Salta & Cafayate

Mon November 19- Onward to Argentina! From the Tupiza bus station we took a shared taxi to the border town of Villazon. We were pleasantly surprised by the (relative) strength of our Bolivianos when we changed them to Argentine pesos (almost 1:1) - the black (aka real) market valued the Argentine peso a lot less than the Argentine government! We walked across the bridge to La Quiaca in Argentina and got a bus-ticket to the city of Salta. Since we had some time before the bus left, we had a delicious 'slow-cooked-brisket' lunch at the Hotel Turismo - the Argentines still know their beef!! The 8 hour bus ride to Salta was quite comfortable (the AC was on!) and we arrived in Salta just before midnight. We had first thought of taking a taxi to our friends who live 30 minutes South of Salta, but since it was late we went to a random hostel that had a 'sales-man' at the bus station.

Our amigos in Salta (yes, we left their names out on purpose...)

House

Tue November 20- In the morning we walked around the beautiful colonial city of Salta and had coffee at the main plaza. It was warm and humid, something we had not felt for many months! Around noon our friend picked us up from our hostel, we collected los ninos from the school and we drove to their house.

Sinterklaas in Argentina

We met our friends in 2005 when we were first in Argentina. Then they still lived in Utrecht, but about 6 years ago they moved to Argentina. They had plans of starting some sort of farm (bee-keeping, breeding a specific kind of small cow, ... ) and so they bought a "finca" - a property with lots of land - 30 minutes South of Salta. They did a great job on fixing up the house; charming, comfortable and in a beautiful setting! And currently they do have a couple of animals: a donkey, two dogs and many ducks/hens/geese. There is also a small garden and orchard with plums and peaches which were delicious!

Chevy Celta (aka Opel Corsa) in the Quebradas

It was great to catch up with our friends and play with their kids. In the afternoon we walked around the finca and later had a great dinner with a good bottle of wine. Of course we talked about Argentine politics; Argentina is going through some tough times again; high inflation (30%), price controls, import restrictions, export taxes, etc. The population is not happy and they show their anger with large demonstrations. There was even a large strike and many road-blocks taking place in Buenos Aires on this day. Hopefully things will improve soon..

Salud!

Wed November 21- We had a lazy day today. In the morning the children were in school and we took the opportunity to do laundry. Somehow we are always looking for our next laundry moment.. When the kids came back from school we had delicious home-made bread (we should get a bread maker!) for lunch. After more laziness in the afternoon (the temperature and humidity is great for doing nothing!) we had another great dinner; this time a quinoa salad! Very nice to have dinner at the table and chat.

LB in the Quebradas

Thu November 22- In the morning we drove with 'mother and children' to Salta to drop off the kids at school. With the two of us we walked around Salta, booked a rental car, bought a bus-ticket to Santiago and visited the Alta Montana Archeology museum. The museum has three very well preserved bodies of sacrificed Inka children. These children were discovered at 6,000 meters in the nearby mountains and the cold had preserved their bodies and clothes. At noon we met up again with mom and kids and had empanadas for lunch in nearby San Lorenzo- a beautiful part of Greater Salta. Back at the finca we hung out, played with the kids (LB learned the Dutch word "Kijk!" (Look!)) and packed our bags. As a thank you, and because it was Thanksgiving, we went out for dinner in Salta. We ate lots of red meat and drank even more red wine; great fun! Since dinner is late in Argentina and since we were not in a rush, we were in bed around 3am! The latest we have gone to bed (excluding travel days) on our world trip so far... Yes, we are over 30...

Goats

Fri November 23- Our first little hangover of the trip! After a fun couple of days we said goodbye and by 10am we were in our rental car on our way to Cafayate. Our friends recommended this road-trip through the highest altitude wine region in the world, and the second largest wine region of Argentina (second to Mendoza.) Since we visited Mendoza in 2005, we decided to explore something new. The drive from Salta to Cafayate (pronounce 'Kaf-fa-sja-te') is beautiful! Paved road, mountains, great views, sometimes green, sometimes very dry and many quebradas (canyons). After a stop for coffee and cake at a small bodega, we got to Cafayate around 3pm. We quickly checked into a very nice hostel (Hostal del Valle - very good for the price!) and then continued on for some wine-tasting. After finding bodega Las Nubes closed, and seeing 500 school-children at bodega Domingo Hermanos!?!?, we ended up at bodega Etchart. The wine-expert there was very knowledgeable and explained very well how to taste the wine. It was more of a tasting and less of a tour - we loved it! Next to the regular grapes (Malbec, Cabernet, Sauvignon, etc.), the Cafayate region grows the Torrontes grape (white). We did not know this before and we loved the wine! After this excellent tasting we went back to bodega Domingo Hermanos, where we drank some excellent Malbec. After a dinner of wine-ice-cream and empanadas, we did one more wine-tasting at a wine-bar on the plaza. We absolutely loved Cafayate! A picturesque city that was definitely worth the visit.

