2025-03-01 (Saturday) — Peruvian Remix

I think it was the summer of 2005.

My friend John and I had ridden into the little mountain village of Santa Teresa, Peru, probably 20 people packed into a little combi–John, myself, and another guy actually riding on top.

It was dark, riding through the night, and the dirt road was winding up and down the hillsides, mostly up, until we reached the little mountain village.

I think it was a lot smaller of a town 20 years ago. I want to say that shortly after John and I went, and took that route to Machu picchu, there was a TV show called The Great race, or something like that, that took the same route and made it popular?

It was definitely not popular then.

We had written in on the combi, and then at first light, or thereabouts, had walked down the massive village Stone steps down to the  Urubamba River.

The only way to cross the very wide, raging river, was to take a little platform big enough for one person, maybe two? I think it was just one, and two go hand over hand sitting on the platform across the river.

I remember as we were going across, looking back at the shore we had come from to see the flowers that had been laid for people who had died, presumably crossing the river.

😅

On we went.

On the other side of the river, we chatted with some locals who lived in their little houses/huts. They pointed at the mountain behind their house and said that if you hiked to the top of that mountain, you’ll be looking down on Machu Picchu.

So we decided to make the track, thinking that would be a pretty awesome way to catch a glimpse of Machu Picchu for the first time.

All day we hiked.

But it wasn’t like just hiking a mountain like I’ve done a million times in the United States: no, this was high altitude jungle–which meant fewer bugs, though I did have a little run in with some fire ants, but insanely thick Vines.

I think there was one point where it probably took us 30 minutes just to go 50 feet.

There were times where it wasn’t as bad, up on the hillside where people had been burning. I remember looking back at John, ash stuck to his teeth when he smiled–something like that, at least.

We hiked and hiked until we were utterly exhausted.

I hadn’t thought it was going to be that big of a hike, and I’ve been hydrating myself rather poorly with Apple soda. 😅

It was tasty Apple soda, though. 🙃

But we finally gave up and headed back down, in pretty bad shape, actually. Dehydrated. Hungry. Not doing great at all.

On the way back, we found some banana trees, and then when we got all the way down back to the little hut houses, and we bought some bottled water from one of the families.

Exhausted, hungry, and dehydrated, we ate some food that we had bought, drink the water that we bought, set our tent up right next to the river, and took turns taking a bath.

As long as we were in the water, we were great, but oh my golly, now I know why they recommended jungle juice. The moment we got out of the water, we were swarmed by blood sucking flies, so we got our little butts in the tent and called it a night.

In the morning, we took a truck ride, I think paying a few dollars to get to the place where the train would take us to Machu picchu. Definitely different experience from the other side, Ollantaytambo… We didn’t want to pay the ridiculous train ticket price. I think it was like $60 each to go like 1.5 mi. So we stayed the night in the ruins of Ollantaytambo, took a bus back to cusco, then a bus to Santa maria, and then that little combi up to Santa teresa.

That was such a great trip.

So many stories.

So maybe adventures.

Anyway, John and I ended up walking the train tracks all the way to Machu Picchu.

So exhausted were we by the time we got there, carrying our 60 lb packs for miles, a day after having depleted ourselves physically to the point of exhaustion trying to climb the mountain.

And we did find out that the locals were wrong. Even had we made it to the top of that mountain, we were still multiple mountain peaks away from Machu picchu. We would have gotten to the top, and Machu Picchu would have been nowhere in sight.

Anyway, so exhausted were we that by the time we got to the actual ruins themselves, we didn’t have the energy to even go look around. We hiked to one end of the ruins, that was high above all the rest, and there we sat, just… Taking it in. We didn’t walk from place to place looking at the different ruins and different buildings. We just stared at it all.

Had I had the energy, I’m sure I would have done the hike to Wyna Picchu.

We were exhausted. Dehydrated. In bad shape.

I bought a big bottle of water for the walk back, but dropped the bottle on a sharp Rock shortly after beginning the Trek back, all of my water pouring out onto the ground.

I was in bad shape.

We walked and walked and walked, following the train tracks that we had followed in the morning, following them all the way back.

By the time we got Back to the River crossing, I didn’t know if I would even have the strength to pull myself across the river.

