Condoriri Trek & Lake Titicaca

Sat November 3- Condoriri Day 1- Before breakfast Maurits went to the ATM to get money; insert card, enter pin, select 1,400 Bolivianos (the maximum), card came back, lot of noise, but no money. Apparently the machine was out of money, but the BCP bank had forgotten to program "if no more money then shut down." We called ABN AMRO and they would take care of it...in the next 2-3 weeks.... Most of the time it is annoying that you can only get a maximum of 1,400 Bolivianos (€160) once per day, but in this case the financial damage is kept to a minimum. At this time of writing the money has already been credited!! :-)

Condoriri (imagine the wing, the head and the other wing...)

Our camp the first two nights with LB standing at the lake

 

Around 7:30am we got picked up by guide David and cook Patricio from Travel-Tracks to go on a 4-day trek in the mountains near La Paz (from Condoriri to Huayna Potosi - the 6,088m peak we climbed earlier.) Vicky and Phill, a couple from the North of London (UK), completed the trekking-party. The drive to the trailhead in Tuni took about 3 hours, including a couple of stops for food (because of the All-Souls holiday it was hard to find bread.) At the trailhead we had to slightly change our initial plans: because it had snowed the night before, the arriero in Tuni did not want to risk her donkeys going over a high pass to our first camp. Instead we were going to camp two nights at our second camp and do a 'day-hike' the second day. Therefore our first hiking day was an easy one, about 2.5 hours, mostly flat, lots of llamas and pretty good views of the Condoriri Mountains; (three peaks that, with some imagination, look like a condor.) We setup our camp on a lake next to a mountain hut. The afternoon was quite pleasant; windy, but clear with great views. Just when we finished dinner in the cooking-tent, the owner of the mountain hut stopped by and opened the doors. Great! We moved indoors and played cards with Phill and Vicky in the relative warmth of the hut.

The summit of Pico Austria - our camp was at the big lake below

Llamas and Lago Titicaca

 

Sun November 4- Condoriri Day 2- After a windy and cold night, we started our day-hike at 9:30am. A little late, but since the weather was pretty cloudy we were in no rush. As we were making our way up Pico Austria (+/- 5,300m) it started snowing, but this snow proved to be the turnaround point (as we have seen many times in the Andes) - the rest of the day it only got clearer and warmer. We had lunch on the summit and celebrated Phill and Vicky's new altitude record! Instead of going back the same way we came, we hiked in a big circle around Pico Austria to make up for the 'lost' first hiking-day. Going this longer way was not easy; it involved a little bit of rock-climbing and crossing another 5,000m pass on an unmarked steep slippery trail! But the views of Huayna Potosi we got on top of pass were worth it! After a long day we got back to the campsite (and hut) around 6pm. Our guide David actually walked ahead of us back to camp.. the four of us were moving a little slow on the steep downhill.. but still interesting that a guide would leave his clients..

JUMP !!!

Mon November 5- Condoriri Day 3- Our only 'real' trekking day. We left the base of Condoriri and hiked to the base of Huayna Potosi (the vertical West face - we climbed the 'easy' East face). We hiked up a pass and had a good last view of Condoriri. In the next valley we had a delicious lunch in gale-force winds (the food was much better this trek than on the Huayna Potosi climb - even though it was the same company). After lunch it started to rain, but by the time (3:30pm) we got to camp it had stopped and Huayna Potosi cleared completely! Spectacular view! We were even prouder of the fact that we climbed it :-) At this last camp, there were a couple of mountain huts and we were happy to use one of them for cards and dinner.

Huayna Potosi on the 2nd day

Huayna Potosi on the 3rd day (how about a hair-cut and a shave?)

GOOOOOLLLLLLL !!!

Tue November 6- Condoriri Day 4- We woke up in winter wonder land! It had snowed during the night and our tent was sagging under the weight. It was a beautiful sight though, and the snow insulated our tent keeping us warmer! Just as we were about to leave, two motorcycles drove into our camp. They turned out to be the 'donkeys' for today! During the trek we did not have one single arriero with donkeys, but we had different ones each day. The loading process was very comical and the cargo looked rather unstable. Especially with the fresh snowfall! But David assured us that all was going be fine.. Our half-day hike was easy; a little bit up and down. The weather got slowly worse and around noon, as we got to the van, it was pouring! And yes, the mechanical donkeys had delivered our bags safely through the snow and rain. Back in La Paz we checked once again back in to the Estrella Andina and concluded the trek with a fabulous steak dinner with Phill and Vicky. We had a really fun time getting to know them- hearing about many of Phill's fireman and Vicky's paramedic adventures- and we loved their British humor!

