In Cusco now, at 11,000 feet elevation in the Andes. The thinner air made itself known as soon as we stepped off the plane, my heart raced and it felt harder to breathe. Walking up a flight of stairs is difficult. And think about that -- I´m a person who bikes everyday and I live on one of the steepest hills in DC.
It´s getting better though, I think my body is adapting. To help, we went down to the Mercado Centro and bought coca leaves. This is the same plant used to make cocaine, but everyone here chews them and it raises the metabolism and helps with the altitude sickness. I´m drinking a tea steeped in its leaves right now. The stairs are getting easier and, man I really love ya...
Cusco is the longest continously inhabited city in the Americas. It was the captiol for the Incas, whose population once reached 15 million and who built 15,000 miles of roads through the Andes. And then the Spanish invaded and the civilization fell. The LTR and I toured a church built by the Spanish in the mid 1600s over the remains of the Inca Emperorer´s palace. Several huge altars guilded with gold stolen from the Incas grace the church.
Tomorrow we´ll do more touring and coca leaf chewing and then Thursday we start our five day hike of the Inca Trail.
One cool thing -- this is our first time in the Southern Hemisphere. We´re seeing stars we´ve never ever seen. ¡Fantastico!
1 comment:
Que bueno! Good to hear that things are starting to come to fruition and that the trip is not only enjoyable, but insightful.
Enjoying the stars on a cloudless night is great. We experienced that camping last month. What a sight at 2 AM. The stars seemed within reaching distance.
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