Salsa at altitude...

The Exercise Tolerance Quiz

How long do you take to climb a flight of stairs? I can climb quite quickly, but I have to stop halfway up, and I have to rest at the top for around 5 minutes to catch my breath!

How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning? Probably close to twice what it normally does at sea level.

Are you able to shower yourself? Well, yes...but similarly, I´m well and truly puffed out by the time I´m finished!

So my functional status on arrival at 3400m was pretty minimal, probably equivalent to a decent COPD patient´s answers, but by the end of the first week I was itching to get dancing! So I dragged Trevor along to ´Mythology´, a hotspot discovered by our predecessors that came highly recommended. (I think Petra´s advice was...¨even if you go EVERY night it won´t be enough!!!¨- and I am beginning to grasp what she meant!).



´Mythology´is a bar situated in the Plaza de Armas, right in the heart of Cusco. It gets going after about 9.30pm each night, and there are free dance classes for all levels...from beginner salsa steps, which loads of travellers usually join in for, then advancing to some crazy moves that I wouldn´t even try and keep up with at this altitude! Sometimes there is Rueda (danced in a circle, with loads of tricky spins before passing the girl onto the next salsero...loads of fun!).


Amazing salseros...these are 2 of the teachers who get the crowd grooving each night.

The dancers here are AMAZING, clearly most of them have it in their blood and have been dancing since they were knee-high to a llama! There are loads of different styles here too, from the smooth L.A. linear style most popular in Christchurch, to a freestyle Peruvian/Brazilian capuera mix, to the circular Salsa Cubano with possibly the best spins of the lot!


Francesco strutting his stuff in the beginner lesson

These pictures are from the first night, and I have to admit I was only able to dance for a fraction of the time...I was left so puffed that I had to sit down after 2 songs, much to my disappointment. I have been slowly weaning my way up, so can´t wait to dance at sea level again...will be an ultra-conditioned, altitude-trained athlete (I wish!). Have even managed to get Trev up on the dance floor...admittedly for the Reggaeton and hip-hoppy songs after the salsa finished, but am working on him slowly!

Cusco en la noche

Cusco city is absolutely gorgeous at night. I will let the pictures speak for themselves....

Catedral

Iglesia de La Compañia

Local police

Of course, thanks to the D90 :)

Soccer and spanish lessons

Ingrid has written a very descriptive email detailing the events at the soccer match and I will import it into the blog as soon as possible but I would like to add that there is really nothing like Latin American soccer fever.

We were given tickets to go watch the regional peruvian team play one of the regional bolivian teams and the energy at the stadium was fantastic! Not to mention the whole family atmosphere...

no alcohol present at all, unlike our Kiwi rugby matches. When the Peruvian team scored a goal, the young boys chanting the cheers would rush up to the fence line ringing the pitch and climb all the way to the top, shaking the fence and screaming at the top of their lungs. It was a most interesting experience to see this hoard of young people... boys and girls, run to the fence and scale it, threatening to bring it down with their excitement!

We also started spanish lessons with a lady called Paty and we have yet to take a photo of her but we do have a photo of her dog, Lulu

and the couple of shots of the 300 year old house she lives in which had been passed down from the conquitadores! She has been exceptionally kind to us but also a very hard teacher who sets lots and lots of homework!

Paty lives on a street called Calle Purgatorio which translated into English means Purgatory Street. She tells us of the story of when a long time ago, when the Peruvians had to pay tax to the Spanish, there was a tax colector who lived on the street. The tax collector wanted to be rich and so devised a way to scare the locals into paying more tax. He would drag chains down the street at night, pretending to be the spirit of death and threatened that if anyone did not pay their tax, they would be sentenced to an eternity in Purgatory. Now, this only works if you are Catholic and yes, Peru is dominated by Catholicism in all its extremity.

So, spanish lessons in Purgatory anyone?

Andean soccer madness!!!

