coca tea is key
Cusco elevation is no joke
On the last episode of…
We flew up to Cusco early in the morning so that we could get to our hotel before the work day started. I’ve never had the effects of altitude until coming here, and seeing it’s more than twice the Denver’s altitude, I totally get it. Cusco is cute and nestled beautifully in its own valley in the Andes. We met cute dogs along the roads and in our hotel (I named one Snowball, even though he’s a bit dirty) and tried to test our bodies against the impending hike to Machu Picchu.
Recap
Total Miles: 13,087 mi
Miles Traveled: 3,778 mi
Current Elevation: 11,221ft (Denver is 5,280ft for reference)
Current City: Cusco, Peru
staving off the altitude monster
Part of writing myrecent post about Coke’s attempt to escape its cocaine past is because I was interested in coca tea as an aid in altitude sickness. The leaf that made Pablo Escobar’s empire is completely legal in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador to drink as a tea. Its most famous alkaloid, cocaine, makes up about 0.8% of the dry leaf which normally extracts about 5mg of it into your tea. Enough to test positive in a urine test, but nothing physiologically noticeable.
The tea is legal because many communities, especially those living in the high altitude of the Andes Cordillera, claim that it helps with altitude sickness. While I love the the governments of the Western South American continent have not outlawed a plant that has been part of these communities, there has been no credible, double-blind studies showing the efficacy of this help. When compared to acetazolamide (Diamox, a prescription drug for altitude sickness), it is a classic placebo. But there is something beautifully powerful to the placebo effect, and if we could somehow make that a medical drug, we’d be in a better spot. Sitting in the cold mountain air to catch your breath with a warm beverage is always going to hit the spot and feel regenerative, but if it were coffee, it’d likely be the same feeling as coca tea.
That being said, I enjoy the taste of coca tea quite a bit, but understand the internet disagrees. It’s likely because it reminds me of yerba maté, the Argentine holly that may be responsible for Messi’s dominance, but it is quite earthy, vegetal with a smell of oversteeped green tea. It does seem to give me some vim and vigor, but I’ll let you know if it helps as we continue to ascend, but trust I’ll keep the Diamox closer.