Coca and Cocaina

What is the first word that pops into your head when you hear the words South America... Cocaine.

We had another guest speaker, like the guy who presented the information on the shining path, the other day, and i thought it was absolutely fantastic. We had another one actually, but i did not feel it was 'blog-worthy' as it was quite spiritual and included rubbing dead guinea pigs over our body to find what your health problems are...So needless to say, i did not blog about that one. However this speaker, Carlos, was here to talk about Coca leaves and Cocaine.

What most of you would already realise is that coca leaves are not cocaine...in the same way that a poppy plant is not an opiate or heroin. Although these two natural plants can be processed to indeed become cocaine and heroin respectively. I found it interesting to hear some girls ask and wonder whether the leaves are illegal, but of course they are not, and unless you consumed around 100 leaves, you wouldn't even be ingesting 0.5grams of cocaine. So needless to say, coca leaves are not illegal nor are they cocaine.

Cocaine or Cocaina in spanish is processed from the coca leaf, combined with many chemicals which withdraw the alkaloid out of the leaves to induce what we know as the effects of cocaine; lack of tiredness, hunger, thirst, increased energy etc etc. What is interesting is that Peru is second in the world in production of cocaine...coming a close second behind none other than Colombia, with Bolivia in third. We were told that although they are second in the world for production of cocaine, they are first in the world for quality, hence the reason that the Mexican's and Colombian's come here for their drugs. Apparently it has to due with the altitude in the jungle and the extremely fertile soil. When choosing Peru, I had no idea how big the drug trade was here and exactly how close I am centered to this drug trade living here in Ayacucho. As i think i discussed earlier in one of my blogs, the biggest coca leaf plantation is outside

of Ayacucho, on the other side of the Andes where the jungle begins...

In Peru, they produce a lot of coca leaves, but not all for the drug trade. For every 110,000 leaves harvested, 10,000 leaves are used for medicinal and spiritual purposes. The Peruvian people, especially Andean people are very spiritual and the use of coca leaves as a sacrifice to their gods in the mountains, is very very important for their health and their survival. For medicinal purposes, it is fantastic for altitude sickness. When we went on the llama trek we had coca leaf tea, which helps with the dizzy feeling and headaches from reduced oxygen at these heights above sea level. It tasted quite nice actually, better than chewing the actual leaves themselves which are so bitter!! But the Andean people chew them for extra energy and for altitude sickness, and it works.

Not surprisingly, the Mexican's and the Colombian's run the drug trade in and out of Peru and Ayacucho. They have many methods for getting the drugs out of the jungle, as coca leaves thrive in the Peruvian Andes, such as walking the cocaine out, using the walkers as distracters for vehicles as well as carving small airstrips into the jungle for planes to fly directly into the jungle from Colombia. Mostly, the drugs are smuggled into USA, but the other half are sent to Africa via ship where it is then taken

into Europe. Europe is only a close second to the USA in consumption of cocaine.

Another interesting fact about the coca leaf is Coca-Cola. Yes the drink, Coca-Cola, as the name suggests actually has some small extracts of coca leaf in it. The company are the largest exporter of coca leaves out of Peru (legally of course). Maybe that is why we drink coca-cola, not only for the caffeine to make us less tired but also due to the fact that coca leaves are a stimulant.

It is so so interesting, i do find the whole drug trade very informative and i sat on the edge of my seat asking questions. At the end of the talk, Carlos asked if we would like to have the coca leaves read, sort of like reading our future. Normally i am very skeptical of this sort of thing, but i never say no to anything really, so i went first. He did the process in Quechua (the Andean language) and then translated to english for me. So he asked me some questions, such as my name, date of birth, place of birth etc and then told me to think of a question that i would like to ask the leaves about my future. So in my head, i asked my question to the coca leaves. So then he told my coca number is 3 and to pick 3 leaves from the pile. I did so and he placed them into my hands and then asked me to drop them on the table. He then proceeded to read my leaves. He told me that the answer to my question was a 'hard yes', as it was set in the leaves that my question was answered. So i was pleased...although i won't reveal what i asked because it may be like a wish, where it won't come true if you share it with others :) He then went on to read the leaves and told me something interesting about my health. He said i have one weakness, that being my foot, he said it is not broken but it is very damaged and weak. He said my ankle is a very weak point in my body and he said i must be careful when i am trekking and always wear the correct footwear to avoid extra injury. Now if you are reading this blog, most likely you will know that about 3 months before i came to Peru i injured my foot/ankle very badly in a fall down the stairs at work. It is not broken which is also true, but was badly damaged, and it got worse when i wore sneakers on the llama trek. I was quite shocked that he knew this, and noone here knows i hurt my foot, and it wasn't like i was wearing a brace or anything to indicate my soreness....I think it was quite weird but eerily accurate. My foot is very weak and will probably continue to aggravate me for a while. So i will take his advice and wear the correct footwear ie hiking boots, and also 'jump with caution' as he called it :) He also said the coca leaves say i am lucky and they are wishing me luck on my journey and will the fullfillment of my question!

So overall it was a fantastic speech and an even more interesting reading of the coca leaves. I know people, especially dad, will be skeptical, but it was amazing. Really amazing, i was in awe of the accurateness.

xoxo millie