morning feeling just as bad as before.
I tried to eat a little bit of bread for breakfast, and watched most of my new friends climb up that hill to the campsite.
A few of us were chosen to study bones at the school with Oscar. The collection was great, but not great enough to stop me from running to a corner and getting sick once. I just wanted to sleep. I decided in that moment I wanted to go back down the mountain.
A few hours passed, I had a few more mineral pills, and I packed up all the camping gear I had brought for the five days I expected to stay. Before I knew it, I was hopping into the car with Bebel and his family and finally heading back down.
The view as I went back down the mountain
As soon as I got back to the house, I just passed out in my lil bed. Margurite brought me a potatoe with salt and black tea to have once I felt ready, but after that nap I knew it was definitely the altitude that had affected me so.
Let's just talk about how I likely would've cried this whole time if it weren't for Margurite. No matter how old you are, when you're sick you probably wish your mom was there. Well since my mom couldn't be here, I was sure lucky to have Margurite as a secondary mom to step in and take great care of me.
In the days since coming back down to 10,000 feet, I've felt a lot better and still been able to do lots of field school things. I've been helping Anne, a cool physical anthropologist, with a collection of bones that have already been excavated located here at the house. While it's mostly femurs and other long bones, it's really helping me familiarize myself again with the bones of the human body. I'll hopefully post some pictures soon.
In the end, everything worked out really well and I still will be going camping on Monday. Til next time!
Julia Rosd
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