Huayna Potosi climb (6088m)

Ok I have been talking a lot about different things from the Uyuni trip to the people I have met but there is still something I would like to explain in details: the Huyana Potosi climb.

As one of the highlights of my trip I really need to share with you in details how amazing it was. I have talked a little bit before in another post in the following terms:

"Reaching the top of that mountain Huayna Potosi in Bolivia is one example. Reaching finally the top at 6088m after several hours of intense efforts in the dark, in the cold, and slowly moving up one (small) step after another I can tell you that for an instant you don't think about anyone else than you. You fight against yourself, you're talking to yourself, you're saying one more step, one more step... And when you do reach stop, when you finally stand on the top and you see the sun coming out you feel happy, truly happy. The pain is gone, you don't feel cold anymore, you don't think of anything anymore. You look around you, you look at the sun rays piercing through the clouds, slowly shining on the snow, and warming up your skin. You look at the city lights far far away..."

However I haven't talked much about how I got to do it. In fact it is pretty simple. A bunch of travel agencies organize 2 to 3 days climb. The 3 days one gives more time for acclimatation as the first day takes place at around 4500m for some ice wall climbing on the glacier. I estimated that I had enough acclimation after all the days spent at high altitude in Peru and Bolivia so I took the 2 days one. It is cheaper and I wanted to save a day to do something else.

So I went to that travel agency called travel tracks.

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It is really easy to find as it is that one street with all the travel agencies next to the San Francisco church. After some bargaining (you bargain for everything in Bolivia: food, meal in restaurant, shoes, traveling packages, etc. Simply love the spirit :D) I got the 2 days trip with food, transportation, one night in the refuge, guide, and mountain climbing gear for 650 Bolivianos, meaning around 65euros!!!!

Moutain climbing gears includes: the very well named spike shoes!!, the heavy boots that come with them, a piolet/axe, gloves, trousers, hoodie, jacket, overshoes, headlight and that's it i think. And you'll have to carry all that on your back.

Important point when you actually know that I thought that they will also provide me with a backpack for it when they didn't... So i ended up carrying all that sh... in a small school backpack that was already loaded with my sleeping bag (for the night up there) and water. Good thing is that there is always a solution so we just attached the boots to the side of my backpack. Not very convenient when walking uphill with the boots balancing but at least my bag was by far the lightest one hehe.

So how about the climb?

In short it gives:

-leave La Paz at 8am, take a taxi ride with the guide for 2hours across the countryside up to the foot of the Huayna Potosi (this is the first pic and also the banner pic of this blog)

-start climbing rocky paths from 4200m to 5200m. Climb takes 3 to 4 hours and is rather easy. I caught up with the group that was doing the 3 days climb at that point.

-get to the refuge by 2-3pm. Get lunch. Chill. Get dinner at 5pm!!! Go sleep at 6pm!!!

-the next day: wake up at 00am, breakfast, get ready, put all the gear on, and start climbing in the dark (hence the headlight..) and the cold (-15 to -10°C, hence the mountain gear...).

-After 6hours of climb through crevasse, steep and very steep hills, you reach the top to watch the sunrise which is around 7am

-Since we got there is less than 5hours... we waited on the top a bit but the cold made up go down before seeing the sun fully coming out. In the end we watched the sunrise on the way down which was also very nice.

-going down takes 1 to 2 hours. Really easy after all the efforts, and your body feels so light. Lunch at the refuge and then another 1 to 2hours to get down to the foot of the mountain. Taxi ride back and you're back in La Paz at around 1-2pm.

what did you prefer?"

How can I say something that I preferred over all the things I have done/seen during my trip in South America? I think it is the same as asking me who is my best friend? People are all different and you like them for what they are so it is terribly difficult to compare them and give out a name.

The funny thing is that it is actually what your mind is doing right away, trying to find an answer, when you’re being asked this question. You think of one person straight away, and then “ah no, maybe him/her also”. And the more you think the more impossible it gets to choose.

Answering to the question what did you prefer during your trip is the same dilemma. I could answer that I really really loved the 3 days trip from Uyuni in Bolivia down to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. 3 days on a jeep crossing incredible landscapes (Uyuni salt flat, Isla de los Pescadores, Laguna colorada, Laguna verde, etc.) with really cool people, and georgeous weather. But when I think of Uyuni as a possible candidate for the “preferred thing done in South America” I also think about that day spent in Manizales, or in San Agustin, or in Quito, or in Chiclayo, or in Caraz, or those 4 days trekking to Macchu Picchu, or those 2 days climbing Huayna Potosi, or the crazy two days in San Pedro de Atacama, or again that one day in Valparaiso walking around the city, talking to locals, eating icecream in late December and only 1 day before getting back home.

Many many places I could talk about. And like I said, the more I think about it, the more I am thinking “that day was great too”. I like all those intense memories for very different reasons.

