Matte de Coca? Porque no? If you’re traveling to the South American Andes, there are several cities that are above 9000 feet in elevation, and you have to be wary of the possibility that your body may not readily adapt to the high altitude. Some people develop socorro (altitude sickness). The symptoms are dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, headaches and vomiting. If you go to your doctor or travel immunization clinic, most likely they will prescribe a drug call dianox to combat the effects of socorro.

In Peru and Bolivia , the traditional way of dealing of combating altitude sickness is by drinking coca tea (matte de coca) or chewing the coca leaves (ojas de coca).In particular in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, drinking coca tea or chewing the leaves among the indigenous people (mostly Quechua) is an everyday thing and is part of their culture. Chewing the leaves or drinking several cups of the tea will energize you for the those long hikes to the various Incan ruins located in the highlands If you chew enough coca, your gums and teeth will get a good numb. Traditionally, the natives chew the leaves between the gums and cheek on one side of the mouth and a small piece of charcoal substance called llyca (a quechuan word pronounced yeeca) is placed between the gums and the cheek on the other side of the mouth, and then from time to time, the materials -the coca leaves and the llyca - are swapped by transferring with the tongue. Sounds like fun, huh?

Most of the hotels and guesthouses in Cusco, Peru - the gateway to Macchu Piccu - will readily offer it to you upon arrival; it has a rather pleasant taste. Cusco is over 2 miles high, to be exact about 3300 meters or 11,400 feet above sea level. While I was in Cusco, I met a number of travelers, both young and old, who succumbed to socorro including a young guy from Vancouver, Canada. All of these affected travelers recovered after a couple of days; during the recovery period they started drinking several cups of the matte de coca daily. As far as yours truly, I really didn’t have much of a problem with the altitude, other than feeling a little disoriented (and a little sort of breath) in the first couple of hours after arriving in Cusco, which I attribute more to the stress of the rush-rush travel arrangements than the high altitude, but after drinking several of cups of matte de coca and resting a couple of hours, I was later seen dancing the merengue in the wee hours of the morning at the local disco.

Factoid: Cocaine is made in part by extracting certain chemicals from the coca leaves. Of course to produce the final product, copious amounts of coca leaves are used in the process.

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