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.....)!