Quebrada de Flechas

Sat November 24- We left Cafayate around 10am and set off towards Bodega Colome. The drive was beautiful; canyons, rocks, dry, dusty. When we finally got to the vinyard at Colome, we had arrived in a different world, a green oasis! Colome is the highest vinyard in the world - growing grapes at 3,111 meters! Apparently, this makes the wine have a redder color and bolder flavor - which we did notice a little in the taisting. The Bodega was bought in 2001 by a Swiss (rich) business man Donald Hess - he must have put a lot of money into it because the grounds were absolutely stunning. Surprisingly, the best part of the visit was not the wine - but the contemporary art museum on the property! The museum is dedicated exclusively to the artist James Turrell, whose work focuses on light and space. Each of the nine different rooms had an interesting and sometimes disorienting affect. One of the best museums we have ever been to! After our 'private' (with 2 other people) tour of the museum, we had a small lunch and we tasted some more excellent Torrontes and Malbecs! Very, very good wines! What a bodega! After an excellent time af Colome, we drove the 2 hours to Cachi where we stayed at a decent place called 'Nevado de Cachi.'

James Turrell Museum in the vinyard

Fine Colome wine

Sun November 25- Since there was a little stove in our room, we decided to make oatmeal for breakfast. A welcome change after all the white bread and jelly! But the Nestle instant coffee was still hard to get used to... Through a beautiful National Park called Los Cardondes, with many beautiful cacti, we drove the 3 hours back to Salta. In Salta we had a nice lunch at the plaza, before we dropped off the rental car. Since it was Sunday, the Dollar car-rental place was closed, but we had made an appointment to drop the car off at 2pm. As expected, after a phone call, we were able to return the car at 2:45pm. We took a taxi to the bus-station and got on the 3:45pm bus to Santiago in Chile. A rather long 27 hour bus ride...

Spot LB the cactus!

High cacti, high mountains

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Tupiza & Salar de Uyuni

Sun November 11- A long travel day to get to Tupiza in the South of Bolivia; first a bus and then a train-ride. At 11am we bussed from La Paz to Oruro. The 4-hour ride was hot, the windows would not open and the bathroom was broken.. (fairly common in Bolivia).. but we lived and got to Oruro at 3pm. We could have taken a later bus to prevent the 4-hour wait, but Oruro was celebrating the start of Carnaval and we did not want to take any chances missing our 7pm train to Tupiza. After we hung out at the dated, but charming Oruro train-station, the even more dated (and not so charming) "Wara Wara del Sur" train left right on time. The 14-hour train-ride was incredibly bumpy; left, right, up, down, etc. In addition LB's "executive" seat would not recline and it was almost as dusty inside the train as the outside-desert. But the dinner-car was a lot of fun! We had dinner and breakfast just like back in the day! O yes.. and the bathrooms worked fine.. :-)

Flowering cactus

LB is pointing out the smoke from the volcano

Mon November 12- We arrived at Tupiza 'Central Station' around 9am and checked in at Hotel Mitru. We were pretty tired and most of the day we hung out on the patio, under the blossoming trees, next to the pool. Very nice! In the afternoon we explored the town, signed up for two 'Tupiza Tours' and had a surprisingly good Bolivian wine.

Rocks

Jumping across the mini salt flat

Tue November 13- Tupiza is set in a beautiful 'wild-west' landscape; high-desert, red rock, canyons, etc. Very pretty! As an interesting, but useless fact: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid met their end in a very small pueblo near Tupiza.. At 9:30 we got picked up to go on the 'Triathlon' day-trip; a combination of a 4x4 'Jeep-ride' (a Ford van), a horse-ride and a downhill bike-ride. With a fun group of 11 people we cruised around the beautiful wild-west scenery of Tupiza and made some stops for short walks and pictures. After lunch we rode very tame horses through the red canyons and with a sore bottom we finished the day with a 17km downhill bike ride. Good fun!

