Tunari: Conquering Altitude sickness

In my earlier posts, I have outlined my spectacular bouts of altitude sickness. I had never experienced it before going to Bolivia so I thought I would try to find a way to get my body accustomed to altitude. I decided to go with fellow students from my school to hike up the Tunari, the highest point in Cochabamba.

My travel partners were Patrizia and Manuel from Switzerland, Rebecca and Kenedy from the U.S and Alexandra from Liechtenstein. Yes Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a country of about 30-40,000 inhabitants beside Switzerland. It is a constitutional monarchy and the country is ruled by a Prince. I had never heard of this country before meeting Alexandra so when I met her, I was sure to ask for her autograph because I am certain I probably will never meet someone else from her country. In fact, I may post a picture of me and her on this blog just so we never forget her country exists.

I made sure to have a big dinner the night before the hike and went to bed extremely early to ensure my body was fully rested. The day of the hike we were advised to have a decent breakfast but to eat foods at regular intervals along the way. These foods had to be either fruits like bananas or sweets for your body to use as energy boosts. We drove out of Cochabamba to the starting point of the hike to Tunari. The starting point was about 3,800 mtrs above sea-level. It was the equivalent of beginning just below the altitude of El Alto airport where I landed in La Paz. I was prepared for it so as soon as we got to that altitude I started sucking on cocoa-leaves so my body wouldn't feel the effect of the change in altitude.

First we walked on a flat plain and crossed a lake. Then we slowly started walking up the mountain surrounding the lake. The mountain on the far left of the picture is the first of about 4 that we climbed. Now this is where the challenge begun: The more you climb, the thinner the air becomes. So while the hike itself may not be that long or far, the problem is the more you hike, the less oxygen your body has access to. Consequently your heart starts pumping harder and faster because it is searching for oxygen.

In case you are wondering why I know this, I walked for about 5 minutes uphill and then told our guide Cesar, that we had to turn back immediately because I was sure I was having a heart-attack. My heart was beating so fast I could actually hear it and feel it throbbing through my arms and shoulders. He told me to stop, drink mate de cocoa and to breathe through my nose and exhale slowly through my mouth. He explained what was happening to my heart and told me that my body would get more oxygen if I took slow deep breaths through my nose and not my mouth as I walked. So we stopped. I caught my breath. Manuel offered to carry my bag and Alexandra made me take off my coat and carried it for the remainder of the hike. Since it was so hot, I decided to also remove my jeans and hike in my long johns that turned out to be a little too big for me. So when I took off my jeans, there was an audible gasp emitted from my fellow travelers. Then silence. Manuel broke the silence and said, "ahh sexy long johns". I told him I was thinking the exact same thing when I decided to put them on back-ways that morning.

As the hike continued, Rebecca had to stop because she felt dizzy and her head was spinning and her heart was pounding. Soon every single person had to stop to breathe at regular intervals. By regularly, I mean every ten metres. Cesar explained that this was completely normal. The trick to climbing the Tunari is to go as slowly as possible and to stop as often as possible. Many experienced hikers have come to the Tunari and have tried to go quickly. None of them make it to the top. Your body just cannot handle it. He also told us to condition ourselves to thinking we were actually trying to breathe underwater. The higher up you get, the more you must stop to come up for air. The terrain gets steeper and steeper to the point where I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get over a couple of the hills...in my sexy long johns! I ensured that I was the last one up the hill so my fellow travellers would not have any distractions that could potentially obstruct their view of what was in front of them. Its also really slippery with loose rocks so when you skid, you may slide all the way back down the mountain you just climbed up. Anyway I got over a couple hills and looked back at the lake. I was shocked at how far away it was!

Then we came upon another lake and stopped to have lunch by it. This lake was incredibly beautiful! As we had lunch beside the lake I learnt two very important things:
1) Bananas are really powerful energy-giving fruits. They have a high concentration of sugar that your body absorbs very very quickly. They are best had with mate-de-cocoa as against bottled water because together they simultaneously help your body fight altitude sickness and raise your sugar level.

2) Switzerland is the most dangerous country on earth. Did you know that Switzerland is neutral about EVERYTHING? They didn't take a stance on any of the world wars, nor have they taken stances on any contemporary dictatorship. Historically, they have always taken the following position: "Do what you have to do. We'll keep your money." Switzerland has officially replaced the word "neutral" in my vocabulary.

Anyway so the great thing about continuing our hike was that we could now actually see the peak. Seeing your destination really helps but the problem was we had now reached an altitude of 4,800 metres above sea-level. Alexandra is epileptic and so she stopped and said that she didn't think she would make it. Kenedy said her lungs were hurting her. Rebecca's head was spinning. My heart was pounding. We didn't know whether we would all actually continue. We evaluated how we were feeling and whether we could do it or not. We surveyed the group to see whether or not we would continue to the top. And the two Swiss people on our trip...

were neutral.

They did however, offer to take our cameras for us and take pictures from the peak if we decided to stay.

But we kept going and one by one we made it to the peak. The closer we got to the peak, the fewer steps we could take without stopping to breathe. Then finally we got there. The lakes were so far away now. It had taken us five hours to get to the top. We were at 5035 metres above sea-level and had a breath-taking view of Cochabamba all the way to the Illimani mountain in La Paz where I landed in Bolivia. It was crazy! It was beautiful! By the time I got there my mouth was stained from drinking mate de cocoa and chewing cocoa leaves. But I was thrilled that I made it. Would I do it again? Absolutely not!