Gratefully, I was able to pull myself across.

But then, on the other side, those huge steep Stone steps, the last obstacle on the journey back to the little village.

Both John and I were absolutely beat, and I looked at John and I said the only way that I’m going to make it up these steps is if I just run.

It was a mental game at that point. The body was done, but the mind… It can overcome the body sometimes.

So I did. I put my head down. I stopped thinking. And I just booked it up the steps as quickly as I could.

John, took the step slowly, but he made it up to the top.

I caught my breath, and both of us walked to a nearby restaurant. I should probably put restaurant in quotes because it was this little tiny dingy place, much like the rest of the town.

But we went in, and I got a menu, and we both ordered food. The first thing that came out was some kind of a soup, but as we were sitting at the table, I started feeling pretty crappy.

Oddly, after having completely caught my breath, I started to lose my breath. I started breathing faster and faster. The soup that came out, I had some sips of it, but I kept having to breathe faster and faster to catch my breath.

Something was definitely wrong.

Then the top of my head started to tingle and go numb.

As I had to breathe faster and faster to catch my breath, so did the numbing of my body start at the top of my head, going down and down.

It was like a direct correlation, as the numbness and tingling went further down my body, the faster and faster I had to breathe to catch my breath.

Then my muscles started contracting.

We put my pack on the floor, and I laid down on top of my pack, my arms and legs and muscles contracting, my body tingling and going numb or whatever it was, losing my ability to speak.

John didn’t speak much much spanish, but he tried to tell the people there what was going on.

I couldn’t speak anymore, so I wasn’t of any use.

Somebody went and got the local doctor, and they made a stretcher and carried me from the restaurant over to the little two-room hospital, a younger… probably tween in the bed next to me.

There were a couple of nurses, and as best they could figure, I was badly dehydrated and needed an iv.

And they were right, except they didn’t know how to help me properly. One of the nurses was, amazingly, able to put an IV in my arm, but they didn’t know how to get the bag of fluids to drip into my body. Instead of the fluids going down into my body my heart was pumping blood up the line toward the bag.

Not quite the desired outcome.

I actually started getting better before they were able to get the IV to work. By the time they figured out that they needed to poke a hole in the bag, I had caught my breath and was just laying there.

Why do I tell the story right now?

Well, this morning I woke up for the last time to the sound of Jim’s chainsaw. We were scheduled to work on the property again today, and I woke up and jumped out of the van and started getting myself going, but something was off.

I grabbed my chainsaw and walked maybe a hundred feet, and I was already tired and out of breath.

🤔

I thought through it, eating a couple of bananas, and drinking a bunch of water to try and make sure I was hydrated and had some energy, but I was absolutely exhausted from the get-go. My whole body was just, drained of energy.

Still, I kept working, because… That’s what I do.

After a while, I figured it might be good for us to start a fire to burn the fields a little bit, since we were working on the tree line, we might as well have a fire going to burn the field. It would burn up to where we were, and then we could put it out.

That all worked out well until Jim had to leave. We had the fire completely under control, except when he had to leave, the fire was still going where he was. It had jumped into the pond area, which was actually good because I wanted the pond area to burn again before we put the goats in it, but he had left, and the fire was starting to burn the grass toward the tractor, toward one of the trucks, and towards Liz’s house, so I put out the fire a bit where I was, keeping it back from the trees a bit, at least that was the hope, and then I ran over to the pond area to put out the fire there so that it wouldn’t go toward the tractor, or the truck, or Liz’s house.

But by the time I got back, the fire that I had been tending originally, had gone past where I was keeping it at Bay and had gotten into the woods.

No, I’m not rehashing last week’s entry. Yes, little me managed to do this all over again. 🙃

Anyway, one of the big problems this time was that I just had no energy. I worked and worked and work to put the fire out, but I didn’t have the energy. I was completely drained. I would kick the fire down maybe three kicks, or four kicks, and then I would sink to the ground just exhausted.

Jim had come over to help, even though he had to go to a work meeting. Hunter had come over to help as well, and I felt useless because they were battling the fire in the woods, and all I could manage was a few kicks here and there before I was back down to the ground.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt that exhausted in my entire life, except maybe on that Machu Picchu adventure.

