Studentcolumn: Move like astronauts
Gilbert Klumpenaar, third-year student International Business and Languages at the faculty of Economics and Management in Arnhem, does his traineeship at a big international agrarian company in Lima, Peru. For our international edition of Sensor, he wrote his column in English!
Great heights
I live in Miraflores in Lima, which lies about seventy meters above sea level. We planned a trip to visit some fields for the company I work. I was told that we had to cross a ´small´ mountain. In Peru, mind you. Let me explain something: the Andes is the world’s longest continental mountain range with an average height of 4000 meters. We were heading for a place called Tarma. I looked it up on Google Maps and noticed that we had to cross Ticlio, a mountain peak of almost 5000 meters.
Less food is less vomit
I asked my colleagues for some advice because if you travel to heights like these you must realize that the average (European) person is not used to the circumstances. They said that the best thing to do is not to eat much because a lot of people get airsick and have to throw up. It is also recommended to buy some glucose pills because there is less oxygen in these high mountains. The day of the journey I took a glucose pill and enjoyed a really light breakfast. Within 2 hours we went from approximately 70 meters up to 4000 meters. At this height we could really feel that there is less oxygen available, you start to breathe more rapidly and you feel like running a marathon.
Walk like an astronaut
When we reached the peak (4818 meters) I went out of the car to feel how it was like to live here and to move around. I can assure you, it feels different. When you move fast you feel that your body doesn´t receive enough oxygen. The best way to move is like astronauts on the moon. Normally it will take a human body one or two days to adapt to these heights, but we were just passing this summit, so there was no need. It was a strange but great experience, especially when you see the Peruvian people walking and running around at these heights and I wasn´t able to do anything.
Written by Gilbert Klumpenaar
Lima, Peru
