When I look around where we live, I see lots of gently rolling hills…

The next photo is of a nearby “mountain”, but it really isn’t much. Our house is near where the photo was taken, and we walked from the house to a point more than halfway to the peak of the mountain. It only took us two hours at a leisurely pace. However (keep reading below)…

Recently, however, I looked up our town online to learn more about it. Geographically we’re located on the altiplano and one thing that surprised me is that we’re at an altitude of over 6,000 feet! That’s higher than Denver, Colorado.

When we’ve visited Denver, the altitude has a big effect on me – headaches, shortness of breath, etc. When in Denver, you look around and you can see mountain peaks everywhere, and you are always aware that it’s very different from California. But here I’ve never noticed such signs, and it doesn’t “feel” that different from California.

Why don’t I feel the high altitude here? Does it all come down to perception vs. reality? Does the apparent visual similarity to California signal my brain to override the fact that we are actually in a very different place here? I find these questions interesting.