Webswelt We will help you get what you need by way of the latest information.

Incriminating white line or warm mug of Inca altitude brew?

Luckily, most people on a Cusco vacation don’t have to worry about possible confusion between the two.

The best and most common advice for dealing with altitude sickness if you’re going to visit the two-mile high city of Cusco.

• Avoid heavy meals,

• Don’t drink alcohol,

• And definitely knock back copious amounts of the herbal infusion, mate de coca.

Follow this prescription for at least the first day, and you’ll probably be just fine.

But imbibing this pleasant tasting concoction can have a downside: a false positive for cocaine if you undergo urinalysis.

The tea has no euphoric effects, and is considered sacred and beneficial in Andean societies going back a millenium. However, it does contain traces of incriminating alkaloids and could conjure the false image of white lines and throbbing musical beats in a discotheque at 11,000 feet.

How far from the mundane truth of the matter: Those first hours of uncomfortable adjustment; reclining on a couch in the hotel lobby; trying to focus on your magazine as you sip the brew to calm the dull headache and relieve intermittent bouts of breathlessness.

So the test is imperfect, but the testers are showing few signs of flexibility, and only varying degrees of lenience when the tea bag defense is cited.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) advises Andean athletes to be think twice before pouring themselves a hot mugfull.

“No one cares if athletes consume one, 10 or 100 tea bags worth of mate de coca,” María José Pesce, director of WADA’s Latin American regional office, told an anti-doping conference in Bolivia last week. “The rule is that if a prohibited substance, including cocaine, is detected in the urine, an investigation will ensue to see whether doping is taking place.”

Miguel Ángel Rimba Alvis, a former Bolivian soccer defender with Bolivia’s national team, was eventually cleared by FIFA of wrongdoing after he tested positive for cocaine in the 1994 World Cup elimination round against Brazil.

Others in other lines of work have not been so fortunate.

In a case that made headline three years ago in America, a U.S. navy petty office was court martialed and convicted for cocaine abuse, over his objections that he had merely enjoyed cups of the herbal tea to relieve stress.

This article was written by Rick Vecchio, director of Fertur Peru Travel, a tour operator based in Lima and Cusco offering vacations in Peru and specializing in trips to Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.