李明熙、Kimberlogic：烏瑪瓦卡登山　落地簽證入玻利維亞

Mild Altitude Sickness／Kimberlogic

We arrived to the small desert town of Humahuaca in the late afternoon feeling great. We took a stroll around the small town and found the vegetable market and a local butcher, so we decided to cook steaks for dinner. I wouldn’t say our dinner was ruined, but that evening we weren’t able to fully enjoy our dinner because we felt so awful all of the sudden. Although the bus ride to Humahuaca was only about three hours, we failed to notice that we had climbed around 2, 000 meters in altitude. We were now at 3, 012 meters.

Altitude sickness can range from mild to life threatening. It also doesn’t discriminate: you can be affected by it if you are fit or fat, tall or short, old or young. Also, you normally don’t feel the effects right away, but after a little while of decreased oxygen, it can hit you hard.

Before leaving Hong Kong, we were prescribed high altitude medication. Although the instructions said to begin the medication a day before entering the high altitude, once we realized the reason we felt so bad, we began taking it immediately. The next morning Ming Hay woke up with only a slight headache, but I felt so much worse than I did the previous evening.

I had never experienced altitude sickness before, but I read that the effects were like a hangover. I found it to be true, but much worse. Migraine, nausea, fatigue and I couldn’t walk more than a few steps before feeling out of breathe and needing to sit down to rest. I only made it from the bed to the bathroom and no further that day.

The following day during breakfast I mentioned to the hotel owner how I was feeling and he suggested I try chewing coca leaves. Coca leaves are used for medicinal purposes throughout South America and are not even remotely the same as cocaine. I chewed the leaves and kept them in my cheek for almost an hour. By the time I spit them out, I felt normal again. It was like magic.

The reason we chose Humahuaca as our stopover before crossing the border into Bolivia was because of Serrania de Hornocal, a mountain of fourteen colors. The mountain is only a forty-five minute drive from the town, but the altitude climbs again to 4,350 meters. Feeling better, that afternoon I stuffed more coca leaves in my cheek and got on the van heading up to the mountain.

When we arrived at the lookout point, the driver told us we could walk down the path to get a better view, but to be back in thirty minutes. We walked down the path and sat looking at what almost appeared to be an oil painting. The mountain was so colorful and the changing afternoon sun accented the colors even more.

Walking back up the path to the van was extremely difficult. Although I no longer had the headache and nausea, every step took all of my breathe away. I couldn’t speak, I could barely breathe and I was dizzy. I had to take baby steps and keep resting after every few steps. I finally made it back to the van and after 10 minutes I felt normal again, but the experience had really scared me.

After Humahuaca, we knew we would be climbing in elevation throughout Bolivia. This time we were prepared and planned when to start taking the altitude medication again and stocked up on coca leaves. My experience with high altitude scared me enough to always be aware of my body and how high I will be climbing.