To: E. Charters who wrote (6047 ) 8/17/2008 2:23:06 PM From: coug Read Replies (1) | Respond to When we visited Peru, we flew into Cuzco at 11,000 feet, checked into the hotel and was greeted with a pitcher of Coca leaf tea.. Helpful to ward off altitude sickness.. So after a week of scrambling around the ruins at 10-12,000 feet, almost dawn to dark with the various tours I woke up feeling kind of punky, altitude, food, I don't know.. It is normal for Andean people to drink infusions of natural coca leaves for medicinal purposes as it is considered that they are very effective when people have dizziness or head aches, throat affections and stomach problems. It is drunk by persons suffering from "soroche" or altitude sickness. It is also used as poultices in order to relieve rheumatism and bone dislocations. Even more, in many Andean highland Communities their adult populations are used to chewing coca leaves. The leaves are just chewed and not swallowed; for that they use some very small pieces of "llipta" in which a ball is made from ashes of some plants such as the quinuaThe lime contained in those ashes helps release the leaves' alkaloids and elements such as carotene, thiamine, riboflavine, iron and calcium. More over, it is demonstrated that the llipta's lime helps for a strong degrading of the cocaine molecule. Chewing coca leaves serves as an stimulant able to mitigate conditions such as tiredness, hunger, thirst, etc. It is obvious that the person chewing coca leaves will not get "high" or a "dope" state because it is a question of natural leaves that would need a chemical process with elements such as tartic acid, pure clorhidric acid, ether, and anhydrous soda sulfate, in different ....."""peruvillage.com
