I know many of you are eagerly awaiting some visual stimulation from my Peru trip. Well this post has it! Let me begin with the acclimatization in Cusco. I live in a city that is pretty low in terms of feet above sea level. According to Wikipedia, Cusco is about 3,400 m (11,200 ft). I started to notice the change in altitude when I had only climbed a couple of flights of stairs in the hostel we were staying at and my heart started beating like crazy. To be honest, I was a little short of breath.
I consider myself to be a fairly fit person, but regardless of your fitness level, high altitude can affect anyone and can affect anyone in a different way. I found myself breathing more and trying to adjust my breathing to take in more oxygen, due to the thinner air up there.
After we had checked into our hostel, we pretty much crashed for an hour and a bit, but had an orientation with the tour guide and the group. Just when I thought I could crawl back into my bed, we had a walking tour of the city. First stop was a coca museum where we learned about the benefit of coca leaves by Peruvians. They actually chew the coca leaves because they are believed to have medicinal purposes such as overcoming fatigue, hunger and thirst, as well as altitude sickness. These leaves are the same ones used to make cocaine. It is actually illegal to export them. They can only be sold domestically.
Next stop was the market. Our tour guide allotted 30 min to browse the local market, meaning 30 minutes to practice our haggling skills in Spanish to get some souvenirs. I had taken Spanish 101 in university, so I was able to get a deal on some toques. Side comment: There are dogs EVERYWHERE in Peru. And they aren’t stray ones! Apparently, owners let their dogs roam free without any leashes or identification. There was this one dog that actually accompanied us during our walking tour. It was pretty funny. He stopped and laid down whenever we stopped at an attraction and then walked alongside us when we continued the tour.
Later that evening, we had a debriefing by our Inca Trail hiking guide. We rented hiking poles and sleeping bags. Aside from our daypack, which we would have on us during the day, we were also allowed to have a duffel bag. This duffel bag was to be carried by the porters (on TOP of all the camping and cooking equipment they had to carry on the trail!!!). Thus, the weight was restricted to only 6kg. This weight also included the sleeping bag. We wouldn’t have access to the duffel bag till we got to the campsite in the evening. Needless to say, it was somewhat stressful trying to figure out what was necessary to pack for the next few days (The weather changed CONSTANTLY).
Enough blogging. Here are some pictures ( Finally!)
Who wants to go shopping?
View from the 3rd floor of the hostel. Not so sure why the breakfast was on the 3rd floor. Guess they wanted to make you work for your food? 😉
Coca leaves. Traditionally they are chewed or used in tea
Pretty cool how it says Viva El Peru in the distance.
I am jealous. We were in Peru two years ago and loved it. Cusco was such an amazing city.
It is! I wish we had more time to explore it though. Everything felt a bit rushed, and the trip was basically hiking the Inca Trail. I would like to go back maybe in 5 years or so and also check out Lima, because we only saw the airport.
Love your pictures. Hope you have a great time. Looking forward to future posts 🙂
Thanks! I feel like my blog is turning into a travel blog! This week has been more busy than usual, but I’m hoping to have another Peru Picture Post (PPP) in a few days. We do have a long weekend here, so that should give me some extra time. 🙂
This is so cool! I’ve never thought of going to Peru but this makes me more interested.
I definitely recommend it. After going to Peru, I kind of want to visit other South American countries now such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
So what did the coca leaves taste like? Did you get a little buzz like caffeine?
I never actually tried chewing them raw. I noticed the porters would though. I had coca chocolate, toffee and coca tea. Definitely didn’t get any caffeine buzzes though. Only some gas from the coca tea. LOL.
Glad you didn’t bring any cocoa leaves home! :p Looks like it was so interesting from day one….the hostel looks nice despite the breakfast hike and I can’t even imagine doing an Inca trail! I know Machu Pichu was on the list, but did you happen to see the Nazca lines? Or should I just put my anticipation on hold? :p
I was pleasantly surprised by our first hostel too. The 2nd one, not so much. I had to Google what the Nazca lines were. They look SO cool and I wish I was able to visit them during my trip. That’ll be another reason to go back to Peru.
That is the prettiest hostel I’ve ever seen…or view from it. It’s so cute! Costa Rica had a lot of dogs roaming around too. They had a lot of fleas, but they were always so friendly. Italy had cats. lol! I’m living vicariously through your travels right now!
Glad you are having a good time in Peru! I would love to travel there someday.
I must confess I never thought to travel to Peru but reading your adventures has made me want to investigate it.
When I first read the blurb for this blog quickly, I thought it said “visual simulation,” and I thought – Sweet! Interactive photos! LOL. But, even though your photos did not move, still very cool. Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to see more.
Great pictures! Makes me want to go to Peru even more now.
Glad to hear that. I definitely want to go back and see more of it in the future.
That is some high altitude living. We live at around 7000 ft and people can hardly move when they visit us from sea level. Great pictures. What an amazing trip!
Did you try chewing the coca leaves? They did seem to help, especially at altitude.
I didn’t actually chew the coca leaves myself, I only had coca candies. Perhaps the actual leaves may have helped even more.