Altitude Sickness

After three days in La Paz, we thought we had adjusted to the altitude of nearly 3,640 M pretty well. During one of our dinners, we had a couple of local Pilsner beers with our Peruvian food (we ordered a pile of rice with fried fish and pig fat-chicharon). After dinner, we had to hike up a flight of stairs and walk about half a block to our hostel As we began walking up the flight of stairs, we noticed immediately that our hearts started pounding, as if we had just run a mile in 6 minutes (or less). I was starting to think we were an old-out-of-shape couple (though we kind of are) until asking a couple other folks if the same thing happened to them. We found out that alcohol really worsens the affects of altitude sickness. Our nice Canadian couple friends also mentioned it got worse for them after half a bottle of beer - and they took altitude pills.

Other symptoms include our throbbing headaches, a bloody nose, tight chest and shortness of breath.

Copacabana, Bolivia
We also took a two-day trip outside to Copacabana, Bolivia (right outside of La Paz). Copacabana is a developed city bordering the never-ending Lake Titicaca. The lake has a surface area of 8,300 km square, with a length of 195 km and an average width of 50 km, and borders both Bolivia and Peru. It's much bigger than our Lake Tahoe at home.

In Copacabana, there really was not much to do other than explore the small town and take a day-trip to the Isla de Sol (Sun Island). So the first day we took a little hike up to the Stations of the Cross in Copacabana, where we got a nice view of the city and watched the sunset. Immediately, as we were hiking up this small hill, we noticed once again how the altitude really affected us. We were huffing and puffing after only 30 meters or less but managed to make it to the top.

The following day, we took a boat to Isla de Sol. This little island is divided into three communities – the north, south and middle. The guide told us that the north and south communities were richer than the middle community because they got much of their money from tourism, as many of the boats embark at either side of the island.
The middle portion is the poorest since they do not get any of the tourist funds. We were also told that we were only supposed to pay at the North and South ends of the islands and not to pay anyone in between that would be asking us for money.

During our hike, we were approached about four times to pay. It's a bit strange to be hiking down the same stretch for about 3 hours and out of the blue, be asked to pay a fee. I think the funniest incident was when we were approached the second time to pay, an indigenous man asked us to pay and we all refused (since we were specifically told by the guide to avoid anyone asking for payment in the middle of the hike). After we refused, two indigenous women tried to block Wilson and another guy (who was not small) trying to walk by screaming we were to pay and if we refused would be charged more at the end. I wanted to take a picture but thought it would be rude during a time of conflict.

Overall, the hike was beautiful along the Titicaca Lake although there was not a lot of changing scenery.

Machu Picchu
Since we've somewhat adjusted to the altitude, and because we are so close to the Peruvian border, we've decided to see Machu Picchu. The official trail on Machu Picch is the Inca Trail but you have to book up to four months in advance since there are only a limited number of people allowed on the trail daily. Unfortunately, we didn't plan on coming here so we've opted for an Inca Jungle Tour which includes some trail bike riding (all down hill) and two days of hiking, none of which lead us to Machu Picchu. We actually have to take a train to Machu Picchu from a nearby town, Aguas Calientes, on our fourth day. We were supposed to leave today for this hike but there was some misunderstanding with the agency so we leave tomorrow instead. We will have to provide a short update when we get back.

That's it for now.