Jeep tour: day two - Ruth gets sick

An early start and we were back on the dusty paths.

First stop was a llama pen (to protect them from pumas at night) where I found the most fluffiest cat ever who liked to sit on my shoulders. We were tempted to steal him for warmth.

Next we went to a crusty white lake where sodium carbonate was farmed.

Then my troubles began. We were up at about 5,000m and I started to feel the effects of altitude and had a very tight chest.

They gave me coca tea, then some stuff to sniff. I tried Anna's inhaler but it didn't help much. As I reportedly started to turn a shade of grey they put me on oxygen which helped revive me, but as soon as I went off it I felt rough, breathless, tired and my whole body ached.

We proceeded to visit, amongst other things, the green lagoon (only a bit was green as the rest was frozen), coloured (mainly red and blue due to algae) lagoon with flamingos and some geysers. I didn't manage to leave the Jeep but lay there sweltering.

I did manage to join everyone in the thermal springs which made me feel temporarily better.

Our next hostel wasn't quite as nice and for some reason we waited hours for food which then turned up cold. I was feeling better as we'd come down a bit in height. However my stomach was hurting so I only had a bit of the soup.

I kept alternating between hot and cold and then suddenly was absolutely frozen and couldn't stop shaking. I got into my sleeping bag fully clothed with 4 blankets on top and couldn't stop shivering. Carlos (other driver) bought me a hot water bottle (literally a coke bottle filled with hot water) which eventually warmed me up. I struggled to sleep though as my stomach hurt so much and I had to keep dashing to the loo. Not a fun night :(Read more