23 May 2013
Chris woke up with man flu. Not a good way to mark our five-month wedding anniversary, two-year engagement anniversary or four-week honeymoon anniversary!
Today we headed to Chivay, via a shop to stock up on coca leaves and coca-containing products (cookies and lollies mainly). We are going to be quite high up in the next few days, and coca reputedly helps relieve altitude sickness.
Fernando, our new guide for this leg of the trip, told us to put 11 or 12 leaves on top of each other, break off the stems, and roll them around a tiny piece of this chalk-like substance made from quinoa and alcohol. The chalky stuff is a catalyst to make the coca more effective. You put the leaves into the side of your mouth and crunch down on it, chewing it on that side of your mouth for a few minutes, before swapping to the other side of your mouth, mixing it with saliva to soften the leaves. After about 20 minutes, you can swallow the leaves (apparently they are good for your belly) or spit them out. The coca makes your mouth go numb and relieves nausea, stomach aches and headaches associated with high altitudes and other illnesses.
I managed to chew it for just five or 10 minutes, sucked it for another 20 minutes, then threw it out of the bus window. It was disgusting. Apart from as a tea, coca makes me actually feel like vomiting. Especially the raw leaves.
The scenery on the road up the mountain was spectacular, with more of those huge mountain ranges topped with snow; valleys littered with little villages; single houses surrounded by farm land; fields of llamas, alpacas, sheep and cows; miles of arid, rocky and scrubby land; then miles of lush vegetation and wetland. In parts it reminded me of the countryside in England, with stone walls and fences, and dark green fields and farm animals. The lines between sky and earth are so definite here, almost like a bad computer-generated image. It’s all a little surreal, and completely awesome (in the traditional sense of the word).
Along the way, Fernando pointed out the gum trees – an unusual sight here. Apparently, the Spaniards brought them to the area from Australia in the 1500s. I didn’t think the Spaniards had been to Australia so early on...
We stopped several times to see the alpacas, llama and other farmed native animals, who wander freely in the fields and on the roadside. I also discovered a delicious new tea – ‘mixed tea' – at a roadhouse (around 4000 metres above sea level) on the way. It’s a combination of coca, muna (for the stomach) and chachacoma (for the head). It tastes a little like peppermint tea, which might be due to the muna. Muna is a herb that looks like thyme, but tastes like mint.
We stopped again at 4900 metres, at a lookout where you can see the volcanoes again and admire the odd rock formations. Locals go there praying for blessings by leaving piles of rocks (big at the bottom to tiny at the top). The altitude hit me here, and despite the coca and mixed tea, I felt quite light headed and found it hard to breathe and walk. It didn’t help that it felt like it was about minus 20 degrees celcius. It’s a shame the area wasn’t more hospitable, because it was truly beautiful and unique.
We reached Chivay with enough time for me to discover some very nice silver jewellery shops (and spend a good deal on some 'trinkets'), while Chris napped in the hotel, and visit the town square. It was quite a basic town square in comparison with the others in the bigger towns. Locals were gathered chatting, dressed in traditional clothes, holding their llamas and alpacas (who were wearing earrings) on leads. Little, chirpy sparrows with black mohawks hopped and flittered around the dogs, who lay everywhere, completely at ease. There were about 20 brightly decorated tuk tuks parked outside the church. It was late afternoon by then, and locals had started setting up their market stalls, from which they’d later cook and eat their meals, and sell street food. Someone had mown a big cross into the grass on the hillside behind the church, which was the feature of the town square. The cross overlooked the town square and main street, and was a little imposing.
That evening, we walked down hundreds of steps to reach the hot springs at the Maro Spa. We watched the sun set from a spa pool overlooking the Colca Canyon, under a full moon and relatively clear sky, drinking sours (I branched out to try a Colca Sour, which tasted suspiciously like Chris’ Pisco Sour…). It was all very civilised and a nice way to celebrate our tri-anniversary.
Chris and I gave the local cabaret show a miss (although, from all reports, it was quite fun). Instead, we opted for a quiet meal (and mulled wine) in town and an early night.
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