[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazing Race 13, Episode 3

[Edward Hasbrouck]

This column with lots of links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001550.html

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Fortaleza, Ceara (Brazil) - La Paz (Bolivia)

We've seen the effects of altitude in "The Amazing Race" before in 
Ethiopia and Chile. This week yet another team was eliminated from the 
race because they couldn't cope with the altitude -- roughly 4,000 meters 
or 13,000 feet above sea level -- in La Paz, Bolivia.

Bill and Mark, about whom I wrote last week, made a careless-seeming 
mistake in following directions: they went by taxi when they were told to 
"make your way on foot". Then Mark struggled with the physical exertion of 
acting in a Bolivian performance adapted from televised American 
professional wrestling. (Among the surprises of world travel is learning 
which aspects of Hollywood TV and movie culture have put down local roots 
in which other parts of the world, and with what unexpected adaptations.)

High altitude, like hypothermia, not only impairs your mental functioning 
but impairs your ability to recognize that you aren't thinking as clearly 
as usual. So one of its characteristic symptoms -- typically recognizable 
only by other people, and not by the one who is most affected by the 
altitude -- is the making of uncharacteristically "stupid" mistakes. When 
you are "feeling the altitude", you should keep reminding yourself and 
your travelling companions of the need to go more slowly, take extra care 
with both physical and mental task, and double check each others' thinking 
as well as your own.

More tourists have serious problems with the altitude in Bolivia than 
almost anywhere else in the world, mainly because most foreign visitors to 
Bolivia fly from sea level directly to La Paz, the world's highest large 
city and major airport. The Himalayas are higher than the Andes, of 
course, but they have far fewer high-altitude cities or airports, so most 
visitors to comparable altitudes in Asia have time to acclimatize during a 
gradual overland ascent.

Acclimatization was made harder for the racers by having them spend their 
first night in La Paz outside on the plaza. It's hard to sleep, even in 
the most comfortable bed, when you are panting and your heart is pounding 
to try to get enough oxygen into your blood and to your brain. The norm is 
to sleep poorly, if at all, for the first several nights at a new 
altitude, and to wake up with a headache, dizzy, dehydrated, and feeling 
unusually cold.

The racers were provided with thick colorfully-patterned blankets (typical 
souvenirs for visitors to the Andes, along with felt hats such as those 
the racers were assigned to buy as one of their tasks). But outside on the 
plaza, they might not have been given the coca-leaf tea that is served to 
all arriving guests, and offered at every meal, at every hotel in the 
country. Bolivians simply can't imagine coping with the altitude without 
coca. Coca tea and the chewing of raw coca leaves are legal and ancient 
traditions in Bolivia, where President Evo Morales began his political 
career as an organizer in the coca-growers union. Beware, though: Some 
neighboring countries are anxious to prove that their governments aren't 
run by the cocaleros (or by the indigenous underclass), unlike Bolivia. 
Our luggage was closely searched for coca products, in any form, by 
Chilean customs officers when we entered Chile from Bolivia. 

The award-winning documentary on Evo's populist presidential election 
campaign, "Cocalero", is must viewing if you are interested in 
contemporary Bolivia, although despite English subtitles it assumes a fair 
amount of background knowledge. Evo's base of support comes from the 
indigenous and poorer peoples of highland Bolivia -- a different world 
from the fertile lowlands and the white Hispanic power structure in Sucre. 
So we felt privileged to get to see the film in context in a theater in 
Potosi.

At the finish line of this episode, the racers were greeted by a local 
woman wearing an elaborate headdress (for which, unfortunately, no 
explanation was offered to television viewers) inspired by the "wiphala", 
the rainbow-colored checkerboard flag that serves as a transnational 
symbol of indigenous identity for peoples throughout the Andes. And by 
coincidence, just before watching the race this afternoon I was mounting a 
Bolivian wiphala in front of our house in celebration of Indigenous 
Peoples Day on Monday! You can see a more typical wiphala in this
entry in my blog, or on the home page of the Web site for the "Cocalero" 
film.

I'm no athlete and I'm almost 50 years old. But I visited the Bolivian 
highlands and the scenes of previous high-altitude episodes of the race in 
Lalibela and Chuquicamata, without major problems from the altitude. The 
difference is that whenever possible I ascended gradually, and when I had 
to fly directly to a high altitude I spent several days resting before 
trying to do any extensive walking or anything else strenuous or requiring 
full concentration and mental ability.

The racers' problems reinforce the significance of the Quebradra de 
Humahuaca, which I mentioned in my preamble to this season of the race, as 
the best acclimatization route up to the altiplano. This World Heritage 
Site isn't well known to foreign tourists, but there's an introduction on 
the Web site for Wayne Bernhardson's outstanding Moon Handbooks Argentina. 
The Quinta La Pacena in Tilcara might be the most comfortable and best-
value bed-and-breakfast or inn ("posada") we stayed in during more than a 
year on the road. Don't be alarmed at the tariff: the prices are in 
Argentina Pesos -- typically represented by a dollar sign, as are many 
other currencies around the world -- not U.S. dollars. Current rates for a 
"habitacion matrimonial" (room with a double bed) start at ARS150, or a 
little less than USD50 per room per night. We were staying there last year 
during the Fiesta de San Francisco (feast day of Saint Francis), where I 
took the picture at the top of this blog entry of a wiphala with part of 
the procession of marching bands. 

A drawback to this route is that it takes you into Bolivia from the 
southern border, a long and until recently pretty grueling (although 
spectacularly scenic) bus ride from any of the best-known Bolivian tourist 
destinations (Potosi, the high desert near Uyuni, La Paz, and Lake 
Titicaca). One way Evo's government is delivering on its promises, 
however, is in redirecting national resources -- particularly revenues 
from Bolivia's growing exports of natural gas -- to improve infrastructure 
in the previously neglected highlands. Trunk roads through the mountains 
are being paved and upgraded rapidly. The bus ride to Potosi from Villazon 
on the Argentine border had been reduced to half its previous duration: it 
took us 8 hours in relative comfort, on a "luxury" bus patronized mainly 
by Bolivians returning home on family visits from jobs as construction 
laborers and domestic servants in Argentina.

Bon voyage!


----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
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