Manizales (Colombia) I loved it because of how everything fitted together. Got there at 5am in the morning, decided to kill time in a restaurant for breakfast, met that one guy from there that offered me to show me around the coffee plantations for the day and arrange the climb of the Nevado del Ruiz (the reason for me being in Manizales) the next day. He also found me a really cool hostel, did that 5hours walk in the coffee farms with me, offered me free tickets to a bullfight on that same day. And finally brought me to a local restaurant for some local food and local beer. Sometimes you don’t why but you’re simply lucky. Or is it because Colombians are so helpful and nice?

San Agustin (Colombia also J) is a great memory simply because of the time I spent there with an entire family. Went for a horseback tour with the son, got a ride on a motorbike with the dad, chatted with the other son, and family was offered dinner with the entire family. Simply LOVED it.

Quito for that fucking crazy football match. Woke up for a tour on my own of the city. Ended up watching a football match between Quito and River Plate with Aussies met during the day that told me about the match. Just imagine the feeling of being in stadium for the semi-final of the south America cup and watching the local club winning the match 7-0. Seven-ZERO!!

Chiclayo I loved it for that museum in Lambayeque. The museum of the Royal Tumbs of the King of Sipan. “The most important archaeological discovery of the last 25 years” as they proudly present it. Just imagine being that German guy digging the ground, digging something that just look like a squary pyramid so washed away by the rain that you can’t differentiate it from a hill. Simply imagine the feeling of finding momies covered in gold and emeralds and sea shells from head to toes. Gold necklaces, earrings, wristband, waistband, twist band, etc. And you dig deeper and you find more momies with even more gold. From the warlord, to the priest, to the King of Sipan an incredible amount of gold and jewellery just there in the ground. Just google King of Sipan. You will see. That museum was by far the most amazing museums I have seen in the last, I don’t know, 10 years, if not more. And the fact that I had never heard of it beforehand made it even more a big surprise. Things you have seen or heard before always tend to disappoint you a little as you don’t have that “first-time seeing something like this” effect. That day was definitely the thing I have loved the most from an archeological point of view and by far better that all the people say about Macchu Picchu, yet one the world’s new seven wonders…

I could keeping talking about this or this but to be honest one thing I have been wanted to talk about more in details in that Uyuni trip I told you about. Maybe the thing about saying the first impression is always the one that matters the most isn’t that wrong after all. I had heard about Uyuni and its salt flat before. I had actually planned it my trip as a must-do as I had written so many blogs about it and seen SO many amazing pictures. And I kept hearing people during my trip that had done it and were telling me all the good they think about it.

So I knew a lot about it beforehand so I wasn’t expecting else than a “first-time seeing this effect” and yet it constantly happened to me during those 3 days. I was simply blown away, mesmerized by everything I was seeing. From the up-to-the-horizon salt flat, to the century-old cactus on isla de los Pescadores, or the petrified coral reef, or the Stone tree, or the many lagunas it was and endless list of landscapes literally letting you voiceless. Because a good picture worth more than a thousand words here are the most exhaustive ones.

"Where did I sleep?"

Where did I sleep?" Hmmm that's actually a good and funny question. The reason why is that when people expect you to answer in hostels/hotels you are thinking about the nights, the numerous nights, you spent trying to sleep on a bus, in a tent, and (sometimes :p) in hostels.

Ok to be honest I spent most of my nights in hostels but whenever I am asked this question I can't prevent myself from thinking about this night spent in a tent, all alone, at 4000m high in the Cordillera Blanca next to Huaraz. I had rented that tent for 2 days in a shop in Caraz. It cost 4euros a day or something like that for a tent with stove to cook pasta and some food. I took the tent in my backpack, a sleeping back, and hop on a minivan with other people that were crossing the andes. They dropped me at a corner of the road and from there on it was something like 15km of walking to reach laguna 69 which is about 5000m hight. A perfect blue lagoon filled with water coming down the surrounding glaciers. Took me a few hours to reach the place but it was definitely worth the efforts. Not only the walk was amazing with waterfalls, wild nature and lamas but above all being surrounding my mountains all covered in snow and most of them above 6000m is really an amazing sight. I decided to pitch the tent there, close to the laguna so that the next day I could wake up really early and watch the sunrise over the huascaran (2nd highest mountain in all south america with about 6700m elevation). At about 3pm it started to rain, heavy rain that you think is gonna stop within a few hours. It didn't. It didn't stop until 7am the next day... Being there is the tent, alone, in the cold I could have gone crazy. Actually I didn't. I didn't even feel scare a single moment of being up there all by myself. I actually was happy to be doing it. And I had a warm sleeping bag. So I slept. Woke up, still raining? ok slept again. Still raining? Hmm, ok I will sleep again. Next day I woke up at 5. Looked at the sunrise or rather at the day coming out as with the clouds I couldn't see any sun. Yet it was still amazing being there surrounding by those Giants. Really really cool memory. After that I went down. Another 25km from laguna 69 to lagunas llanganucos and further. And then I hitchhiked and ended up in a massive toyota 4x4 that was driven by a religious women. Was really funny talking to her. Yeah it was definitely an awesome two days trip and funny night when I think about it.

