Traveller discusses perks of coca leaf

“I got hooked on coca leaf 10 years ago, crossing an unmapped part of the Peruvian… “I got hooked on coca leaf 10 years ago, crossing an unmapped part of the Peruvian rainforest,” began the travel writer’s guilty pleasure story.

Hiding under a rock from the driving rain, huddled with her foreign companions to keep warm, Kate Wheeler discovered coca’s reassuring smell.

“I learned to grab a few leaves, pick off the stems, fold and stuff the wad between my molars,” she said. After adding a bit of mineral lime to activate the alkaloids in the leaves, Wheeler’s lips went numb and “things began to seem less dire.”

The crowd chuckled, awaking from a daze.

Upon entering the Cathedral of Learning lecture room Wednesday evening, students asked each other what class forced them to attend the Contemporary Writer’s Series discussion panel on travel writing. Luckily, Wheeler’s short story lightened the students’ mood.

“Coca made things possible,” Wheeler announced. Unlike coca’s powdered derivative, cocaine hydrochloride, Wheeler said that coca leaf is relatively mild.

“It’s definitely an antidepressant and endurance enhancer; it’s used for ulcers and altitude sickness.” Wheeler continued, “If you chew all day, you’ll definitely get a buzz.”

Faith Adiele, professor of a travel writing class at Pitt, introduced the panelists: Tom Haines, James O’Reilly and Wheeler.

Throughout the evening, the panelists acknowledged the distinction between destination writing, for which a writer is paid to go to spas and get tiny umbrellas in drinks, and travel literature, which is a narrative that represents both good and bad aspects of a place.

“People love to hear the dark side of travel,” said O’Reilly, president and publisher of “Traveler’s Tales,” a series of books of collected tales from around the world.

Haines, a staff travel writer for The Boston Globe, wanted to dispel the American myth that the world is our playground — an idea demonstrated by statements like “Brazil is good for fishing.”

Haines said that the travel section of a newspaper or magazine should not be only practical.

Students scribbled down the authors’ advice during the question-and-answer portion of the evening.

But Wheeler, who’s had her travel pieces published in The New York Times and Outside magazine, received the most laughter for her first story.

“I used to smuggle some home through the Miami airport every summer, to keep me company until I returned to the Andes,” she said.

Despite learning that coca is considered a Class A narcotic, the same category as cocaine, Wheeler declared that coca should be legal all over the world.