Despite our exhaustion on day 2 in Cusco (brain as well as bodily tired!) we made our way to a soccer game that Jimmy has given us tickets to. The local Cusco team was playing a Brazilian side, and it seemed that everyone in Cusco was there. We were the ONLY tourists! Was awesome - they started with Brazilian capuera dancing (acrobatics mixed with karate mixed with dance!) and then the game. I don´t think I watched more than about 2 minutes of the game thw whole time, as was far more interesting people watching! So many families and babies there, and the odd dog wandering around! People were selling coca cola, strange popcorn-like stuff, chicha morada, hats, soccer tops, icecreams...evrything you could think of (and not like official sellers, just anyone with enough nous and cheek to be doing it!). There was a crazy crowd of young people not far in front of us, all in the red of the Cusco team. Think Carisbrook terraces - but madder! There were drums, horns, shouting, singing, hand waving, jumping, and even the odd firework! Pretty energy-packed, and hilarious to watch.

First Impressions of Cusco

Ingrid:

So we arrived (exhausted) in Cusco at 8am and couldn´t sleep, or risk confusing our body clocks even further. We flew in over the Andes, high peaks that rival the Remarkables for steepness and jaggedness (I´m inventing words here!), some snow covered, but mostly not. Then we did a loop around and got the first view over the city -was amazing - everything so dry and brown, and every house tiled in terracotta or brown tiles. The city sits in a bowl between mountains, with houses creeping up the sides in a disorganised fashion. We found Jimmy (Dr Borja) at the airport...luckily he had a sign with our names on it, as we were harrassed by taxi drivers from all directions! The first breath of the air here was sooo cold and dry, unlike anything I can describe. Jimmy drove us home, and what a strange thing to be driving here for the first time - everyone in tiny cars, a gazillion crazy taxi drivers all in little Puntos or similar, driving on the right hand side, no road markings, even fewer road rules...absolute madness! The streets are dry and dusty, with holes and piles of rubble everywhere - unfinished roadworks, like the apparently unfinished buildings everywhere. Street vendors are dotted at intervals everywhere, mostly selling sweets, juices, chicha morada (a drink made of purple corn, sugar and maybe some spices - very nice, despite how awful it sounds!) and other items... I´m not sure what half the time! The people look hardy here - they are very poor, and will crouch on a street corner all day with the hope of selling their wares to the passers-by. However, they are very forward, particularly in the town centre, where anyone who looks like me (a gringo= white person, tourist!) is harrassed by those selling paintings, trinkets, alpaca wool hats, and my favourite -selling photos with them dressed in Inca garb, sequins included, with either lambs or llamas!!! The colours here are great though - fabric of every colour imaginable, bright bright dyes and great patterns. Loads of locals wander around carrying their babies or other loads in the brightly patterned mantas (shawl-like carry pouches slung over their backs, like in all the tourist pics!).















View over the city of Cusco, taken from San Blas


Home is an appartment in the fancy suburb of Santa Monica (about 10 - 15 mins by taxi to the centre of town), owned by the doctor. It sits over a childcare centre that his wife runs, so we have noisy kids from 8-9am each morning! We are sharing a room that is completely glassed on 2 sides, and overlooks a glass-covered inside courtyard which doublts as the kids "outdoor" play area, and is home to several exotic-looking plants! We have 2 bathrooms, both tiled with no shower curtains so we soak the floor every time we have a shower! Downstairs we can use the kitchen attached to the childcare centre, and we have a maid who comes and makes our breakfast each morning! She´s lovely, and works in Jimmy´s home normally, though seems to think we can´t boil water on the gas hob, so prepares a thermos each morning in case we want tea later! Little does she know we do everything ourselves in NZ. Trev got in trouble for washing dishes this morning, she had disappeared, so we thought we´d help out!


We unpacked - more difficult than it sounds at altitude, as I got so breathless after walking up stairs, or even moving across the room that I had to lie down every 2 minutes! Plus exhaustion didn´t help... but a cup of coca tea fixed that, and after unpacking, Jimmy took us into the town centre, we had a little walk up some of the narrow cobbled streets, looked at the Plaza de Armas (the main square in the town centre) and had lunch in a swanky french-peruvian cafe. Doctor´s status and all that...Trev and I won´t be frequenting that one too often! Then sleep....

