Friday, March 15, 2013

"How does La Paz feel? Like someone crushed up a xanax and put it in your vodka martini"

Visiting a hot new restaurant in Bolivia:
The Altitude: Still want to go to La Paz? Better check your altitude tolerance. Football player, who are usually in pretty good shape, often complain about competing in Denver, which is 1,6000 meters (one mile) above sea level. Then there’s Machu Pichu in Peru, where fainting from altitude sickness is not uncommon amid the 2,430 meter elevation. Then finally we have La Paz, Bolivia, which hovers around 3,600 meters, and hits 4,000 at the airport. It is the highest capital city in the world.

How does La Paz feel? Like someone crushed up a xanax and put it in your vodka martini. Everything is in slow motion for the first few hours. Took me 30 seconds to put an iPad into a shopping bag due to loss of dexterity. It’s so high that Major League Soccer briefly banned play here in 2007. After about eight hours, I didn’t seem to mind the elevation, though I should disclose that I accidentally banged my head into various objects about 4-5 times that first day and a half. So yeah.