Greetings and salutations!
The last post left us at our final Chile day. That early Sunday morning, I met the final member of our travelling trio, Toti. She had come in from the southern Villarica region of Chile to join the group. Having an EXTREMELY early flight to catch, we quickly packed up and headed to the airport at about 2 am. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we got in line to drop off our check-in luggage and await our flight.
Little did I realize that this moment would play quite the role during the trip. Keep this in mind, it'll pop up again.
We had a brief but pleasant flight to La Paz, Bolivia, only a matter of a few hours. Upon arrival, we patiently awaited the check-in luggage at the carousel....
And waited....
And waited...
Mind you, Toti and Gi already had gotten their luggage, and mine was nowhere to be seen. After the carousel stopped turning, I finally ended up going to the airline help desk to report my luggage missing. The lady assisted me, but there was nothing to be done...I had no clothes/makeup to enter into La Paz with. I didn't pay it too much mind at the moment, not wanting to be negative so soon into the trip. We caught up with Charito, our Sorata contact. What a sweetheart!!! She was there waiting with hot cups of mate to help us adjust to the altitude.
Speaking of adjusting to altitude...
We hopped into a cab to Charito's place in El Alto, where we settled down to "rest." After settling in for an hour, we ventured out to explore the local fair, ride the in-air metro system called the teleférico, and adventure around town. What a beautiful, busy city!! We bounded up stairs, ate fried chicken, and took in the fabulous views.
At a price.
After a while exploring, we returned home, where we met Charito's mom and niece and hung out. As time went by, I began feeling a bit of malaise, my body steadily feeling weaker. After the guests left, us 3 girls settled in to nap while Charito went to run errands.
With a start, I woke up in a cold sweat, sick to my stomach. My body decided to rebel against me and manifest altitude sickness. Oh. My. Goodness. I ended up sitting up the rest of the night, trapped between a couch and the bathroom, in absolute misery. To spare you all the disgusting details, here's a handy dandy guide of things to avoid:
DO NOT RUSH YOURSELF. Take your time to really rest up.
DO NOT EAT FRIED HEAVY FOOD. It'll sit in your tummy and ruin you.
DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE. High altitude requires more physically.
HYDRATE YOURSELF. If you get stomach sick, you'll need to pump up on electrolytes.
Fortunately, the worst of it passed that night; it would have been an absolute nightmare feeling THAT sick for longer than I did. We were heading to Santa Cruz the following morning to go to Bethel, the last thing necessary was a flying sickipoo.
So a word to the wise: no matter how confident/excited/etc you are, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. It's not worth feeling that nasty.
But hey, I got to hug llamas so it wasn't all bad!!
That's all for tonight, hitting the sack after a LONG service day. The next post will cover our Bethel trip; stay tuned for the next post!!!
Love,
The Adventurous A.
We had a brief but pleasant flight to La Paz, Bolivia, only a matter of a few hours. Upon arrival, we patiently awaited the check-in luggage at the carousel....
And waited....
And waited...
Mind you, Toti and Gi already had gotten their luggage, and mine was nowhere to be seen. After the carousel stopped turning, I finally ended up going to the airline help desk to report my luggage missing. The lady assisted me, but there was nothing to be done...I had no clothes/makeup to enter into La Paz with. I didn't pay it too much mind at the moment, not wanting to be negative so soon into the trip. We caught up with Charito, our Sorata contact. What a sweetheart!!! She was there waiting with hot cups of mate to help us adjust to the altitude.
Speaking of adjusting to altitude...
We hopped into a cab to Charito's place in El Alto, where we settled down to "rest." After settling in for an hour, we ventured out to explore the local fair, ride the in-air metro system called the teleférico, and adventure around town. What a beautiful, busy city!! We bounded up stairs, ate fried chicken, and took in the fabulous views.
At a price.
After a while exploring, we returned home, where we met Charito's mom and niece and hung out. As time went by, I began feeling a bit of malaise, my body steadily feeling weaker. After the guests left, us 3 girls settled in to nap while Charito went to run errands.
With a start, I woke up in a cold sweat, sick to my stomach. My body decided to rebel against me and manifest altitude sickness. Oh. My. Goodness. I ended up sitting up the rest of the night, trapped between a couch and the bathroom, in absolute misery. To spare you all the disgusting details, here's a handy dandy guide of things to avoid:
DO NOT RUSH YOURSELF. Take your time to really rest up.
DO NOT EAT FRIED HEAVY FOOD. It'll sit in your tummy and ruin you.
DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE. High altitude requires more physically.
HYDRATE YOURSELF. If you get stomach sick, you'll need to pump up on electrolytes.
Fortunately, the worst of it passed that night; it would have been an absolute nightmare feeling THAT sick for longer than I did. We were heading to Santa Cruz the following morning to go to Bethel, the last thing necessary was a flying sickipoo.
 |
| Smile, though you're feeling nauseous.... |
So a word to the wise: no matter how confident/excited/etc you are, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. It's not worth feeling that nasty.
But hey, I got to hug llamas so it wasn't all bad!!
That's all for tonight, hitting the sack after a LONG service day. The next post will cover our Bethel trip; stay tuned for the next post!!!
Love,
The Adventurous A.
No comments:
Post a Comment