La Paz - Bolivia

Part I

I recently got back from the longest vacation I’ve taken - 16 full days. I went with Mia and her cousins Madison and Sydney, they are well traveled and made for great travel companions through all the bumpy plane flights and surprise changes in our itinerary. We spent the first week in Bolivia and the second week in Chile to do the W trek in Torres Del Paine, Patagonia.

I’ll break the posts up by major activities - We spent the first non-travel day in La Paz, Bolivia, a city in a mountain valley between 10,000 and 13,000 feet altitude. Although we took altitude sickness pills to prevent headaches, there was nothing we could do to adapt out lungs to the thin air. During a walk around the city any time I encountered a moderate uphill incline I was out of breath and my heart was racing to try to provide my body with enough oxygen. We saw a glimpse of the traditional culture and old architecture right up against everyday city scenes and brand new skyscrapers. For the most part the city felt safe and was mostly inexpensive. We didn’t see a lot of tourists and Mia spoke all the Spanish we needed to get by and it didn’t feel like we stuck out too much. The plan was to aclimate for a couple days in city before we flew an hour south to a small town called Uyuni and the famous salt flats.