Travel, Photography, Life.
Dan Perry
Dan created this blog to document his South America trip, which covered every country on the continent and lasted over two years. He currently lives in Madison, WI.
Homepage: http://www.trekkerglobe.com
Posts by Dan Perry
A Confusing Return to La Paz
Jul 8th
June 22, 2007
Day 574
Today was highlighted by confusing and bad advice. I wanted to go back to La Paz, and everyone I talked to told me a different story about the bus situation. The lady at my hotel told me that there was a bus at noon, and to take it I had to walk to the edge of town and wait. I did just that, but when I got to a suitable waiting point, a guy told me there was no bus today and I’d have to walk an hour to the next town and hitch a ride back to La Paz. I started walking in the direction he told me, but a third guy told me that there was a bus at 2:00, and it was going to Chojlla first. I didn’t feel like walking much, so I decided to wait and see if this mysterious bus would ever show up.
The bus did eventually come, and it was going in the direction of Chojlla. I figured being on some sort of vehicle was better than sitting around and waiting, so I got on. When we got to Chojlla I put my backpack on top of the bus thinking it would be safe there. We had lunch and were about to leave when the driver informed me that all of the seats were already sold, so I’d have to sit on some blankets in the aisle next to him. That was no problem; all I cared about was getting back to La Paz.
When we left Chojlla, we stopped at a government checkpoint and were all told to exit the bus. That’s when I noticed that there were actually several people riding on top of the bus, and some kid was sitting on my backpack. The driver suggested that I could instead ride back to La Paz on the conveniently empty minibus behind us and I wouldn’t have to pay the fare again. I figured there was a high chance of something of mine getting broken or stolen with the kid sitting on my backpack for the entire trip, so switching buses was an easy decision. As soon as I got on board the minibus, the driver explained that I’d still have to pay for the ride, so the other driver had lied to me. It was quite upsetting that so many people had lied to me or given me bad info today, but the prices here are so cheap, I could deal with paying the extra $1.50 it would take to get me back. The thing that really got me mad was that after the checkpoint, we went right back through Yanacachi in front of my hotel room. If only someone were capable of telling me the truth, I could have relaxed in my hotel room for an extra three hours instead of running around and trying to find the bus.
The bus later went up one of the Yungas Roads, which along with the World’s Most Dangerous Road, is one of the most striking roads on the entire continent. We went all the way from 2500 meters to La Cumbre at 4700 meters, then back through El Alto and down into La Paz. It took almost all day, but I was finally back in the city and able to relax.
An Ugly Dredge Mine
Jul 8th
June 21, 2007
Day 573
Taquesi Trek Day 3
For once I wasn’t freezing all night. I actually found it easy to leave my sleeping bag when dawn finally broke. I started the day by walking about an hour uphill to the horribly ugly town of Chojlla, which was built to house the people working on the nearby dredge mine and their families. The water running downhill was polluted from the dredging process, much like what I witnessed at the mines in Guyana. Not wanting to see the horrible living conditions and environmental damage, I bypassed the village and continued toward Yanacachi.
It only took another hour to reach Yanacachi, which was quite pleasant compared to Chollja. Like just about everywhere else on the trail, the town seemed deserted, but eventually I found a hotel to stay in. My trek ended by noon, but that was a good thing. I was able to spend the afternoon washing all of my camping equipment and drying it in the hot sun. The emerald hills surrounding the town provided a nice backdrop for the rest of my day. The Taquesi trail turned out to be a difficult trek because of the long downhill section, but I managed to make it in one piece.
The photo album for this entry is here.
From the Mountains to the Yungas
Jul 8th
June 20, 2007
Day 572
Taquesi Trek Day 2
Last night was bitterly cold. I slept in all of my clothes in my sleeping bag, but I was still cold. I emptied my backpack and put my legs inside, but it didn’t help much. This being the tropics, the nights are always about twelve hours long, so finding enough time to sleep wasn’t an issue, however, the quality of my sleep was very bad.
As soon as dawn broke, I was fully awake and trying to get warm. That wasn’t a problem because I still had to get over the 4650-meter pass that I had been staring at since yesterday afternoon. The walk wasn’t too difficult, and soon I was warm, in the rhythm of walking, and far above the mining camp that I had seen yesterday.
