Mate de Coca

Mr. Hunter continues to prepare for the high altitude.

This second serving of coca tea was tea made from actual coca leaves.

This cup of tea was served in a much colder location.  

The inelegant but apt phrase "butt cold" comes to mind.

About coca tea...

My mom was especially intrigued to see that mate de coca might help alleviate arthritis pain.  The coca tea was not very tasty, but it certainly seemed to help ward off altitude sickness.

Cotopaxi National Park

Ecuador

June 2011

Making Friends in Ecuador: Elvita

Our guide, Wilson, drove us south along the Pan-American Highway to get to Cotopaxi National Park. The plan for day two included climbing a bit of Cotopaxi volcano,  and in order to prepare for the altitude we stopped at a couple of places in order to drink some coca tea.  

We met Elvita at the first coca tea stop, which was basically a convenience store/gas station. She spoke no English, and I have a very few straggling words of Spanish, but with Wilson's help, she and I ended up having a nice little conversation about how beautiful her country is.  I remember the words "linda" and "hermosa" coming up, which reminded me of place names like Linda Vista and Hermosa Beach.  

Elvita and Mr. H
Off to the right of Mr. Hunter (your right, not his)
is some Ecuadorian chocolate we bought: Chocolate Superior La Universal.  Yum!

Here we are drinking our Delisse-brand coca tea.

None of us felt any strange side effects from drinking it, and none of us who drank the tea felt any altitude sickness once we went up the mountain.

somewhere between Quito and Cotopaxi

Ecuador

June 2011