Hey TTP's - I hope you can impart some useful advice here as you above all are the people that can tell us the information we need to know and tell it honestly.
Here is an email I got from my travel partner with her concerns about going to Peru. Can anyone out there reply to them with your experiences of what I think is a wonderful and reasonaly trouble free place to travel:
i am really taking this trip seriously, maybe too
seriously :) if you can ever be too careful :)
well, first of all i have a lonely planet book here
about peru and i visited the web site and was reading
some comments other people wrote.
i would like you to take a look. there are a few
things i must mention.
1. they say that you need to book (or whatever) your
trip to machu picchu, and it's already booked! maybe
it's for the 4 day inca trail, and it doesn't have
anything to do with us since we will be traveling by
train most of the way. but, i'm just checking.
2. most people suggest that you take hepatitis A shot.
what do you think about that?
3. most people talk about altitude sickness. i am
curious about that. they say that you may have
problems even while arriving to cuzco, not only
walking up to machu picchu. they say it's not a good
idea flying to cuzco by plane, because you should get
to that altitude slowly. and they say that it takes
some time to adjust to that. i am not sure we will
have enough time. maybe we are moving too fast and
trying to see too much in such a short period,
considering all this.
4. how reliable is this agency, since some people
complain that their promised guides where not waiting
for them at the agreed place and time.
5. also, if you ask people from the agency regarding
the hepatitis A shot and altitude sickness, will they
give you an honest and useful (reliable) answer.
sorry if i am too paranoid for you, but i hope you
understand. i am just passing other people experiences
on to you.
and i haven't mentioned the parts i read about
kidnapping attempts. hijacking (where a person, a
tourist, got shot)...
sorry, but i must talk to you about everything.
Who are most people?
1. True about prebooking the Inca trail but as far as the train to MP..smart to do it a day in advance or so.. beyond that no problem.
2. given the hygiene situation you should have Hep A. But then given the numbers of illegals working in restaurants in the US the Hep A shot is a smart bargain all over.
3. Take it easy in Cusco the first couple days. Avoid lots of alcohol or heavy meals. Since you are going to MP by train there is no issue. MP is lower in altitude.
4. What agency? Look at the MP facts if it is related to that. Lots of agency reviews.
5. No. everyone will lie.
Your friend is paranoid. Nothing wrong with that.. although do you want to travel with a whack job. Follow the security suggestions in LP... with a mild dose of salt. Much of their advice is written by elderly, virgin, women lawyers who are vegetarians. Look at the trip reports... how many talk about being kidnapped or hijacked?
we´ve had a few issues with altitude, even with diamox. 3 of us have diamox, one doesn´t. those of us who are doing well find it harder to keep our breath when climbing hills. I do a lot of working out and here, even one sun salutation is winding me, or going upstairs. but it´s okay ... you just go a little slower. some of us got bad headaches. w hen we went up to higher altitude today - Tambo Machay - one of us felt much much worse and had to sit down for a while.
alcohol and heavy meals - hard to avoid whe the food and drinks are so amazing. don´t count on that. i would add a smiley but i cant figure out this keyboard.
hotel in mp. we got to cusco and are going to mp in two days .... according to andean travel web - we stopped by - everything is booked up - he called all the places he knew and even called places they knew. nice of them to help us. anyway, we are still going to mp but we may be homeless in Cusco. that´s sad.
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<hr>Much of their advice is written by elderly, virgin, women lawyers who are vegetarians. <hr></blockquote>
Spot on... haha!
"But then given the numbers of illegals working in restaurants in the US the Hep A shot is a smart bargain all over."
how are illegality and HepA linked?
I've got a joint Hep A and Typhoid injection for going. If you're going to be in lower regions where there are mosquitoes then getting some sort of malaria and yellow fever protection would be advisable.
While some of the advice in LP might be ovely cautious remember the old motto "Better safe than sorry."
Waltsu... check the disease reports that illegals bring into the US. Everything from Hep A to new strains of TB to drug resistant STDs. Not only are they infected but their knowledge of safe food handling is slim.
We flew into Cuzco after taking the Diamox for two days prior, and we were fine. A little breathless on the hills, a bit of a headache, and that was it. We flew into Cuzco as our first stop and we live at sea level. We drank loads of water and spent our first day kicking around Cuzco, the second on a bus trip to the Sacred Valley, and the third to Sacsayhuaman. My brother was also with us and he didn't take Diamox at all, and he felt about the same as we did. Odd thing, I totally felt the altitude later on in Quito, Ecuador, which is 400 M lower than Cuzco. I was lightheaded and dizzy and needed naps, but it didn't affect how I was able to get out and enjoy the city. Almost everyone flies into Cuzco, it'll be OK.
We got our shots. It made sense to us to be covered so if we did want to eat at roadside stands, we could with no thought to Hepatitis. You can get Hep A anywhere - look at Wolfgang Puck's staff infection in February - so there's no harm in covering yourself. Your call.
We were in Peru for five weeks and we never saw or experienced any violence. We got mildly ripped off from time to time with the costs of taxi rides etc, but whatever. Use your head, be aware of your surroundings and you'll be just fine. My advice for belongings-security is to keep your daypack on your lap on bus rides. I got comfortable and so put my pack under my seat...and later found my camera was missing. My bad in letting the bag out of my sight and not paying attention to it. Lucky me, I'd just downloaded my photos and sent the CD home with my brother!
Have a wonderful holiday; I hope some of our replies helps ease the mind of your friend. Peru is magic.
- L.
first of all, get hep a. there's no point in taking chances.
about altitude sickness... i don't know what diamox is, but i assume it's similar. a somewhat alternative way is to take a gingko biloba supplement for a few weeks before you go. some people say this is a hoax, but i did it before an altitude change if nearly 9000 ft (3000 meters?) in a day and didn't feel any effects. also, coco leaves i've heard work, but don't know if they're available.
like every else has said, drink water and take it easy. if you start feeling really sick definitely come down in altitude - AS has effects that are irreversible.
Coca tea helps a bit... but keeping yourself hydrated is a main battle. Your body responds to altitude by spewing fluids... often in ways you don't realize. Pour liquid into you...except alcohol. You start pissing every few minutes...good..just watch your electrolytes. BTW.. rehydration fluids are available in any pharmacy..grape flavor isn't bad. You can never predict who will get hit. One trip on the bus from Arequipa to Cusco we stopped for a meal at what must have been the highpoint of the road. I felt fine, and yet my buddy, who was several years younger and had spent his life working heavy construction had a massive headache and could barely walk.
Diamox... I've never needed it. Here is what my research said.. at extreme altitudes... the kind you will only experience mountain climbing... it can mask certain symptoms of severe altitude sickness. A friend was taking it in La paz... she suddenly passed out...absolutely no warning. By pure luck she happened to be in the office of a Bolivian doctor with whom she was going to do an internship. It was his diagnosis that it was the diamox.
trusted partner