I reached the pass after about an hour. As can be expected anywhere in South America, there was a big cross at the top. The unexpected thing was the explosion that shook me out of the trance I had been in from listening to music and enjoying the view. The miners were at work nearby. I looked in the direction of the noise just in time to see smoke begin to rise from the mountain, and one second later the noise from the second batch of dynamite reached my eardrums. I didn’t stick around very long after that.
Shortly after the pass, there were ruins left over from Pre-Colombian times scattered amongst the sparse vegetation. The path turned into a well-designed road of flat, although uneven, rocks. I dropped down a bit further to see a small lagoon, some grazing alpacas, and a few horses.
After some more walking downhill, I reached the bustling community of Taquesi, which boasted a population of twenty women and twenty-two men. The town is so isolated, it’s a guarantee that the people living there today could trace their ancestry directly back to those who built the road I was walking on over five centuries ago. Most of the people of Taquesi were busy working on their crops, but one distraught lady was desperate to know if I had seen a baby sheep she had lost near the pass. Unfortunately, I had not.
Slightly below Taquesi was one of the best campsites I’ve ever seen. There were completely flat areas for tents, rock walls for protection from the wind, thatched roof shelters, and it was right next to the river with a great view of the surrounding valley. I had a long lunch there and reviewed my notes for the trek. It looked like it was only a couple more hours until the next campsite so I took my time before leaving.
The scenery changed abruptly as I continued walking downhill from mountainous to subtropical. Suddenly there were trees lining the path and even a few bugs in the hot sun. My focus soon changed to the difficulty of the path, however. It was a seemingly endless steep downhill walk on uneven stones, and before long my feet were aching under the weight of my forty-five pound backpack. I had to use all of my concentration to avoid spraining an ankle.
It was several hours before I came to the settlement of Kakapi. The mud brick houses of above had been replaced with stone ones, the thatched roofs with tin ones, and the spiky grasses with flowery gardens. The town seemed strangely deserted, so I continued on my way.
The trail next went down a huge hill to the Rio Quimsa Chata, then straight back uphill. The next downhill section to Chojlla was supposed to be short, but it turned out that there were two towns near each other with the same name again, an all-too-common occurrence in Bolivia. As I went down the steep hill, I could see the Rio Taquesi close below. I knew that as soon as I crossed it, there would be a campsite, but the path kept going parallel to it, in the same direction as the water’s flow. I kept walking and walking, but never got closer. It was so difficult psychologically to be right next to my destination, yet not be able to reach it after such a long day. The notes I read at lunch were way off when they said the next campsite was just a few hours away.
Finally the path descended low enough to cross the river and I found a decent place to camp near an aqueduct. In all I had dropped down 2500 meters today all the way to the yungas. I was aching everywhere, but at least the night was warm in the lower altitude, and tomorrow promised to be much easier.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Walking to an Old Mine
Jul 1st
June 19, 2007
Day 571
Taquesi Trek Day 1
I got up early today and walked to my supposed departure point as soon as it was light enough to do so. To my delight, there were actually several buses at the intersection, and one of them was even going to Ventilla. The bus was an old Blue Bird school bus with bags of grain, corn, and potatoes taking up the whole isle. Farmers wanting to go to their villages in the area filled the bus, and we left by 8:00.
The bus first crossed the city to the Zona Sul, which could be a wealthy suburb of any big American city. Next, we rode through the colorful canyon where the population thins out, and finally into the mountains. We rode over one high pass, then dropped down to Ventilla, which was a collection of about ten houses.
The first part of the Taquesi trail went to Choquekota, a bigger community than Ventilla, but far more remote. The town just got electricity a few years ago, but no public transportation goes there, and its culture is still very traditional. It was harvest time, and women were collecting and beating big stacks of wheat as I walked by.
I continued walking uphill until I got to a point at about 4200 meters where there was a decent campsite in a flat place kind of near the river with grazing llamas nearby. The trek’s only high pass was visible from this point, but it was going to take two hours to get to the top and another three hours before the next campsite. It was only 3:00, but I wouldn’t be able to make it to the next campsite before dark, so I decided to call it a day.