It’s been so many years that I don’t remember exactly how I felt, but I did remember something. I remembered losing my breath. And I remembered my body starting to tingle and go numb. And I remembered my muscles starting to contract.

And so, when we had finally gotten the fire out, when everyone else had gone back to doing what they needed to do, with me sitting on a log in the woods staring at the fire, because I had actually built a fire to burn all of the Dead wood that could just smolder, as I was just sitting on a stump staring at the fire, having completely caught my breath, having been sitting there for probably 20 minutes, I started to lose my breath.

😶

Immediately, I noticed what was happening.

I’m losing my breath, but I’m just sitting here. I had caught my breath. I was done. The exercise was over. I wasn’t exerting myself anymore. And yet… Here I am losing my breath.

And instantly, I was transported back, 20 years ago this year, to that little restaurant where I had caught my breath and was getting ready to so my body with sustenance, but I couldn’t eat then. My body didn’t want the food then.

And here I was again… Losing my breath. I stood up, and I started walking toward the barbed wire fence, crawling through the gap in the wires.

I was going to walk down to my van and get some food to eat, get some water to drink…

But my body was just done. Just standing up, I would get light-headed and have to focus really hard so as not to pass out.

I probably didn’t even get 50 ft from the tree line into the field before I stopped myself from going any further, not wanting to pass out on the walk down to the van.

I sat down, called jim, and asked him if he could bring me water and food.

He did, gratefully.

My body was so depleted that even though I had not been chewing anything all day, just chewing the food that he gave me was so tiring, it felt like I had been chewing for 24 hours straight. My jaw was so tired.

It was just plain nutty.

Landon and his little boy had come as well, and we just chatted well I tried to eat and drink and catch my breath.

I forced myself to slow my breathing down. I think that was one of the things that made everything worse in Peru all those years ago. I think I hyperventilated badly, and that made things way worse. So I forced myself to slow my breathing, and I think that helped. The Gatorade, crackers, and whatever sugary things they gave me also helped.

They gave me a ride up to their house, gave me more food to eat and more liquid to drink and for probably the next hour and a half, I just sort of sat there. I barely had the energy to get to the bathroom and go to the bathroom, staggering back and sitting down.

The slightest movement, and I was out of breath again.

It was like all I had to do was turn my body in my chair, and I had to breathe harder.

So crazy.

So I sat there at Jim and Steph’s kitchen table until I got my breath and enough strength to be able to get up and walk around. I was supposed to have a game night up at Stevie’s house with him and some of the other family members, and I was going to be late, but I thought that maybe I could make it, so Jim drove me down to my van, and I drove up to Stevie’s house, and greatly, slowly, I started to regain my energy–at least enough to talk and have the little game night that they wanted to do.

I downed a couple two or three pepsis, and a slice of pizza to add to what I had already eaten, which I’m sure helped me quite a bit. By the time I left Stevie’s house, I was exhausted, but I was no longer in really bad shape. It felt more like I had been out working in the fields all day and was completely exhausted, but fine, otherwise. A little dehydrated and exhausted, but fine.

So that was good. We played games for about 3 and 1/2 hours or so at stevie’s, and then I headed over to Jim and Steph’s to watch the rest of the BYU basketball game with them, before saying good night to everybody, jumping in rover, and driving to Pea Ridge to warm up my van before doing the work of rebuilding the inside.

I still have to do that. With the fire issues of the day, I was frantically driving around the property, and that sent everything inside my van flying everywhere. So if I open my side doors, all my stuff is piled up against those doors.

It’s an absolute mess.

So it’s just after 1:00 a.m., and that’s what I’m about to do… Try and clean up my van at night in the dark in the cold. Fortunately it’s not crazy cold, but it’s pretty cold, Arkansas cold, so okay fair bit of work to do before I can crash.

