Cusco and the altitude

The first thing that happened as soon as we got off the plane is: we got DIZZY. We were wondering if we should take the altitude pills we packed "just in case", but within 15 minutes we realized it was pretty serious and the pills were very much necessary. (The pills are called Diamox, and it's a must at this altitude of 3500m, unless you wanna spend days and days panting and running out of breath instead of siteseeing).

This altitude sickness is a weird feeling. You feel dizzy and disoriented, there's a lot of pressure in your head, sometimes it feels like it might explode, the chest feels really heavy, at the hardest points it feels like it's gonna fill up with blood. So what's the hardest thing to do at high altitude? Going up the stairs. And of course Cusco is all about going uphill. Just going up to the hostel was already a challenge.

So we basically spent most of the day just getting to our hostel, settling down, and chilling in the lounge drinking our Coca-tea. Coca-tea, a.k.a. mate is everywhere, you can get it in coffee shops, bars, restaurants, anywhere at all, and it helps a bit with the altitude.