Cusco - A City Far Too High Up
I didn't get the best welcome to Cusco. The hostel I was staying in had a free airport pick-up service which decided to use. I’d given them my flight details and they said they’d be at the airport with a sign with my name on. So you can imagine my surprise when there was nobody there for me. I had taxi drivers hassling me, offering ‘help’ and in the end I let one of them phoned the hostel for me as much to get them off my back as to find out what happened.
The hostel said they didn’t have my flight time which was why they weren’t there. (Luckily my anal-retentiveness had led me to print off all the emails I had regarding accommodation and transport so I could show them they had my details yet they still tried to deny they’d received my details!) They said they’d be there in 15 minutes so I was getting quite annoyed when they turned up after half an hour in a crappy taxi with a tear in the backseat and no seatbelt. I said I wanted a seatbelt so ended up sitting in the front which gave me a clear view of the crazy driving employed by Peruvian taxi drivers!
The main arrived and I started eating. I found myself having to take deep breaths in between mouthfuls. I had a bit to eat and suddenly felt really light-headed. I found myself practically gasping for air and had to put my head between my legs for a bit. I felt a bit ridiculous and composed myself and tried to eat more but couldn’t. A waiter came over and asked if I was ok and if I needed oxygen. I said yes and he ran off. A couple of minutes later a waitress came over and asked if I was ok and if I wanted a maté de coca (a tea made from coca leaves which is said to relieve symptoms of altitude sickness). I said yes so sat sipping that. The waiter then came back with an oxygen tank but luckily I’d recovered enough to not need it. In the end I got the food to take away and went back to the hostel and slept!
I didn’t see that much of Cusco because of the altitude sickness. It really wiped me out – it felt like ‘flu. There was a sense of being completely drained, of your body being too heavy to lift. When it was really bad just lifting an arm was too much effort. I found eating the hardest thing to do. It was as if the extra oxygen required for metabolism pushed you over the edge from just coping to really suffering. It probably wasn’t the most sensible thing to go from sea level to over 3,000 m and not expect some adverse effects but the severity really surprised me. When I go back (oh, I will go back!) I’m not going to fly straight to Cusco but will go via Lake Titicaca or somewhere else that’s lower down. I don’t want to feel like that again! (The photo is of the flight info screen before we've taken off from Cusco on the way back to Lima. The altitude on the tarmac is 3,288 m!!).
Anyway, Cusco was an ok city. It was much bigger than I expected and there were a lot more people than I expected. A lot of the Peruvian fishermen on the boats were from Cusco and I understood why – there didn’t seem to be much to do and a lot of buildings and roads were quite rundown. There were loads of people selling stuff and I quickly learned to blank them. Most were giving flyers for massages and manicures, etc, which was really strange. I think it may be a bit of pampering for people who’ve finished the Inka Trail but I could be wrong.
I didn’t really warm to the city but would go back again, if only because it’s so close to Machu Picchu which I didn’t get to see on this trip.
The hostel said they didn’t have my flight time which was why they weren’t there. (Luckily my anal-retentiveness had led me to print off all the emails I had regarding accommodation and transport so I could show them they had my details yet they still tried to deny they’d received my details!) They said they’d be there in 15 minutes so I was getting quite annoyed when they turned up after half an hour in a crappy taxi with a tear in the backseat and no seatbelt. I said I wanted a seatbelt so ended up sitting in the front which gave me a clear view of the crazy driving employed by Peruvian taxi drivers!
I got to the hostel, settled in then went for a walk. I felt a bit breathless walking uphill and figured it was altitude sickness and thought that it was as bad as it would get. Boy, was I wrong! I went for some dinner and decided to treat myself as I’d only eaten plane food for the last day and a half. I had a pisco sour (BAD IDEA – drinking alcohol is really unwise if you’ve got altitude sickness. My defence is I didn’t know this and I didn’t know I had bad altitude sickness). I then had a starter. I found myself a little breathless which was odd but didn’t think too much of it. I also felt fuller than I’d expected but had already ordered a main course (alpaca kebabs!) but figured I’d be hungry by the time it arrived.
The main arrived and I started eating. I found myself having to take deep breaths in between mouthfuls. I had a bit to eat and suddenly felt really light-headed. I found myself practically gasping for air and had to put my head between my legs for a bit. I felt a bit ridiculous and composed myself and tried to eat more but couldn’t. A waiter came over and asked if I was ok and if I needed oxygen. I said yes and he ran off. A couple of minutes later a waitress came over and asked if I was ok and if I wanted a maté de coca (a tea made from coca leaves which is said to relieve symptoms of altitude sickness). I said yes so sat sipping that. The waiter then came back with an oxygen tank but luckily I’d recovered enough to not need it. In the end I got the food to take away and went back to the hostel and slept!
I didn’t see that much of Cusco because of the altitude sickness. It really wiped me out – it felt like ‘flu. There was a sense of being completely drained, of your body being too heavy to lift. When it was really bad just lifting an arm was too much effort. I found eating the hardest thing to do. It was as if the extra oxygen required for metabolism pushed you over the edge from just coping to really suffering. It probably wasn’t the most sensible thing to go from sea level to over 3,000 m and not expect some adverse effects but the severity really surprised me. When I go back (oh, I will go back!) I’m not going to fly straight to Cusco but will go via Lake Titicaca or somewhere else that’s lower down. I don’t want to feel like that again! (The photo is of the flight info screen before we've taken off from Cusco on the way back to Lima. The altitude on the tarmac is 3,288 m!!).
Anyway, Cusco was an ok city. It was much bigger than I expected and there were a lot more people than I expected. A lot of the Peruvian fishermen on the boats were from Cusco and I understood why – there didn’t seem to be much to do and a lot of buildings and roads were quite rundown. There were loads of people selling stuff and I quickly learned to blank them. Most were giving flyers for massages and manicures, etc, which was really strange. I think it may be a bit of pampering for people who’ve finished the Inka Trail but I could be wrong. I didn’t really warm to the city but would go back again, if only because it’s so close to Machu Picchu which I didn’t get to see on this trip.
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