Gratitude:

• I’m grateful I’m still alive… I think 😅
• I’m grateful to Jim and Landon for coming to my rescue when I was in super super bad shape.
• I’m grateful we were able to get the fire out, grateful for the paths that I made 5 or so years ago, as those allowed for a break off combustibles. We basically just let the fire burn to one of the paths on one side, and Jim and Hunter and Stevie put the fires out on the sides.
• I’m grateful that Stevie thought of me for the game night. I’m not much of a game person, but I am a family person, so it’s important to me to be with family, and it’s good to be with them.
• I’m grateful to be relatively functional, physically, at this point. I think I must just have not gotten as many calories over the last few days as I thought I was getting. I don’t really have any other way of explaining how I could be dead tired from the very beginning of the day. Or maybe I’m getting sick.
• I’m grateful for the kindness of my hill family.

Success:

• I asked for help when I needed help today. I realized I was at a point where trying to tough it out was not smart.

Improvement:

• Gotta take better care of my body.

In other news, I got four emails from JustAnswer chastising me for breaking the rules as an expert. I got chastised for supposedly answering second opinion questions from people who had originally had me as their expert and then requested a second opinion, except that never happened. All of the examples they gave me of me breaking the rules and answering both the original question and the second opinion question were questions from the same customer who would actually requested me like five times in a row because instead of continuing the same conversation, he started a new question, but he went through the form to actually request me as the expert to answer the question.

So I answered the question, actually telling him that we needed to do it on the same question, but he kept sending new questions, sending them directly to me, requesting me specifically.

They weren’t second opinion questions. They were direct requests to work with me and only me.

And yet, I got an email chastising me for breaking that rule.

😶

I also got an email chastising me for three times where they said that I had phone call requests where I couldn’t get a hold of the customer, and they told me that I didn’t start a chat conversation, when on all three of those questions that they offered up as evidence of me breaking the rules and not switching to a chat conversation when I couldn’t get a hold of them by phone, I had switched to a chat conversation. In fact, I had sent several messages on the chat conversation and finally had given up.

And then there were the questions where I was told that I was not following protocol when a customer was asking a question that appeared to indicate that they didn’t realize that we weren’t the company they were intending to communicate with. I got chastised for not telling the customer that we were a different company than who they were expecting to work with, except for that’s not what happened. Every single question that they linked me to, plain as day in the text conversation was me stating who we were and what we do and making sure that they actually intended to get a hold of us.

So on all three of those emails I had done exactly what I was told, exactly what we were directed to do as experts, and yet, I got chastised in all three emails.

And the fourth chastisement email? That was the only one that was legitimate, if you can even call it legitimate. I was chastised because one of the rules is that I’m not supposed to explain to the customer how the site works.

And did my opening remarks to all my customers, I explained that a long drawn out chat conversation is a premium service, so if it turns into a long drawn out conversation, they can expect a message offering them to upgrade to a premium service.

I say that because just answer gives zero expectation to the customer for how the system works. So if I need to offer premium service, that’s blindsiding the customer because they were told they have this question and it’s going to cost x amount, but now there’s this unexpected message saying that it’s going to cost more if they want to continue.

So I send the message that I’m sending to give the customer some expectations for how this all works, and because I don’t want to get bad reviews by telling the customer that I’m not going to go any further without them upgrading to a premium service, when they’ve never even heard of a premium service.

But am I allowed to tell the customers how the site works? No am I allowed to help them figure out where a particular web page is on the site? No. I’m not supposed to do any of that. I’m not allowed to help the customer. I’m not allowed to tell the customer what they’ve paid for. I’m not allowed to give them the information that they need.

And I’m not happy about that. So according to their standards, yes, I was guilty of that one, but as far as I’m concerned, keeping that information from customers is deceptive and dishonest, and there’s a reason why lots of people think we’re a scam site.

We do provide a great service, and it does help a lot of people, but there are far too many people who don’t even know what they’re paying for, or how much they’re paying, etc. And that’s crap. I’ve been trying to do my part to write or wrong that I feel like is being perpetrated by my company on customers by taking advantage of them and abusing them.

And to be chastised for doing what’s best for the customer… That’s a joke. It’s disgusting, in my view.

I have half a mind to write an anonymous letter to news outlets explaining the company and their predatory practices. Or what I perceive as predatory practices.

End rant.

I wrote replies back to the customer service people who chastised me, letting them know clearly that I didn’t break any of their rules, with the exception of the last one which is a ridiculous rule that hurts customers.

Anyway…

Lift the world.

~ stephen