Horse riding in the canyons

LB on the 'death road' in Tupiza

Thu November 15- Salar day1- The first day of a 4 day Jeep-tour through the South-West of Bolivia; a beautiful high-desert area with colorful lakes, volcanoes, red rock and the Salar de Uyuni (largest salt flat in the world). We left Tupiza with two Landcruisers; in our car Roman (driver - "vamos chicos!") and Frank & Janine (a German couple) and in the other car ...?... (driver), Mora (cook), Maura & Eileen (two Irish sisters) and Caoimhe & Gordon (couple from London). There were no big highlights this first day, but we had a fun group and we saw beautiful canyons, rock formations, cacti and nearby volcanoes. Around 4pm we got to our hospedaje in San Antonio de Lipez and despite Romans loud music and sometimes crazy driving, it had been a very good day! But then ... after dinner we got the bad news that as of today all entrances to the National Park were blocked by angry locals! They want(ed) more money from the National Park entrance fees (150 Bs). Very disappointing of course.. Now we would miss the good stuff! No laguna colorada, verde and blanca, no bathing in the hot springs, no arbol de piedra :-( And the fact that the drivers and the tour company already knew the park was going to be blocked before we left Tupiza, but did not tell us - 'no es mi problema' - did not help... After this event our relationship with the drivers was never good again... Such a shame!

Sulfur

The group (Maurits, LB, Eileen, Maura, Caoimhe, Gordon, Janine, Frank)

Fri November 16- Salar day 2- Early 5am rise for a long day in the car. Since we could not enter the park, we had to drive around it on some pretty bad unpaved and very dusty tracks (it was super dusty the whole trip). The scenery was similar to the first day, with the addition of 1,000's of llamas (the baby-llamas were very cute!) and as highlight the Valle de Rocas (valley of rocks). We once again stayed at a fine hospedaje in Alota, had fun hanging out and had great food.

Llama baby

Flamingoes

Sat November 17- Salar day 3- The first really good day of the tour! In addition to all the rocks, we saw a beautiful sulfur lake with many flamingos (Hedionda), a smoking volcano and a small salt flat! On top of this we stayed in a salt-hotel (building made of salt)! A very nice day!

Flamingo lake

No flying flamingoes ?!?

Sun November 18- Salar day 4- We got up at 4:30 and saw the sunrise from the Salar de Uyuni; absolutely spectacular! We climbed an 'island' with 900+ year old cacti, had breakfast and spent a lot of time trying to make the classic salt-flat 'out-of-perspective' pictures. We had a lot of fun! After lunch we said goodbye to Maura, Eileen, Caoimhe & Gordon - and via the Uyuni train-graveyard we drove back to Tupiza. And what a drive it was! Very beautiful, but Roman's kamikaze driving style was terrifying! He did not get a tip... All in all not the greatest trip; our fellow travelers were a ton of fun, and the salar was beautiful, but we do not recommend Tupiza Tours. However, we can not feel sorry for people who travel for a year...

Morning sun

LB holding Maurits in her hand

In the frying pan

Pretty morning shadow on the flats

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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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6,088m - Huayna Potosi

Sun October 28- La Paz, Bolivia. We slept in, had a surprisingly good breakfast at Hotel Estrella Andina (nice hotel by the way - beautiful murals) and explored La Paz. We wanted to get some more information on Bolivian treks and climbs, but since it was Sunday most tour-operators were closed. Luckily there was one (recommended) company called Travel-Tracks open for business. Like 100+ other tour-operators in La Paz, they offered a 3 day 'expedition' to climb a nearby mountain Huayna Potosi at 6,088 meters (19,974 feet) above sea-level. We had heard about his mountain and thought it would be 'pretty cool' (and quite an achievement) to break the 6 kilometer barrier. The rainy season was about to arrive, but the weather forecast looked good for the coming days. No time to lose; we signed on!

A little over 6 years ago we were in Ecuador and tried to climb Cotopaxi (5,897m). Maurits got very altitude-sick and 200 meters below the summit we had to go back, while LB's younger brother Adam made it to the summit! Climbing Huayna Potosi would be sweet revenge for the failed Cotopaxi attempt! :-)

Great ice-climbing technique! Use those legs!

Made it to the top!

 

Mon October 29-Huayna Potosi day 1- With 3 guides and 6 tourists (Kelly & Matt from Denver, Rachel from Montreal, Rita from Haifa and us) we left La Paz in the morning and arrived at 'base-camp' (a basic hut at 4,700m) around noon. After lunch we went ice-climbing! We hiked about 45 minutes to the base of a glacier and strapped on our crampons. Ice-climbing is definitely harder than it seems.. The safety-rope, and the guide managing the rope, came in very handy. With some help we both made it to the top! A lot of fun! Back at the refugio we had dinner and played cards. We played a card-game called 'spoons' with knives - 10 people tried to grab 9 knives! The mountain-guides thought this was too dangerous and supplied us with some spoons..

