Altitude sickness at Machu Picchu

[Traveling Fools]

15 hours ago, sitraveler said:

Cusco is 11,000 ft, MP 8000.

 

I was just in Tibet,  take  cholesterol meds w/ water pill.  No ill effects.   

 

My fingers got in the way..sorry about the error

[Traveling Fools]

14 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I hope that this is a typo because it is dead wrong

See above post by sitraveler - Cusco is higher and not just by a little bit either.

 

Yup...my mistake

[Paulchili]

5 hours ago, KirkNC said:

We are sitting in the Lima airport having just spent 7 days visiting Scared Valley (8,500 ft), Machu Picchu (7,500 ft) and finally Cusco (11,500 ft).  I think by doing in that order is helpful as you have a chance to acclimate before spending any time in Cusco.  While none of our group had altitude sickness, we all felt effects, slight headaches, lack of stamina, huffing and puffing. 

How did you get to Sacred Valley if not through Cusco?

[KirkNC]

39 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

How did you get to Sacred Valley if not through Cusco?

Of course we went through Cuzco, we were there as long as it took to deplane  and leave town.  The point I was trying to make was we went low and saved the highest until the end.      

 

[Paulchili]

7 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Of course we went through Cuzco, we were there as long as it took to deplane  and leave town.  The point I was trying to make was we went low and saved the highest until the end.      

 

That is a good strategy and will work for most people.

But if you read my post #2, one person from our group went straight from the Cusco airport by ambulance to the hospital where he spent the next 3 days until we left. He could not have left the town with you for Sacred Valley.

He may be the exception but probably not the only one who may have such an experience.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Paulchili

[KirkNC]

3 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

look at what you just said !!!     We did not have altitude sickness  !!   Really   Headache, difficulty breathing , lack of strength,....    You had it  you just  choose to   ignore the symptoms       Again  fly to Cusco descend  from the airport to Agua Calente.... stay there. at 5500 ft   spend the night  there not Cusco...  the next day you will be good for  8500-9000 ft.     Then return to Cusco  only a 2000 ft increase.       

 

If you want to call that allttude sickness fine, we had the common cold version not the pnemonia version.  The out of breath was only slightly worse then we would get at sea level.  In total we were in Sacred Valley for four days before going to MP.

[KirkNC]

1 minute ago, Paulchili said:

That is a good strategy and will work for most people.

But if you read my post #2, one person from our group went straight from the airport by ambulance to the hospital where he spent the next 3 days until we left. He could not have left the town with you for Sacred Valley.

He may be the exception but probably not the only one who may have such an experience.

 

Certainly it happens but I don't believe it's common.

[Hawaiidan]

1 minute ago, KirkNC said:

 

If you want to call that allttude sickness fine, we had the common cold version not the pnemonia version.  The out of breath was only slightly worse then we would get at sea level.  In total we were in Sacred Valley for four days before going to MP.

Sorry  you can not see that there is only one version of HAPE   your description  is exactly how it starts and progresses...  No one just suddenly starts coughing up blood.  it progresses at vairing speeds.     Seriously you had the onset  beginning symptoms that can progress .  Your body was trying to send you a signal... listen to it.      Be safe

[Floridiana]

Quite obviously everyone's reaction is different. You may have nothing or just a slight headache. I was more severely affected with breathing difficulties and vomiting. Luckily, Cusco has an excellent specialized private clinic for such cases. When I was done with my treatment in the evening and waited for the taxi back to the hotel, I noticed that they had one of those pressure capsules for divers.  So there must be serious cases. One gentleman was brought in on a stretcher.

 

It is definitely better to leave the Cusco airport right away for the Sacred Valley - hindsight.

[Shawnino]

We did NCL Miami--Santiago (San Antonio) a couple years ago. There was a (ripoff) NCL shore excursion where you could get off in Lima and get whisked to Cusco/Machu Picchu, rejoining the ship in Arica, Chile. 

They had two busloads and when the poor souls returned to the ship a large majority were in distress, with most starting to exhibit symptoms, they said shortly after landing in Cusco.

 

In hindsight it seems that the programme did not give them enough time to adjust: We did not do this shore-ex, but laid on an independent land tour for after disembarkation  to the Atacama desert. We were some nervous--turns out our guiding company had our back: After landing/driving to San Pedro (6600 ft), they scheduled the day trips to only be incrementally higher each day. Day 4, over 14,000 feet, but we were fine:

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Shawnino
typo

[Lizdavid]

Coming from Australia - high altitude is unheard of!  I also have pernicious anaemia so we were not sure if that was going to affect me, or make it worse.  Ask your Dr, its odd but they give you medication for glaucoma (one of the side effects is it helps with altitude) take it for about 4 days beforehand.   The Coco leaves work but they take app 3 days to kick in so if its a short stay then they aren't going to help much.  Its an interesting experience, you are getting air and initally think what is the fuss, but we found our first night sleep was difficult, we both kept dreaming we were drowning, or suffocating!  Make sure you pick a hotel with oxygen, just in case; we didn't use it, but it was comforting to know it was there.  Novotel has it in their aircon (we never stay in chain hotels but that was one place I wished we had!  Its a beautiful building).  As someone else has said Machu Piccu is actually lower, and you really notice it, it makes the visit really easy.  Our second night in Cusco was much more comfortable.  Just expect to pant a little and be more tired than usual.  My daughter walked the 4 day trail, she is an elite athlete but said it was hard due to the altitude, I caught the train, much more civilised!

[cynalan]

My wife and I recently visited Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley. In preparation for this trip, my GP gave us a prescription for Dimoxx. This is a diuretic that helps reduce the symptoms of altitude sickness. We arrived in Cusco, much higher than MP, and immediately after deplaning my world started spinning a bit. No question the air was thin. Pausing for a few deep breaths I regained my bearings. All through the trip I was chewing Coca leaves, drinking coca tea and sipping Gatorade or Powerade. My wife and I both had symptoms occasionally, e.g. shortness of breath, mild dizziness and lack of stamina. Whenever we felt a bit "off", we simply took a break and after a few minutes, all was good again. The simple rule... use common sense. However, we did see a few people in our hotel and at the airport who were ill and taken by ambulance to hospital. So, altitude sickness is a risk, but you will not know how it affects you until you are there. Having said that, I would not have missed Machu Picchu for the world. One of the world's truly amazing sites to behold. 

[clo]

6 minutes ago, cynalan said:

Having said that, I would not have missed Machu Picchu for the world. One of the world's truly amazing sites to behold. 

We were there over 25 years ago and it was magical.