I hiked a mountain in the Andes to celebrate my 40th birthday. The hallucinations and violent vomiting that followed had not been part of the plan.

• Elizabeth Lavis planned to hike the ninth-highest mountain in the Bolivian Andes for her 40th birthday.
• She climbed too quickly, without ample preparation or acclimation, and got altitude psychosis.
• She still hikes but now follows some hard rules to stay safe.

The condors appeared at 5,000 meters. They were not real.

I got .