LB made it too!!

 

Tue October 30- Huayna Potosi day 2- After breakfast we hiked with all our gear in a big heavy backpack to the 'high-camp' at 5,200m (an even more basic hut). It was a beautiful day, excellent views and lots of sun. Around noon we got to the hut and rested the remainder of the day. We were both feeling fine; no headache and no loss of appetite. There were quite a few other groups in the hut (about 35 people total) and some people were pretty sick. The month at high altitude in Peru really helped us! We hung out in the warm afternoon sun, played some more cards, had dinner and went to bed around 6:30pm. It had gotten cold and our warm sleeping bags were the best place to be!

Huayna Potosi with the high-camp in the foreground

Nice sunset from the high-camp

 

Wed October 31- Huayna Potosi day 3- We got up at midnight (no real sleep), got dressed and had some coffee, bread and cookies. We were worried that today might be another failed attempt as thunder and lightning accompanied our breakfast (never good to be on top of a high mountain in a lightning storm!) But by 1am the weather seemed to have cleared a bit so we strapped on our crampons, securely roped ourselves to our guide Silverio, and set off for the final ascent of Huayna Potosi! However, as we were making our way up the first steep slope, it started snowing heavily! Thick winter snow, but luckily no lightning. With Silverio in the lead the snow-trail was easy to follow. There were some steep, narrow and icy parts, but since it was dark, snowing and we only had our headlamps, we could not see the big drop-offs that well anyway! Our headlamps actually created a useful tunnel-vision, that helped us focus on the trail and the next step. Around 3am, we were about halfway up the mountain, the snow stopped and the (almost) full moon came out. Beautiful moon-lit views with the lightning still in the distance! We continued to focus on keeping a steady rhythm on our upward climb and were feeling quite OK. The last two hours to the summit were a little bit more technical and at one point we had to climb a very steep (almost vertical) ice-wall of about 10 meters high. We were both thinking: "how the #%^* do we ever get down here?!?" A little scared we kicked our crampons into the ice and made our way up the wall. Around 5:30am, after a finale of rock and ice scrambling, we made it to the summit at 6,088 meters! Unfortunately we arrived well before the sunrise, so it was still a little dark for good pictures. The view was incredible though, especially with the moon being so bright. About 20 people in total made it to the summit and it got pretty crowded on the little peak. We stayed on the summit for 15 minutes; by then we were getting cold and the thunder and lightning was getting too close for comfort. Our guide (and us) got a little nervous, so we went down. The sunrise was spectacular and the descent was actually easier than we thought it would be! Our guide and our crampons did a great job! The steep ice-wall had some pretty good foot-steps, the narrow ridges were not bad and we could easily step over some deep crevasses. By 8am we were back in the high-camp enjoying some salty soup. We both got an altitude headache on the way down, but ibuprofen took care of that. Of our group Matt & Kelly made it to the top as well, but unfortunately Rachel & Rita had to turn around halfway. All of us walked down to the base-camp, waited for the bus and by 2pm we were back in La Paz. Shower, beer, food and by 6pm we were in bed.

It is 5:27am and we are on the summit!

LB on the summit in the moonlight

Thu November 1- Rest day in La Paz. We slept for 12 hours straight, had breakfast and did some research on a next trek. We wanted to hike the Illampu Circuit (8 days - similar to Huayhuash in Peru), but the road to the trail-head town of Sorata was/is blocked by protesters. This happens frequently in South America: upset people blocking the road for all traffic. We enquired with two tour-operators and they both had to disappoint us. We could wait, maybe next week the road is open, but it could also be a month.. So instead we signed up for the 4 day Condoriri trek close to La Paz, leaving this Saturday.

Sunrise on the descent

LB and Silverio with the summit in the background (notice the people descending)

Fri November 2- "All Souls' Day" today and therefore a holiday in Bolivia. We decided to have another slow day. We walked around La Paz for a little bit, went to a cafe, had a nice lunch and made plans for when we get back from our trek. We booked a trip to Copacobana (Lake Titicaca) and Salar de Uyuni (salt flats). Afterwards we will go to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile and then to Salta in Argentina.

Maurits loves his mountain-man pictures!

We made it!!!

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