I hear you have to eat coco leaves to breath better to go up to that altitude. How was that?
hey dude.
so the coca leaves themselves put in a tea will help alleviate symptoms of altitude sickness.
but what makes the leaf special is when you ad an alkaline to it. the leaf by itself to chew doesnt do a whole lot. but when you add an alkaline to it and chew it it activates the properties of the leaf- ie cocaine.
typically the locals use llama fat and ash as an alkaline. but a lot of the hill people are too poor to afford the leaf and alkaline together.
in this pic we gave this older man who lived in the mountains some leaf to chew and our guide javier gave him some alkaline. you can see from his smile how much the hill people like it.
no wonder they can work all day at such high altitude on this stuff. when you chew it w the alkaline your lips become numb, and it keeps you warm as well. your saliva becomes liquid cocaine basically. the leaf by itself isnt great -leaf plus alkaline= rocket fuel.
