I'm one of those people in life that things, just happen to, especially when I'm traveling. Take for example the time I crashed a moped on a driving test in the Cook Islands and took all the skin off my knees, knuckles, elbows and had stitches in my chin. Then there was the time I got water poisoning in Cambodia and couldn't eat properly for weeks and came home looking like a famine victim with my clothes falling off of me. Also there was that time in India when on the sleeper train in a cabin with five Indian men, I woke in the middle of the night to find that one of them had placed his hand beneath my sheet to have a good feel and I had to scream, switch on all the lights and wake the whole carriage. Oh! And there was that time, up that volcano in Indonesia when I set my shoes on fire at the top trying to dry them on the camp fire because they were wet, and I had to do the rest of the trek, with my shoes falling to pieces and then bare foot! Actually something much worse happened to me up that volcano but it was so traumatic I can't talk about it; let's just say it was bad, really, really bad. Oh God!
So far on this trip, I've been quite lucky, but I was waiting for something to happen and it did. It was altitude sickness. I had experienced some in Bogota: headaches and breathlessness, but this was nothing compared to what I experience in the higher plains of Peru and Bolivia. When I arrived in Puno, Lake Titicaca I felt completely fine, which I was surprised at, as it's 3822m above sea level. My surprise was short lived though, as I woke that night at around 1.00am with the worst headache ever and just couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. In the morning I tried to walk to the lake but was so out of breath, I nearly fainted. The headaches, the insomnia, continued but it was the breathlessness that was the real problem.
By the time I had crossed into Bolivia and reached La Paz, I wasn't in a good way. I couldn't even speak with out being out of breath, never mind climbing a flight of stairs. I had been at high altitude for five days now, and instead of getting better I was feeling worst. Luckily I was now traveling with two Danish girls, Eva and Tanja who I met on the Isla de Sol on Lake Titicaca. From past experience, I know it's the worst thing to be ill when your traveling on your own. As I started to get chest pain and felt like I could hardly breath, the girls got worried and said I needed to see a doctor because altitude sickness can be fatal. So off we went to the hospital. I was put on a oxygen tank and had to have my lungs X-rayed. Luckily there was no water on my lungs. The doctor said I had altitude sickness, but it wasnt the dangerous type. He gave me a load of medication, told me to rest and not drink alcohol (that's going to be hard!), and I should start to get better soon.
The next day I decided to follow doctors orders and took a short walk to the Market with the girls, but as not to over do it, I decided to walk back to the hostel. As I was walking I could hear lots of noise, like explosions and gun shots going off. I've never heard anything like it in my life. It sounded like a battle zone. I continued on my path, until I found it was blocked by riot police and hundreds of protesters. I had heard, off travellers that Bolivians were known for having lots of protests. This one was about pay cuts. The people were shouting chants and setting off gunpowder rockets.
I decided to head away from them and try and find another route. Unfortunately I headed into another protest, and was trapped. This one was turning more ugly though, as the people were attacking what I later found out was a government official. A local pulled me to the side for safety, as people were starting to throw gunpowder bombs at the police and officials. Just seconds after I filmed this clip you are about to see they opened the water canons and the riot police came in. I have never ran so quick in my life, even with altitude sickness. I got away and is it wrong to say I wasn't scared but found it all very exciting. I'm a total adrenaline junkie and one of my idols is Lee Miller, so what more can I say. So much for taking it easy.
The next after going to visit some ancient Inca ruins, me and Tanja met Eva in a cafe for a drink. It soon became apparent that the riots of the day before were not the end of it, as in the distance we could hear more explosions. It wasn't long before those explosions drew upon us. I looked out of the window and saw thousands of people now marching down the street. The riot police had sealed off all the streets and our cafe pulled down it's shutters and locked it's door and we were closed in. We looked out of the window to see what was happening and the next thing we know, the protesters were throwing dynamite!
We were asked to move away from the window for our own safety. So me being me, I went round to the other window to look what was going on. Just after I finished filming this, the riot police shot tear gas into the crowd and charged.
We stayed holed up in cafe for another couple of hours, until the mob had disbanded and things had calmed down (thank God they had Wi-Fi). It appears there is a lot of unrest with the political situation in Bolivia at the moment, hence the protests. Even though the protesters do not wish to harm ordinary people or tourists, me and the girls think it's probably best to get out of La Paz for safety reasons. So instead, tomorrow, we have decided to be sensible and cycle down the worlds most dangerous road!
No comments:
Post a Comment