Altitude sickness in La Paz

The view of La Paz city driving in from the airport
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As Australians accustomed to living at the sea, we were a little concerned about flying into La Paz. It is at 3460m approx above sea level...the highest city in the world.

We were OK for an hour or two and then our 10 year old nearly fainted and we all got awful headaches. Fortunately we had the appropriate medicines frrom the Travel Doctor in Brisbane, and her hugely informative book "Travelling Well" so following vomiting episodes that night after dinner we started him on the medicine, and the rest of us took paracetamol.

we were a little concerned about flying into La Paz. It is at 3460m approx above sea level...the highest city in the world.

A local Bolivian lady who we purchased some bags from.
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Unfortunately this sudden onset of altitude sickness curtailed our explorations of La Paz somewhat. But it is like no other place on the planet. The city is hidden until you come over a ridge and you see this whole city sitting in a crater like valley. The architecture is all the same, save for a few high rises in the centro, and consists of orangey/red brick fashioned into straight walls and flat roofs, but done in a way to resemble a jumper worn inside out.

Driving from the airport we saw the local families enjoying Sunday together and the ladies traditional dress of brightly coloured shawl, large hoop skirt and bowler style hat perched precariously on the top of their heads was a common sight. The men get to dress in much more Western fashion.

We enjoyed a brief visit to a private Museo de Contemporary Art, which had some fabulous sculptures and paintings - including some for sale. Unfortunately this was where the fainting episode happened, as it is located in a three story old mansion on the high side of the main street. Walking upstairs proved incredibly draining.

The markets in the tourist area were great...and being Bolivia, South Americas poorest country, there was good buying to be had with local handicrafts etc. But we had to save that for our next stop - Copacabana, Bolivia. Thanks to the assistance of a very helpful tourist lady at the airport we were able to locate the agent to buy our bus tickets for the next day, and we looked forward to relaxing and recovering form the altitude sickness in a quieter place.