Into Boliva, into the cold

Some might question the sanity of leaving a place that is warm and comfortable, to go to a place that is high, cold, and in the dead winter. At a few points in the last 2 weeks, we were some of those people.

From Peru, we crossed the border to go a little Bolivian resort town called Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This lake is widely regarded as the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, as it sits at over 12,500 feet (3812 m). The lake is huge, and it looks like the ocean because you can´t see the far shore from most vantages.

Copacabana is an intersting mix of Bolivian and foreign tourists. The main passtime seems to be renting a wide variety of watercraft, ranging from kayaks, wooden row boats, to pedal boats in the shape of ducks. The Bolivian Navy has their sole outpost on the edge of town. Interestingly, they also have some of these ducks on their base. We wondered what kind of training they were used for. We had a hoot watching these Navy cadets practice their various drills. It seemed like two kids with slingshots could take their base in five minutes easily.

After 3 days there, we were ready to move on to La Paz to get ready for our trip to Sajama National Park. We met my (Danny´s) dad, brother, and Ben´s friend Terren, at the wonderfully named, but .03 star hotel Happy Days in the heart of the Gringo District in La Paz. We spent a day or two haphazardly aquiring food and gear for our trip and our attempt on Nevado Sajama, the highest peak in Bolivia. When we told local Bolivains where we were going their standard response was "Ah, mucho frio!" (Translation: Much cold!).

We hired a taxi for the 5 hour drive for the modest amount of $125 round trip. The trouble was we had to fit 5 adults, the driver, 5 big backpacks, and 2 big duffle bags into a Toyota Corolla station wagon without a roof rack. We succeeded in getting everything in and getting the doors shut, but is wasn´t the most comfortable trip.

Sajama National Park is a land of desolate beauty situated in the SW corner of Bolivia right on the border with Chile. The valley floors are over 14,000 feet high the vegetation consits of sparse clumps of grass and ocassional isolated shrubby tress. The land is dry and dusty, and the wind never stops blowing. Most local families raise llamas and alpacas, who freely graze about in the broad valleys.

The park is only recently catering towards tourits. They now have rustic accomodations in the main village conisiting of a bare room with cot-like beds and cement floors. The bathroom was across the courtyard and was a small mud-walled squat-pot outhouse. This was really nice when it was -15 degrees C (10 degrees F) at night and really windy.

The park has a great deal to offer the visitor, bubbling hot springs, scenic camping, the endangered vicuña (wild relative of the llama and alpaca), and the highest peak in Bolivia (6542m, 21,463ft). We sampled a bit of them all in our stay of 6 days.

A personal highlight for me (Danny) was being able to touch the top of Sajama. Alison had been feeling under the weather and wanted nothing to with waking up at 2am in the bitter cold at 18,000 feet to try to go to the top, so she wisely stayed in her sleeping bag. I was a bit jealous of her decision because when I woke in the tent up to go to the top there was ice all over my hat which I has worn to bed (while it was on my head!). The trip to the top felt just as cold.

When we all got back to the the Sajama village, we were cold, dirty, and tired. Nothing was warm there so it felt hard to ever warm up. The never ceasing wind and dust didn´t help anything either.

Our ride back to La Paz wasn´t due for another 2 days so we killed time by heading to some of the natural hot springs nearby. This felt great on our tired bodies, but it wasn´t too fun getting out. Terren´s shorts froze in the 150 meter walk back to our jeep!

We got back into La Paz yesterday and the weather still wasn´t great. Snow had fallen here in the previous few days. I heard that neighboring Argentina is having their coldest winter in more than 80 years.

We are now seeking warmer climes and Ben, Alison, and I are heading down into the jungle in a few days on a 3 day boat trip. This should warm us up and our main concern now will be pirhannas. I guess that beats the cold and wind...