MACHU PICCHU PERU 2017 - 1 - ALTITUDE SICKNESS!

After extensive encounter with colleagues, residents, medical students, hospital administrators, and other critical leaders in Bogota area that have the potential to affect the future of the child protection field in Colombia, I am ready to shift gears and prepare for my adventure in Peru, Machu Picchu at that.  For some reason, I had it in my mind that Cuzco must be a small town at the entry to Machu Picchu. You can tell how much time I had, to dedicate to learning about the place I was to visit before the trip. Unusual for me, but, I am compassionate to myself, I had the most abrasive year of my academic career this past year. Because of that I couldn’t get admission to the Inca Trail hike: You have to sign up for it a year ahead of your trip! That is what academic life is like. I can’t wait to retire…

Cuzco/Cusco/Qusqo, a sprawling metropolis in South-central Peru

Seeing, from the plane, the vastness of the lit city stretching her arms and legs and hair in all directions one can see, I am stunned and embarrassed with how little I prepared myself for this trip. This is a metropolis, not a small town! My heart will break, though, when I step on the soil of the city, seeing how desolate certain parts are, and other than the old town polished to the taste of tourists’ eyes, the city is not much different than the cities of Guatemala or the parts of Tijuana close to the border of the US.

Through the tower of the Cathedral, Qusqo sprawling up the hills

The name of the city has multiple spellings: Cusco, Qusqu, Qosqo, all synonyms, the latter two being the representation of the Inca pronunciation in still-alive and widely used local Quechua language. The meaning of the name of the city in Quechua is “the center of the earth”. It is located in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes. It is at 3,400 m (11,200 ft) above sea level and my Peruvian neighbor on the plane tells me that Cusco has half a million population, one university, and two hospitals, one of which is not functioning: Quite a decline from being the capital of the Inca Empire for 300 years (13th to 16th-centuries). I will feel happier to learn later that Cusco is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, otherwise the treasures of this place and region could have been destroyed much faster than they already are as I will discover more and more over the next week. Looking at the crowds everywhere I go, overwhelming majority of which is tourists, it is very clear that millions of people must be visiting this place every year: Internet claims nearly 2 million visitors a year for Machu Picchu, almost all of which must go through Cuzco.

Urubamba Valley is lined with such steep hills and mountains all along

The airport is similar to Cedar Rapids airport, one of the smallest in the USA. I can quickly start observing that this is a resource-poor country. Is it because of priorities or because of truly not having many resources or because of unfair distribution that cripples all countries of the world; to be discovered gradually, if five days in this area can shed enough light onto this question… As I am looking for a taxi to my hotel, somebody takes me to the booth of “Black taxi” service. The fee is S/ 40: Soles is differentiated from USD with this sign, which is quite confusing for me at times since the slash sign may easily appear as 1 in front of the following number.

Urubamba Valley like a snake from the top of Machu Picchu

This misunderstanding will sometimes make me gasp and move away from something I am considering to buy, or feel pleasantly surprised when I am ready to pay the price and discover that I end up paying 10 or 100 soles less!!! I take the taxi and quickly discover that in addition to Colombia and Turkey, Peru is also a place, I wouldn’t consider driving a car. In both South American countries, drivers are extremely impulsive just like their Turkish peers, honking the horn constantly as a language used to communicate with other drivers:

Notice the rear 1/3 of the bus: Hanging in the air over the river in Agua Caliente

I can hear “Be careful, I am approaching”, “Hey how dare you go ahead of me”, “My gosh where did you appear from, “F… you” all spoken only via the honk-the-horn language!!! I haven’t heard one single “Thanks buddy” in all this honking! Driving in good old Turkey is back in my memory, vividly. I don’t think, I can live in a place where all senses are constantly stimulated, and most with not such good stimulants… One more time I realize through my trip to Colombia and Peru that I need a tranquil, peaceful, stress-free (as much as possible), friendly place to live in for the rest of my life while experimenting in other cultures through my travels to appreciate what they have and what I have back home simultaneously.

Cathedral and the Temple in the same shot in Qusqo in the Plaza de Arma!

In Cusco, most of the streets are very narrow and, especially in old town, one way; close to La Plaza de Arma, the streets are either totally or partially closed to motor vehicle traffic, fabulous! My hotel Akwi’s Dream is a humble but beautiful small hotel on Collacalle (or Qolla Calle): I discover soon that with indigenous rights being more recognized, Peruvians have started using the Inca “spelling” of names more often, too, although Incas did not have an alphabet. The hotel clearly occupies an old colonial home, its courtyard turned into the lobby with a huge chandelier hanging from the fourth floor to the first lighting the entire courtyard and hotel corridors day and night.