The path branched off near my campsite (next to the first sign for the trail) and went to an old mine. To my surprise, I found out that the miners still worked there when one of them stopped by for a chat on his way home from work. He told me that he knew the trail well, I could expect to walk another day and a half, and that it would be a nice walk. I guess that answers the question of why I didn’t see any men in the fields of Choquekota.
I was going to relax a bit before putting up my tent, but then snow started coming off the surrounding mountains as a reminder of how cold it was about to get. I put my tent up and made sure to have dinner done before dark so I could retreat to my sleeping bag once the coldness set in.
The photo entry for this album is here.
Preparations for the Next Trek
Jul 1st
June 17-18, 2007
Day 569-570
I decided that my next trek would be the Taquesi Trail, a three-day trek that goes from the mountains to the yungas. I still couldn’t find anyone interested in going with me, so I’m going to go alone. I bought food, fuel, a topographical map of the region, and other supplies for the trek, and took care of other maintenance issues in preparation.
The logistics of getting to the trailhead proved quite difficult. I had to find a bus to take me to Ventilla, which is probably just a little community in the middle of nowhere. However, buses that go from La Paz to anywhere other than another big city don’t leave from the bus station. Instead, they just show up at some random intersection and take off whenever they get full. I got an idea of where the buses for Ventilla left from in a guidebook, but just finding that place was tough. The city is a maze with no discernible grid of roads. Once in the area, nobody would tell me “no” when I asked if they knew where the buses were. Instead, everyone sent me on wild goose chases that left me more confused than when I began. (The inability to say “no,” or “I’m sorry” is typical of Latin American culture, by the way.) After hours of searching and asking, I found a hardware store owner who seemed confident that the buses showed up at his intersection at 6:30 AM and usually left by 7:45. I’ll go there early tomorrow, hope the buses are there, and hope even more that they aren’t all full.
Down to Sorata, Up to La Paz
Jul 1st
June 16, 2007
Day 568
Laguna Glaciar Trek Day 4
We got up at dawn again, had breakfast, and took down camp. The walk back to Sorata only took about two hours, and we passed many farming communities along the way. In many remote locations, kids in such villages would ask what my name is and where I’m from out of curiosity, but here they just said “regalame” (give me a gift), an annoying consequence of the well-intentioned tourists who have come here in the past without thinking of the long-term ramifications of their actions. The most common gift people give kids is candy, which is definitely harmful to someone who will never use a toothbrush. Other people give money, which just teaches the kids that they can get something for nothing. This does more harm than good for the villagers in the long run, and for me it turns an opportunity for an interesting cultural exchange into an annoyance. It makes me want to walk faster rather than slow down and meet some of the local people.
Back in Sorata, I showered, washed my clothes, and aired out my tent, which was still wet from the morning’s frost. The bad thing about camping is that if you pack your tent when it’s wet and don’t take it out for a few days, it will be covered with mold. Luckily, it didn’t take long to get everything dry because it was another warm and sunny day.
I decided to head back to La Paz tonight. On the way back I met some nice cholitas, Amerindians who still speak Aymara and dress traditionally. One of them told me that she wanted to go to the ocean someday to see whales jumping. It was sad to hear her say that because I know it will probably never happen. Bolivia doesn’t have a coastline, after all. I was exhausted by the time I got back to La Paz, so I went to bed early.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Lateral Walking
Jul 1st
June 15, 2007
Day 567
Laguna Glaciar Trek Day 3
Last night was bitterly cold, much colder than the night before. I stayed in my tent for over ten hours, but probably only slept five because I was too busy shivering most of the night. My whole tent was covered in frost in the morning.
The Israelis went back to the bottom today, so just Olando, David, and I continued with the trek. It was a very easy day with a lateral walk around a large valley was used as a mine until the minerals ran out. We passed a few caves that had been recently dynamited by the miners and some much older ruins from Pre-Colombian times. We had a long lunch at a great lookout point of the entire area and a different view of Illampu behind us.
