Catching Up

Howdy everyone!  Mother and I are feeling better so time for a bit of catch-up.

Yesterday when leaving Lima we found ourselves on the same flight to Arequipa as one of the eight presidential candidates - but there were eight smartly dressed men in the group so we don't actually have any idea which one was "the one".  Albeit to say when landed in Arequipa our flight was greeted with flag-waving, music-playing, cheering supporters as well as automatic weapon-carrying soldiers.  Quite the spectacle, at first we weren't sure if it was a parade or a protest!  We met our new guide, Zuley, a charming young woman and started the drive to Chivay.  During this ride we got to try the coca leaves.  Quite the experience hahaha.  You start by taking a generous handful of the large, dry, green leaves and arranging them in a neat stack.  Next, break off any stems and roll the stack into a cylindrical ball.  Now, stick that ball in the right or left side of your cheek.  Note:  Do NOT move the ball from left to right side of your mouth as this will cause it to break down and not only will it lessen the effects of the leaves but it will be really gross (Mother made this mistake!)  Anyway so now you are chewing and chewing and feel sort of like a cow.  The leaves taste a little earthy/grassy, but yet similar to green tea.  After you have chewed it soft you then take a tiny bit of this gray chalky material called lliqta.  Lliqta is made of ash, clay, lime, salt, and anise.  Zuley said that it usually tastes salty, but ours tasted sweet which was actually kind of nice.  You chew this whole concoction for about thirty minutes until the wonderful moment when you can just spit the whole green cud-looking wad out.  There is one side effect that neither Zuley nor Mom got, but that I did - the side of my mouth where I was chewing the coca leaves went completely numb, and stayed that way for about twenty minutes after spitting the wad out.  Fun times.

This day was expected to be our roughest day, in the sense that we were passing through the highest elevation of 16,108ft and we were a little concerned about altitude sickness.  However, we were both fine during the car ride, not counting lips and fingernails turning purple HA  Arrive in Chivay around 2:30pm, quick nap, and then meet up with Zuley again at 3:30pm for a walking tour of the town.  Everything was fine until we attempted to trek up a small hill.  Mom's heart started racing and the blood was pounding in our heads.  Now keep in mind, when I say "small hill" I literally mean like a mound of dirt.  It was less steep than one of the hills in Nish's "secret park" in Miami, and for the skiers out there it was smaller than a bunny hill.  I mean I know I am not in shape but this was ridiculous.  Not until that moment did we feel the effects of the altitude, but after my attempt to run up the trail it was all downhill from there.  Blood thumping, hearts pounding slowly turned into lightheadedness and increasing headache which lasted the rest of the day and all through the night.  As a side note, we had dinner at the hotel and probably the best chicken soup of my life.  In bed by 8:30pm, we had to be up at 5am today, but we probably got a total of only two solid hours of sleep due to headaches.

This post has gotten long, so I will start a new one to report on today's excursions into the towns of Colca Valley.

WOOT WOOT