Altitude symptoms
One grave concern for both of us in planning this short adventure of a life time is the effect of altitude on our bodies. Our home is a mere 300-ish feet above sea level, our training has seen us top 3,500 + feet (top of Snowdon), and neither of us have been above 6,000 feet before. What’s it been like so far?
Before leaving home we saw our doctor, got the necessary jabs (ouch) and mentioned to him our plans. He hadn’t got a clue about altitude sickness and asked us to come back in a couple of weeks after he’d read up about it. Em duly made an appointment and went to see him again, hoping he’d recognise we were taking this trip and the planning for it very seriously and prescribe at least a preventative dose of Diamox, just in case it all got a little bit too much.
We were out of luck. We’d provided him with a graph showing day-to-day altitude levels that looked something like the FTSE index in a bad month, and as a result his only advice was to change our plans and limit the altitude gain we’d experience from day to day. Em carefully explained this wasn’t possible-flying between cities meant an inevitable increase in altitude. “What about travelling by road then?” he asked. Yes, Em explained, that’s all well and good, but once you’re on the bus or train it’s not simply a case of getting half way through an altitude gain, jumping off the transport and booking into the nearest Travelodge. And so we travelled to the Andes with only our knowledge of the symptoms of altitude sickness and a keen desire not to experience them.
Lima airport is around 100 feet above sea level and La Paz airport is a stunning 14,000 feet above the sea. So this was our first test, and with the exception of some drowsiness and shortage of breath as we waited for our flight to Sucre, we survived.
Not so the pens we brought with us! Taking the top off one of them over lunch in the airport was like squirting a fountain pen back in my school days! And the cream that Em had got for ‘the toe’ didn’t need any encouragement whatsoever when the lid was taken off. But other than that, our five hours in La Paz’s departure lounge were trouble free.
Dropping down to Sucre (9,500 feet) was expected to be better, although neither of us were quite sure how an extended stay at an altitude beyond anything we’d been to so far would hit us. The generally accepted defintion of very high altitude is above 9,000 feet, and we seemed to be fine. Breathing was sometimes difficult when out and about, but Bolivia hasn’t cracked on to vehicle emmissions testing yet!
And so we decided to head higher for 30 hours or so and return to Sucre. This was the most consistent advice we’d come across – go high, test the body, then return to a lower level and when you go high again, you should be better acclimatized. So off to the highest city in the world we went, breath taking Potosi in southern Bolivia.
Breathlessness we had as we crossed the Alti Plano, which is even higher than Potosi itself. The cabbie had put some ’80’s Western tunes on the stereo, and both of us couldn’t remember who sang most of them. Em showed symptoms of not being on this planet – paleness, incoherence, a bit of blueness around the cheeks, but things improved by the time we came into Potosi.
By carefully taking it easy, moving slowly and drinking plenty, we appeared to be coping in our first 12 hours. But then it came to sleep. While Em slept relatively soundly (and showed non of the worrying symptoms of the Alti Plano), I experienced the strangest sensation in my thighs. It was as if big thick torniques had been applied, and through the night these were being slowly and relentlessly tightened, making sleep in any position an impossibility. The sensation only eased when I stood up, but was still there almost all the way back to Sucre the next day. Noticeably, as soon as we dropped off the Alti Plano and below around 12,000 feet the pain disappeared – the coca cola bottles we were carrying also decided to start to crumple on their own, definately a good sign!
The only other symptoms we’ve both had are spontaneous bleeding gums and burst blood vessels in the eyes….but perhaps that’s too much detail!
And so back to La Paz, this time for a night. Our trip to Potosi appears to have worked, even if it was a case of ‘no pain no gain’. From here onwards we stay around the 12-13,000 feet mark, and with fingers crossed we may well be okay. There’s always the coca leaf to chew………
Tags: Side Diversion: South America
mihai