Such Great Heights

Nuestra Señora de La Paz is 3650 meters above sea level (that’s over 2 miles) and beautiful (especially at night). The current capital of Bolivia sits inside of a bowl created by the surrounding Andean mountains. I should post a picture of Mount Illimani sometime- it’s a gorgeous view from our apartment window.

I’m still starry-eyed and soaking everything in. We landed at LPB on June 2, in time for that Thursday’s sunrise. Because the airplane cabin had been a controlled environment, I had forgotten about the famed altitude sickness. The air of La Paz is cool, crisp, and very thin. Four hours into breathing it, I started to get a stabbing headache (contributing might have also been the fact that I was trying to cram in 16 hours of online lectures about statistics and research methods so I could focus on my actual project later, but this headache just did not stop). So yeah, this altitude sickness is a real thing. Wikipedia says that severe complications include pulmonary and cerebral edema (don’t judge- the “evidence-based literature” sites weren’t loading on our Internet connection here – imagine the pain of trying to watch those online videos). Paulina offered me some acetazolamide but I thought I’d try to walk it off.

Everything is just a little different here at these heights. For example, the water boils almost instantly, but things take longer to cook. I guess the MCAT had some useful information after all – but I had to dig deep to remember pressure and temperature relationships (Luckily, Rachel had been a physics major before she started at Rollins). Also, every so often, I’ll catch myself sighing. I think it’s because my body hasn’t entirely adjusted to the thinner air entirely yet so I have to keep taking a deep breath. It's not bothersome or anything, just something I notice sometimes. I tried to jog a few times at El Prado, the bustling main boulevard, but I could only go very slowly.

My project changed for the 3^rd time in the first week that I’ve been here. It was just as well, as my research mentors had warned me to take it easy the first few days because of “el altura”. Because three months isn’t all that long, I had wanted to hit the ground running. But perhaps these unexpected changes are for the better. Tomorrow, I’ll meet with more of our Bolivian collaborators at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés to finalize the new plan for my piece of our work here. I’m excited and eager to start.