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!
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