Walk slowly, eat little and sleep alone

Peruvian customs was pretty challenging. We arrived at 11:30pm and after collecting our bags proceeded to clear the x-ray machines. We got to the end of the line and handed our customs declaration forms over to the customs officer and then he glanced down at our little MAAP box and asked what we had inside..... being nice polite medical students, we said we had medical supplies in the box (equipo medico). He took a quick look at us and then said that we had to go to valuation to see if we needed to pay any tax. Great! At valuation, we were asked to open the box and the officer there had a quick glance at what was inside. Luckily, Ingrid had managed to forge.. ahem... attain an official letter from MAAP saying what the supplies were for. He then kindly let us through saying that he would make an exemption in our case and we would not have to pay tax. Phew!



So, we arrived at Cusco on a clear morning and flew over the Andes into the little bowl of a valley at 3400m. It was an absolutely gorgeous plane flight and the Andes looked ragged and wild piercing the layer of cloud into the bright sunlight. We collected out bags and walked out into bright sunshine and dry, crisp air on our faces. It was good to finally be out of airports and in Cusco.


We had ascended 3400 vertical metres within the span of just under 3 hours and altitude sickness or mal de altura in Spanish/Sorojchi in Quechua is a serious problem. Symptoms of altitude sickness are fatigue or weakness, dizziness, insomnia, pins and needles, shortness of breath upon exertion, persistent rapid pulse, drowsiness and general malaise. Combined with headaches as the primary symptom, the most dangerous complications are cerebral and pulmonary/lung oedema. At any rate, I think we survived these symptoms so far!

Coca tea is good for altitude sickness and as you can see, both of us looked absolutely exhausted.




The Lonely Planet listed the title as the top 3 rules for living at altitude. The first 2 are relatively simple to follow and the third, I get told, has mainly got to do with avoiding high cardiac stress when not ¨sleeping alone¨. Following me telling Ingrid about this, she promptly suggested that I get out of the room we were sharing (in seperate beds I might add.....)!

The longest day

This one is written in retrospect..... We left Christchurch at 11am on 25th May and left Auckland after a short transit at 4.40pm on 25th May. We then landed in Santiago, Chile at 12 noon on 25th May and then left for Lima at 8pm on25th May, arriving in Cusco after a transit in Lima at 8am on 26th May. So, although it sounds like the trip took less then 24 hours, we spent close to 30 plus hours in airports and transit lounges.... it was absolute crap.

All in all, the trip went well. Kev, the Kiwi had a couple of moments napping in lounges and eating the odd lolly snack.



Kev occasionally got used as a pillow and no hard feelings were felt by any party... especially Ingrid.

Ingrid also decided to have ice cream at 1 am in the morning after a very difficult process getting through customs immigration with the MAAP supplies (more on that in the next post).

Apparently, Lima has been infested with swine flu very severely and there were health officers dressed in full infectious disease gear outside eash plane handing out these pamphlets.... I don´t think you can see what it say but it goes along the lines of, ´´If you have cough, sore throat or fever please see your doctor.... sneeze into your elbow...blah blah blah´´ and we had to declare if we were experiencing any symptoms or not. So, a rather intense passage through Peruvian immigration.

Akl International Airport

Have been sitting at Akl for a while now. I have been slowly battling the flu bug and it seems that I am winning at the moment. I blame a special someone of course=)

It has started off well. Haven't missed a flight yet but we have only had one flight. Have taken a few photos of Kev, the Kiwi and I will try to put them up when we get the chance.

Otherwise, all is well. Flying into Santiago tonight and then Lima. I'm not sure what the time difference is but should find out soon.

Can't believe I'm heading back to South America already.... I'm already planning my next trip =)

Pre-elective

So, Ingrid and I are off tomorrow and should be at the airport by 9 am in the morning. I'm currently at Iona and thanks to Diamox (and hence, feeling slightly fuzzy), I had to double back into town after I first got here to pick up a couple of things I had forgotten to bring with me!

Am not too anxious at the moment but I am definitely going to miss having a glass of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc and sitting in front of a fire.

I have got seven weeks in Cusco and then a wee holiday before four weeks in Melbourne. It should be fun.

So, watch this space. Hopefully, some pics and the odd message will be posted. Take care to all in New Zealand!