Narrow streets of Qusqo can accommodate only one-way traffic

I will occupy three different rooms in four days in this hotel, each as comfortable as the other. Just as in Colombia, there is no heating in buildings here in Cusco, either. However, in some rooms, they have mobile radiators, which I greatly appreciate as well as the down comforters, pillows, and heavy woolen blankets, which come very handy on cold nights. Across the street is the wall of the Cusco beer factory the entire length of a long block, perhaps half a km. It must be the famous corn beer chicha; tasted it once, it is not bad, like many light beers that I tried. Nothing unique or too special.

A Peruvian woman pouring chicha their saliva-fermented corn-beer!

I have two nights at this hotel at the beginning and two more nights at the end of my trekking to Machu Picchu. I am pleased to have two full days in Cusco so that I can explore this town as much as enjoying the nature and history of the region. The receptionists do not speak much English just like those in Colombia, I like it, it helps me use my Spanish more and more fluently. They are also as friendly as their Colombiano and Colombiana peers. Spanish is somewhat of a sexist language. The pronouns and adjectives are conjugated on the basis of the gender of the noun they are associated with. What has always concerned me is the fact that when using third plural pronoun and there are both males and females in the group referred to, they use the masculine pronoun.

At the entrance of Machu Picchu: I don't know, yet, what a phenomenal place this is.

I always asked myself “I wonder how Latina feminists take this.” I found the answer during this last trip to Colombia: My friend Miguel addressed the audience during the opening ceremony with “Amigos y Amigas” although solely “Amigos” would have covered both males and females. Learning from him, I started separating genders even in singular form when I refer to multi-gender populations. Smart and easy fix by smart and gender-sensitive Colombians.  

Ollantaytambe, Urubamba Valley, and the sever mountains rising from the valley that is already at 3000 m altitude

The main worry I have is related to altitude sickness. I have never spent one week at an altitude of 3300-4500 meters in my life. I will find myself very unprepared when I hear during the trekking that my young friends had gone to their doctors and received medical advice and prescription for altitude sickness! And I am a doctor! This reminds me of the saying in Turkish “The tailor cannot fix the tear on her clothing”. However, the other two doctors on our group are also not using and meds, is it our collective desire to try to stay away from meds as much as possible, knowing that each medicine is a double edged sword?

My daughter will remind me how swollen my face is at the peak of the hike to 4500 m on Quarry Trail

My first dinner in Cuzco is light, just fruits: These tropical and subtropical countries are so rich in the amount and variety of fruits, I could almost live on fruits here or in Colombia. Papayas, granadias, pomegranates, guanabana, bananas of different varieties, sweet plantain, passion fruit, on and on and on… I go to bed early and wake up early, alas with a headache. Good thing, I have a full day to check myself regarding altitude sickness.

Banana pancake with honey was one of the best food I had in Qusqo

The breakfast at the hotel is a feast. My most favorite is banana pancake: Somebody tells me it is made with corn flour and mashed bananas. Eaten with honey, it is to die for. I have to find a recipe for it when I go back home and make it for a weekend breakfast and surprise my friends and family. I devour 3-4 of them (each is a small potato size). Of the four types of jam they have on display, my most favorite is the elderberry jam: The fruit is caper size and black. It is delicious! Of course in these parts of the world, you get a variety of fresh fruit juices all day long. At Awki’s Dream, we have at least four kinds every breakfast.

Our friendly tour guide carried a bag of coca leaves in his bag at all times to give out as a gift to those who helped us along the way

When I go to the tea/coffee bar, I notice that tea bags are arranged in a basket in the periphery and the central space left is filled with coca. Thus it is up to you whether you will make your own pure coca leaf tea or chew them raw, or both, all options are available. My friend Isabel in Bogota told me that coca leaves strengthen the heart muscle, thus, more O2 is pumped into your brain to explain the mechanism of coca leaves preventing or treating altitude sickness.

No wonder the two coca leaves I chewed didn't do anything to me!

Hmm, this (over)stimulating the heart idea is not very appealing. I also recall my friend Mark, who had visited Bolivia some years ago telling me “The people here chew coca leaves to deal with altitude sickness. I don’t know if it really helps with the illness, or on coca, people are so high that they don’t care about what is going on”, which had made me laugh so hard at the time. I take my usual Anis tea, but drop one coca leaf into it for only a few minutes fearing I may get high! Nothing of the sort Mark had mentioned happens. For now, I will stay away from coca and see how things go.

Coca tea, at every breakfast, herbal tea bags circle around a pile of coca leaves at our hotel