After we rounded the valley and went over a small shoulder, we passed an isolated 4000 meter village and began our descent. A few minutes later, we found a good campsite and called it a day. The hot sun felt good this afternoon, but as soon as it passed behind the mountains at 4:00, it got really cold again. We had another small fire that didn’t give us much warmth and got ready to make our way back to Sorata tomorrow morning.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Laguna Glaciar Walk
Jul 1st
June 14, 2007
Day 566
Laguna Glaciar Trek Day 2
We got up at dawn today, ate breakfast, and got ready to walk. We would be returning to the same campsite later tonight, so there was no need to take down camp. As an additional courtesy, Alvaro’s friend came up to the campsite this morning to watch over our stuff while we were gone.
The walk was long but not very difficult. We went over a pass after about half an hour, then proceeded to walk around a valley, continuously moving up. There were several streams with ice cold glacial water, so I made sure to take a few liters with me so I wouldn’t have to drink the nasty lagoon water anymore. The trail was pretty clear until near the end, where we had to do some rock scrambling. Near the top, the perfectly clear sky afforded us an incredible view of both Lake Titicaca and the Cordillera Apolobamba, another mountain range far to the north.
When we got far above the snow line, we curved behind a hill and dropped down a bit to access Laguna Glaciar, the “Glacial Lagoon,” at 5038 meters (16,528 feet). A few people were camping at this level in preparation to climb Illampu and some of the other peaks in the area. I didn’t envy the bitter cold night’s they were bound to face. The lagoon was filled with ice coming off of Illampu’s glacier. We only had about an hour to eat lunch before heading back down.
The climb down to camp was long once again, but I felt good. I had plenty of energy left to explore some of the rocky hills and ruins near our camp. The altitude didn’t affect me at all, and afterward I felt ready to take on bigger challenges in the area.
We made a big dinner again and David searched the area again for wood for another campfire. I think he’s a pyromaniac. The fire didn’t burn too well because of the altitude, and it got really cold shortly after dark, so we all gave in and climbed into our comfy sleeping bags early.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Walking to Laguna Chilata
Jul 1st
June 13, 2007
Day 565
Laguna Glaciar Trek Day 1
We got started a little late this morning for some unexplained reason (maybe “It’s Bolivia” will suffice), but later we were able to buy all the food we needed at the market. Next we met our guide Olando and walked uphill to the edge of town where we found his mules. We loaded up everything on the animals and continued walking up toward Olando’s house in a higher village where he had to pick up some stuff. It was so pleasant only having to carry my camera and water with me.
After we passed Olando’s house we saw few local people. We had lunch in a flat area overlooking Sorata that also served as a good pasture for the mules. From there we continued walking up until we reached Laguna Chilata at 4200 meters (13,780 feet), finishing today’s ascent of 1500 meters (almost a vertical mile).
The lagoon was beautiful but not so much that I’d want to drink from it. Still, despite the lagoon’s still water and the nearby grazing cattle, we had no other option but to drink it (after boiling it of course). We cooked up a huge meal, David gathered some wood and lit a little campfire, and we went to bed early in anticipation of the big climb tomorrow.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Still Looking for Trekkers
Jun 25th
June 12, 2007
Day 564
I didn’t want to head right back to La Paz so I decided to rest a day in hopes of finding some trekking partners. It was a good thing, too, because I was feeling pretty sore after yesterday’s extra-long walk. Sorata is surrounded by beautiful scenery, but unfortunately there’s nothing for tourists to do here other than trekking.
My hotel is located near a big cross at the top of a hill. All day people kept coming up to it and looking out at the valley below. I assumed they were praying, but then I found out that three guys robbed the only Internet cafe in town and pushed their getaway car off the cliff in a thoughtless attempt to conceal it. So that explains both why they people were looking at the valley near the cross and why there was no Internet in town.
I was about to give up on the whole trekking idea at the end of the day when a couple of buses came into town and delivered three people who wanted to do a four-day trek in the area: Gil and Asaf from Israel, and David from Switzerland. None of them wanted to carry their own gear, but the price of pack animals was basically included with the price of a guide, and the thought of not carrying much for once did sound appealing. The grand total for our four-day trek including a guide, food, and two mules to carry our stuff came out to a grand total of $21 each, so I think I can handle it.
The timing was late, so we won’t be able to buy food until tomorrow morning, but everything else is all set for the trek.