How did I get here?

Just the other day I was complaining about working at 2000 metres in the snow of north central BC.  And now I'm wandering around the mountains of southern Bolivia at 5000 metres. How did this happen?  I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.  In actual fact, I thought I'd just stop by the altiplano while making my way back to Curare in southern Chile.  A friend needed some assistance with a work program and it sort of fit in with our plans;  I had never been to Bolivia to see the place where Butch Cassidy hung out and this was a perfect opportunity .

  The countryside is rugged and wild with lots of domesticated alpaca roaming around amongst the wild vicuna.  Most days it has been sunny but it is always windy which chills things down to a cool 5 to 8 degrees. I didn't get to enjoy warm summer temperatures while working in Canada and it doesn't look like I'll get to enjoy them in Bolivia either.

The low lands of the altiplano are at an elevation of  4200 metres but the mountain peaks soar skyward at over 6200 metres and the exploration project I am working at has elevations between 4800 to 5050 metres. At these altitudes the air is very thin and on the second day I woke up with a pounding headache and nausea, two classic symptoms of altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is sort of like scuba diving in reverse; underwater the partial pressure of oxygen increases with depth with hyperoxia (oxygen toxicity) a possible result, whereas at high altitudes the partial pressure of oxygen decreases and hypoxia (altitude sickness) affects most people who normally live at lower elevations.  It wasn't a pleasant experience. The workers at the project site gave me a big hit of bottled oxygen which help alleviate the symptoms and since then I have been OK, although I still get breathless walking around.