Home school holding pattern at 12,500 feet

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”

 Zig Ziglar

Okay, so I admit it, going from sea level to over 12,500 ft. without acclimatizing was a bit of a dumb blonde move.  It was the early morning when we left Buenos Aires and late evening when we arrived at Lake Titicaca, Peru, the highest navigable lake in the world.   

To get there we made two stops on route; Lima the capitol at 5,000 ft. and then a five minute layover to take on board more passengers in Arequipa at 7,600ft.  Between Arequipa and our final airport, Juliaca, we flew really low over snow capped mountains, or was it that the mountains were just really high?  The peaks reminded me of pictures of Everest and they stretched out either side of the plane, interspaced with high altitude fresh water lakes.  This was nothing I'd ever seen before. 

“I owned the world that hour as I rode over it. Free of the earth, free of the mountains, free of the clouds, but how inseparably I was bound to them.”

 Charles Lindbergh

Peru is a place of ancient cultures and includes arid coastal plains, high Andean mountains and tropical Amazon jungles.  A mix of places and people offering  up photographic opportunities all the time, everywhere.  This ancient land has been home to cultures as old as the Egyptian pyramids and of course, to the Incas which were the last indigenous people before the Spanish conquistadors changed South America forever in the 1500's.

The mix of Inca and Spanish heritage leaves most people with dark hair and beautiful olive skin.  Not a place for the dumb blonde adventure to blend into the scenery easily.  Although, the good news was that either my Spanish had improved or the Peruvians understood my pronunciation a little better.

Greg, with his usual efficient research, gave me the crime forewarnings off the internet.  Top of the list of dangers were: pickpockets, express kidnappings, rogue taxi drivers and counterfeit money.  It was no wonder I was more light headed than usual as we gasped our way into the luggage area of Juliaca  airport.

Greeted by what would become the obligatory panpipe/drum/guitar four man band, we waited for the bags to arrive.  Juliaca airport is remote, the cool air breezed in over the open grassland and I started to understand what Peru was going to be.  Stumbling out of the tiny airport baggage claim we managed to find Herman, our man with the van.  Luckily he provided a four wheel minibus rather than the three wheel auto bus which most of the locals use.

It is more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow."

Abner Perney

It was a one hour drive to Puno, the light was fading and so were we.  While watching the wide paved dusty streets of Juliaca pass by, I tortured myself with thoughts of high altitidue sickness and berated myself on not being better informed and organized.  The jump from sea level to these heights was fraught with complications such as fluid in the lungs and swelling of the brain.  Edema can start with swollen ankles, I didn't  want to start inspecting my unshaven legs at this point so I focused in on any cerebral swelling and  I started poking my cheeks and forehead.  Hard to tell if it was swelling or just 41 years of sagging?

    “Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond —for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives." 

Socrates 

The tiny box of altitude pills we bought at the very last minute before boarding in Lima seemed a scant reassurance.  I guess this was minus another few hundred mother points for me because, of course, kids are way more susceptible to the altitude than adults.  Was that guilt tightening in my chest or just a new type of shallow breathing?

"Life is like riding a bicycle. 

To keep your balance you must keep moving."

Albert Einstein

I tried to push all concerns out of the sliding mini bus window and focus on enjoying the onward movement of the journey.  We entered into what would be our first Peruvian Plaza de Arms in the town centre of Juliaca and joined the melee of traffic; cars, vans, motorbikes, motor bike rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws and pedestrians.  Each entity weaving and winding, barely avoiding big bang collision in a cosmic transportation twist.  Motoring safely through, Herman, the van man, explained how Puno was higher than Juliaca and we had another 30 minutes to go.  I did a double breath intake to reduce the sinking feeling in my stomach. Dreading every wind through the hillside into ever higher altitude I clung onto the positive fact no one had passed out yet.

"The quality of a university is measured more by the kind of student it turns out than the kind it takes in."

Robert J. Kibbee

I thought perhaps I was hallucinating when I spotted this odd looking structure, but it turned out to be Juliaca University.  Most of the other buildings were low rise, dusty brick houses with tile roofs.

“Mission Revival red-tiled roofs glowing carmine in the sunset.”

 Kevin Starr

In an attempt to avoid dehydration we sucked back on as much water as we could manage.  It wasn't long before we were desperate for an arrival and our first Peruvian toilet.  Just in the nick of time we pulled up in front of Casa Andina. In the darkness we saw nothing of our new home but the reception desk and male/female symbols of the ablutions.  The superior lakeview room couldn't sleep us all so it morphed into an inferior room with a slice-of-the-lake view.  I didn't care, I just wanted to be in bed.  It had been a long day since the 4:30 wake up call in Buenos Aires.  Sliding into the clean sheets my mind began to question what high altitude sleep apnea might mean?

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark." 

Muhammad Ali

The next couple of days was a mixed bag for all of us.  We all felt dreadful at different times.  Altitude is a real roller coaster of health, being so high up certainly makes you appreciate how well your body can function.  Perhaps being so close to the heavens puts you in a closer vicinity to your own particular God.  Maybe breathing hard just makes you feel your own mortality.  Either way we spent the days alternating between eating meals, sucking on the oxygen and home schooling.  Does it make me evil to force math onto a boy using an oxygen machine? 

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, 

we have at least to consider the possibility that we have 

a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." 

Douglas Adams

Luckily Josh's birdwatching science project coincided with our arrival at the lake.  The hotel jetty was the perfect place to quietly sit and record the feathered activities.  Inevitably it involved recruiting an older sister to help count the baby ducklings.  

"You and I have memories 

longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

The Beatles

For the first few days it was a very quiet slow existence in the crisp sunshine and thin air.  At this altitude the chance of sunburn is high and we had to remember to apply sunscreen.  The slow walk home from dinner each evening gave us a chance to see our breath hang in the cold dry night air.  

“The human mind is capable of excitement 

without the application of gross and violent stimulants" 

William Wordsworth

I cant really tell you if drinking the coca tea really made a difference to my altitude sickness.  The kids thought the medicine we bought in the airport was a magic miracle, turns out it was mainly caffine.  Great, now the whole family are addicts on something or other.  Maybe it was just the peace and quiet of the lake and time that made us feel better.   Time spent watching the birds and the alpacas and a schedule of staring out at Puno across the water and the boats passing by.  Soon enough we would head out onto this beautiful lake in search of floating islands.  

"The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

And wash the dusk with silver." 

William Blake