When in Peru...

October 3, 2011

Early this morning we left the city of Arequipa for the Colca Canyon. The journey took us to the highest altitude we’ll experience in Peru—4900 meters above sea level. A local tour company picked us up this and the first stop we made was to a corner store to buy coca leafs to help with the altitude. (Now, for those of you who are concerned, while cocaine is extracted from the coca leaf, chewing the leafs is not the same as doing cocaine.)

Coca leafs. The black stuff in the upper
 right hand corner is banana ash.

Am I really supposed to chew on this?

Don't know what she sprayed on our
hands, but it cleared the sinuses. 

Alpacas along the road.

 We rode along for a little while and then Erica, the tour guide, instructed us on how to chew the leaves. FYI, You take 5-10 leafs, tear off the stems, add a touch of banana ash, fold them up, and then chew them for 5-10 minutes. For the record, the consensus was it’s pretty gross. I chewed/held in my mouth mine for the minimum five minutes and then got rid of them as quickly as I could. Erica also sprayed some potent, though nice smelling, something or other into our hands to help with the altitude. She instructed us to rub our hands together, rub the spray on our forehead and then sniff our hands. This was definitely much more pleasant than the coca leafs. Finally, we stopped at a little rest area before summiting the highest point and had te triple—a tea infused with three different herbs to help with the altitude.

Te Triple

 I don’t know whether to credit the coca, the spray, or the tea (or none of the above?), but I can say I didn’t find the altitude difficult. I can also say I have no need to try the coca leafs again.

Stops along the road.

More animals....

Caroline, my roommate, feeding a llama.

Little rock towers built along the road. They were started by some artist,
but now it's common for tourists to make them.

This was my tower.

 After building a little rock tower and making a wish on top of the highest mountain, we descended into the valley where we’re spending the next three days. We had a buffet lunch where I ate alpaca.

The meat on the bottom is alpaca.

Our lunch buffet. 

 We’re in a beautiful spot in an idyllic hotel—I can see a llama from my window! The people here seem to wear traditional Peruvian clothes, and it feels like I’ve traveled back in time a bit. Today we went for a nice hike. (It’s the first time I’ve gotten my heart rate up in over a week, and I definitely needed it!) I will say my lungs were burning a bit and I was breathing a little heavy due to the altitude on the hike, but we’re actually higher than we’ll be at Machu Picchu, so I should be fine.

Hard to tell from this picture, but we were actually pretty high up here. 

This kids were waiting at the bottom and offered to sing to us. The verdict was
they're not going to make to the next level on X-Factor, but it was sweet. 

Tomorrow morning we’re headed out to look for condors and other wildlife. Our wakeup call is at 5:30 in the morning, so I’m thinking it’s about time I head to bed.