Tip to Tip

Yesterday, I was on the phone for an hour with an artist in Santiago. She told me she didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to visit the Atacama desert when I come to Chile because the altitude could cause problems for my health. I thought deserts could only be low, like hot, dry basins. Frying pans over hell. But I was reading about it afterwards and the Atacama’s sloping down the left-hand side of the Andes. It’s so high, tour guides bring oxygen tanks. And I’m closing the tabs on the astronomy tours I was looking at after reading about how people with my condition, POTS, are especially prone to altitude sickness because we basically experience something like it here on the ground. And yet last night I slept ten hours and dreamt I went to the desert anyway. On the plane ride over, my arms began to tingle, but I felt better when the other passengers on the flight said they could feel it too. We landed and I knew things weren’t right but I thought, well, I’ve come all this way.…