Peru
Today we're not travelling quite as far as yesterday. We are flying to Peru, South America. Our flight will touch down at Lima airport, the capital of Peru. We will take some time to acclimatise and get ready for our days adventures!
Cusco
We are travelling to Cusco to organise our trek of the Inca trail. It is a beautiful city and it's your first introduction to the Incas.
Take a walk around the city and get your bearings. Buy some hats and some warm clothes for your hike.
After a while, you might start to feel a bit funny, you might find it harder to breathe. You are experiencing altitude sickness.
Cusco is about 3400m above sea level. That's really high. Eyrecourt is only 55m above sea level. It's called High Altitude when the distance above sea level is over 2500m. The higher we climb, the thinner the air gets and it's harder to take a breath.
It's the feeling you get when you run really hard and you're trying to catch your breath. High Altitude makes you feel the same, except you haven't been running, you've just been sitting down!
Most people feel a little funny for a while but get used to it and feel OK. Professional athletes train in high altitude areas to get fitter because it's really hard to run in high altitude.
Some people get very sick. They have headaches and don't feel well. In Peru the locals make a special tea from the coca leaf which can help. If a person is really sick, they need to leave the area and travel to a lower altitude place, then they will start to feel better again.
We have most of our preparations done. We have chosen a good tour company for our hike. But before we set off, who exactly are the INCAS and what is Macchu Pichu?
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
I had to hike for 4 days and camp for three nights to reach Machu Picchu. This hike is an ultimate bucket list destination for a lot of people. It's a tough trek and you do a lot of walking.
If you watch the next video, you will see men running with huge rucksacks. They are the porters and they run ahead to set up camp for the night. By the time we reach the stop, they have the tents set up and the dinner on. These porters are amazing!
The food was delicious. We had snacks of popcorn and peanuts while we waited for dinner. Every morning a porter would come to our tents calling tea, coffee, hot chocolate, chai? I was never so well fed!
Lake Titicaca
Now that we've got used to the high altitude we might as well visit the highest lake in South America.
All too soon it's time to catch our flight home. We didn't get a chance to explore the Amazon jungle in Peru, or look more closely at the Peruvian tradition dress and the traditional music and customs. We also didn't discuss the differences between alpacas and llamas!
But we do have time to browse some Peruvian recipes. Is there one that you could try? I am definitely making the Butifarras. it looks like the easiest!
This page was produced for 4th, 5th and 6th class Eyrecourt NS, Co. Galway for Day 5 of their Virtual School Tour Week , 19/06/2020.
Any queries or corrections should be directed to etreacy@eyrecourtns.ie.