Part Two: La Paz, Bolivia

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Day Five

A night to remember! Headaches, dizzyness, and breathlessness. And worst of all, I couldn’t sleep. My comfy bed did little to minimize the nasty symptoms of saroche, altitude sickness. It is commonly accepted that human beings are generally not readily adapted to high altitudes. La Paz, Mexico City and Kathmandu, are amongst the world’s highest cities. At altitudes higher than 2500 metres, the lack of oxygen affects most people to some extent until they become acclimatized.

The local indiginous aymara and quechua people, of course, seem completely unaffected. They go about their daily lives oblivious to the altitude. But for gringos like me, the full effects are possible: less oxygen reaches the muscles and the brain, requiring the heart and lungs to compensate by working harder. Symptoms of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) lead to an increase in red blood cell count.

The symptoms of this disproportionate increase in the number of red blood cells, a condition known as polysitemia, resemble the blood glucose levels of a diabetic.Symptoms of AMS include fatigue, lack of sleep, poor concentration, headaches, swelling of joints, darkening of the skin due to lack of oxygen in the blood and loss of appetite. This night I seemed to be suffering a good number of them.

As soon as dawn approached I bathed and went to the kitchen. This morning our hosts had planned an early morning appearance on a popular ‘breakfast show’ on the country’s premier television network BOLIvision, hosted by Bolivia’s answer to Oprah, the well-loved Casimera Lema. Despite my severe headaches, Mathuresh and I quickly prepared some spicy potato pea and cauliflower filled samosas, and tomato chutney. A friend and associate of Mathuresh called Hari was simultaneously preparing hot semolina halava dessert at his home. Then we headed off through rush-hour traffic to the studio.

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