Soroche in La Paz, and the Leaf They Hand You First — Epoche A2
The airport above La Paz sits about four kilometres above the sea, and the first thing that happens to a visitor there is soroche — altitude sickness. It is not a mountaineer's illness. Mine arrived while I was standing at a luggage belt, doing nothing at all. The problem A band of pressure around the head. Legs like wet sand on a short flight of steps. The air is thinner up here, so every breath brings less oxygen, and the body has not yet learnt how to answer. What they hand you At my hotel there was a flask on a table by the door and a bowl of dry green leaves beside it. Coca leaves, sold openly in every market in Bolivia, legal here, chewed and brewed here for centuries. You drop a few into a glass, pour hot water, and wait. The tea is grassy and slightly bitter, and it takes the band off the head. The rest of the answer Walk slowly. Slower than feels sensible. Eat lightly on the first day: soup, not steak. Drink water often. Sleep lower than you spent the day, if the road allows it. The mountain makes the illness and grows the remedy on its own slopes. That is worth a day of walking slowly to learn.