Altitude Sickness

As promised here is a quick and hopefully not too gory entry about the joys of altitude sickness!! I can only speak of my own experience but it is strange. Some people on our tour seemed to experience little or no effects and others were really affected by it.

When we got to San Pedro (that is only about 2700m above sea level) alot of us noticed our heart rate had gone up. This is more noticable at night when it feels that your heart is going to jump out of your chest....lovely!! Once we got higher (onto the altoplano) people noticed that they were breathless and even walking up a slight incline was tiring and quite an effort.

Altitude sickness can make you feel nauseas, sick, give you a thumping headache and your responces can be slower. Considering that we got upto about 5300m (1/2 the height that planes fly at) its not surprising that we felt unwell. However we did get used to it and the body is amazing as it adjusts and gets used to having less oxygen going round the system.

For me as a nurse it has helped me understand how some of my patients feel with sympoms of nausea, breathlessness and constant fatigue. Luckily for me it only lasts a few days and once we descend again to a lower altitude the symptoms will subside.

Thats it on the altitude sickness, not too gory I hope!!

Hasta la vista!!! Penny xx