Winter-Wonder-Land

The mechanical donkeys

Maurits, LB, Vicky, Phill, David & Patricio (top to bottom, left to right)

 

Wed November 7- Early morning wakeup today to 1) find out that Obama won and 2) to catch the 7:15am tourist bus to Copacabana, a beautifully located touristy city on the shores of Lago Titicaca. Despite taking 4.5 hours to drive to a lake that you can see from the La Paz mountans, the tourist bus was quite nice. We stopped so we could use the restroom, the bus had tinted windows to prevent solar glare and the windows would actually open so we could get some fresh air! We have become bus-connoisseurs, because many buses in Bolivia do not have any of these "luxuries"... We had made a reservation at Las Olas hostel and when we arrived at our room we could certainly understand why it was a top pick in the Lonely Planet (even though we are highly critical of LP..) We stayed in an unique, circular, studio-apartment-style room with a small kitchenette, table, and beautiful floor to ceiling windows which looked out over the lake. Perfect spot to relax and watch the sunset!

Lovely sunset from our 'casita'

 

Thu November 8- Rest day today! We enjoyed sitting in the shaded garden outside our room, with the view of the lake, while reading a book. Only line of business today was to get our laundry done, which so far in South America has been harder than it might seem. Although there are many 'lavanderias' all over every city, we are always hesitant to drop off all our hiking clothes, for fear they will be put in the dryer and come back half the size!! After much negotiation at a local lavanderia, we convinced the owner that we would pay full price, but that we would like all our clothes returned to us wet. She certainly thought we were crazy gringos! With clean clothes that we dried in the sun outside our room, and some fresh fruit and veggies from the local market for dinner, we had a very successful day!

On the boat to Isla del Sol (similar to our boat)

 

Fri November 9- We took the morning boat to Isla del Sol; the most sacred place to the Incas who believed the sun was born there. Our trip started on top of a wooden boat where there was some sort of a bench to sit on.. it definitely did not meet any safety standards. Crystal clear skies, great views, but cold! We met a retired couple from Seattle, who for the last two years had been sailing from Seattle to Ecuador and were now doing a South American land-tour. They will be sailing for the coming many years - a cool way to retire! Like us they were surprised that there were no sail-boats on Lake Titicaca! We got dropped off at the North side of the Island where we visited some interesting Inca sites- Roca Sagrada (where the sun was born), Laberinto (a network of housing for religious folk who came to visit the island and storage of sacred objects), and Mesa de Sacrificio (like it sounds, a sacrifice table but the Incas did not sacrifice humans- only animals.). Unfortunately we could not find a local tour guide on the Island so we had to read about the history when we got back. We then enjoyed a beautiful 7km walk from the North to the South side of the island where we would get picked up for the boat ride back. It certainly felt like we were in the Mediterrainian with deep blue water, few clouds, hot sun; only difference was the spectacular Cordillerra Illampu which we could clearly see on the horizon. We took the boat back to Copa, the voyage was much warmer, and had delicious trout from the lake for dinner.

Lunch at the Labyrinth ruins

Cordillera Illampu in the far distance

 

Sat November 10- Travel day back to La Paz. Our bus ticket stated: "be ready at bus stop at 1:15pm for a 1:30 departure." So we had all morning to relax, pack up, cook breakfast, and buy some bread and cheese for lunch. To play it safe we left at 12:30 for a 15 min walk to the bus stop. When we got to the bus it was already packed with people and appeared to be ready to go. "Laura Chamberlain?" one of the guys asked. We said yes, he took our bags, we hopped on the bus and off we went. Apparently the bus left at 12:45 today... Back in La Paz we checked into the Estrella Andina for the final time; we really enjoyed our many nights here! For our last dinner we had delicious 'nasi, sate and pindasaus' (a Dutch-Indonesian dish) at a Dutch owned restaurant called "Sol y Luna." Pretty funny... :-)

View from the top of Isla del Sol

 

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