Nathalie's Traveling Adventures: Cusco -Day 1

It's the 9th of August and we are in Cusco, Peru! It's 6 degrees Celsius - not what we would call warm! We find out there is an hour difference with Ottawa. Not bad! This means no jet lag! We will have enough of dealing with the high altitude without adding jet lag!

Altitude is weird. It's already playing tricks on us! Walking a single flight of stairs is proving difficult. It's like an elephant is sitting on your chest. No matter how deep a breath you take, you feel like you can't fill your lungs. You feel like you are out of breath all the time. Everything you do, even very simple tasks like putting on socks sucks all the energy out of your. I've had a headache all day. Luckily, it's not a serious headache and Advil took care of it.

Funny enough, the altitude is not affecting Rémi the same way. He's not feeling any of the symptoms that everyone else is feeling. He feels exactly like he does at home. He wishes he'd brought his running stuff so he could go for a run! Let me tell you, there is NO way I'm running anywhere! Not even downhill!

When you first arrive in high altitude (Cusco is at 3200m above sea level), you are supposed to take it easy for the first few days so you can acclimatize. You are to just slowly walk around, taking time for your body to adjust. So, that's exactly what we decided to do after our debrief with the lady from Andean Lodges.

A group of us decided to walk to the market. I found this quite overwhelming. I had a few tears... the smells, the people, the stuff being sold (pig and sheep heads, tongues, feet, you name it they had it), it was just too much for me. All I could think of was the Superstore... and this market... how can people shop here? Eat this meat? Then you just get over it. This is how they live. This is all they know. This doesn't bother them. Don't let it bother you. It's actually beautiful when you stop, look and take it in. Simple life...Hard, but simple...

After this overwhelming experience at the market, we walked to the square. Every town/city has a "square" where everything happens - as we saw on Sundays! It's really a square with a beautiful garden in the middle. There was also a big fountain and statues. It really was a beautiful place!

After all that exercise, we tried to have a nap. Well, something altitude does is not let you sleep! I laid down for a while, no sleep came. I felt like I was burning up, yet when you touched my skin, I didn't feel warm. I did looked flushed though. Not feeling feverish, I just blame it on altitude.

We finished our day with a very yummy Peruvian dinner at a restaurant called Morena. Wow! That was quite the dinner! I will let the photos speak for themselves! The plating was absolutely beautiful and the food was delicious!