Altitude with Attitude

Situated in the Andes mountain range at an altitude of 3400m, the city of Cusco is not to be messed with. It is a truly city with altitude. To put that in perspective it is nearly three and a half times the height of Sca Fell Pike, England's highest hill, or to use a more common reference point, 66 times the height of Nelson's Column.

And you can certainly feel it. From the moment you disembark from the aeroplane doors, walk across the Tarmac and hit the first set of stairs, you can feel your heart pumping as it desperately tries to get what little oxygen there is into the blood stream. A little while longer and dehydration sets in, a background headache arrives followed by irritability and fatigue. Before anyone makes a sarcastic comment, I freely acknowledge that it didn't take being at altitude for some of those symptoms to appear!  The weirdest symptom I have experienced so far is waking during the night, gasping for air as if the oxygen has been sucked out of the room by a malevolent inn keeper.

The best way to deal with it is to drink plenty of water, take it easy for the first few days and let the body make the necessary adjustments. If it doesn't then  High Altitude Pulmonary Edema or High Altitude Cerebral Edema can develop. Neither of which are pleasant and can be fatal. Nice.

Luckily we have a few days before setting off on the four-day trek along the Inca Trail which eventually tops out at around 4200m above sea level. Yes even more Sca Fells and another dozen or so Nelson's!

After strolling around this stunning city and admiring the precision of the Inca engineering, we met back in the hotel for a team briefing. As well as representation from UK/NZ we will also be joined by Kiwis, Americans and Aussies. I had hoped that we would be the most pepared for the trip, having completed several multi-day hikes previously, but the Aussies seemed to know what they were talking about..... that was until one of them asked if they could take a hot water bottle! I can only assume that they would take it empty and have it filled every night but I am beginning to wonder. Apparently they were concerned that, with forecast night-time temperatures dropping to 8 degrees, it might be too cold. I make that 1-0 to the UK/NZ contingent.

Since the hottie revelation, we have been busy packing our bags and deciding which items we will carry and what to give to the porters. It is going to be quite a team; two guides, two cooks, fifteen porters and eleven.... well what would you call us? Clients sounds too business like but travellers sounds a bit Phileas Fogg. Either way, it 

is going to take a lot of people to get us from the start to the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu.

The forecast is not looking great, this is the rainy season after all, but it'll be a great experience nonetheless and worthy of a blog or too I'm sure when we get back - I'm pretty certain that there will be no internet reception on the trail. 

Well I'd better sign off and finish my packing as I've got to whittle down my undies just a couple of pairs and decide which of my least dirty t-shirts to take. Shouldn't be too hard but I'm already feeling sorry for the people who will share our return bus......