Oxygen Therapy

I´m in BOLIVIA. I made it after a long day of standby travel to the highest airport in the world (over 4000 meters), although my backpack did not. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. Now I have been warned about altitude sickness, and does some high altituide climbing myself. Yet there is nothing that compares to getting on a plane in 0 elevation Miami and walking off the plane 6 hours later in air so thin that you almost faint. Now at first I was fine, waiting for my bag, but then I was standing in line to tell them that my back didnt arrive, and i got parched, dizzy, and started sweating profusely (mind you it is about 38 degrees - not hot) and feeling very light headed. When I got to the front I was ghost white and leaning up against the desk so not to fall over. The man asked if i was feeling right - I shook my head and he escorted me to the Airport Medico ... where I proceeded to have Oxygen Therapy on a white hospital bed and a tank of oxygen up to my face next to a five year old girl in the bed over. The Baggage claim person sat on the bed and asked me question while I breathed through the tank and felt worlds better. You know, the usual.

After settling into my swanky hostel.. tv and all, I went to explore. The trek was a little hasty I suppose as I got sick on a street corner, but Annie my friend I met up with in La Paz has taken very good care of me, bought me medicine and let me rest. The altitude sickness medicine was a walletbreaking 24 cetns a piece! IAnd here I am back at the internet cafe, before heading out to explore the coca museum and the festivities today celebrating the Virgen de Carmen. Can´t wait to see what more awaits.