Another really cool experience was to sleep in the town of Santa Maria and Santa Teresa on the way to Macchu Picchu while doing the Jungle trail. It was so far from all the touristy hostels I had seen in Cuzco and in Peru so far. Really really small towns, with just two hostels. One for our group. 4 of us and the guide. And another for this other group of tourists doing the jungle trail with us. Really chilled places, our was actually better as we even had a mini-football. You talk to the people you're doing the trip with. You have lots of time to talk with them or with your guide. After some time we even decided to go around in "town" and we found some 8 years old kids to play football with. They were so afraid at us at first, but after trying to convince them to get a ball somewhere and play with us they finally joined the party. Playing football in a tropical environment, very humid and at moderate altitude (2000+ m) is really something. And those kids, boys and girls, were so small you almost believe they went between your legs when they actually passed by you dribbling with the ball. Definitely had a hell of a time on that jungle trip. Met great people, awesome guide, very good trip following the river up to Macchu Picchu for 3 days and far from all the tourists traps.

Another great memory about places where I slept? Hmmm actually there is so many. I could talk about sleeping at my friend's place in Bogota, Colombia. who invited me to her parents house and showed me the city with her friends the next day. I could talk about how I found a place in Manizales, Colombia. Actually I really recommend this place if you go there someday as it is really clean, safe, and loaded with cool people:

Mountain House Manizales, Calle 66 # 23 B 137, calle larga de Palermo o calle de los Faroles Barrio Guayacanes,, ☎ (Cel: 300-439-7387(info@mountainhousemanizales.com),

I could also talk about the other hostels I really enjoyed in other places: from the Secret Garden in Quito, Ecuador (roof bar, fireplace, one of the best view of the old quito town, and really a lot of backpackers to share experience/travel with) to the Adventure Brew and Brew Too Hostel in La Paz, Bolivia (roof terasse, BBQ, a free beer every night, great location and there too a nice view of La Paz at night) or to the salt hostel during the Uyuni trip (salt bricks, cactus table, cactus doors and benches, in the middle of absolutely nowhere with just nature and desert around, and a beautiful place to watch the sunset from the roof of a jeep :D) there is too many places that I loved staying at.

There are also places that I really didn’t like. Either because it was cold, or dirty, or empty, or in a dodgy neighbourhood, or all this at the same time. If there is one place that I am thinking of is the hostel in Chimbote, Peru that I spent a few hours in prior to take the bus to Caraz. I really wanted to go to Caraz via el canon del Pato so I had to stop in Chimbote in order to take a very early bus the next day. Since Chimbote is The place in Peru where they make tuna cans or process whatever other fish species it REALLY stinks fish. More that you can imagine. The place was really shit. I arrived there at 11pm without any other place to go to, and woke up the next day at 4am to catch my bus. Really the kind of night that you wish to forget.

“Where did you sleep?” is all this, it reminds of all the crazy, good or bad, places I spent time in. Sleeping in a tent at 4000m, in a bus driving full speed in winding roads and most of the time overtaking other cars with little space prior to crash into the car/bus/truck coming in front, or simply in a hostel loaded with backpackers travelling in, out, and all around South America is really an experience on its own and that’s what I like so much about this question. Makes it difficult to answer in just a few words (like “I slept mostly in hostels, what do you expect?”) as it would be such a dull answer…

Facebook "fan page" but please call it suggestions page :)

Just a short post to say that I created a facebook "fan page" for this blog. Not that I want you to go as far as saying you are really fan of my blog but rather that I want you to tell me what you want me to write about. If you want to hear about Colombia or Bolivia more specifically, or about how must it cost to climb Huayna Potosi, or whatever else that you wanna know, please do ask me on that facebook ("fan") suggestion page. I will try to answer to it by writing new posts but first things first, let's finish with the questions that I started to deal with:

-"Did you feel in danger or unsafe in any place?" (answered :D)
-"How did you do it all by yourself?" (answered :D)
-"Did you meet people?" (answered :D)
-"Where did you sleep?"
-"What did you prefer?"
-"Did you have any problem ever?
-and the cult one: "How was it?"

Did you meet people?

Did you meet people? I have to admit that I really love this question.
Because people know you went traveling by yourself for 2 months they really wonder if you spent it ALL by yourself. Or rather they think: "he must have met people, he must have met other travelers or local people" because they simply can't imagine a single minute going there and not meeting anyone. They are simply curious about it and they are right :D
Anyway who would be crazy enough to go abroad and spend the whole time by himself not even trying to exchange/interact with other people? You would really have to be a complete weirdo or the most non-talkative person ever.

After all, to me traveling is about people. It is about all the little moments chatting/talking/laughing with people about this or that, about the next place you want to travel to, about something they enjoyed doing or they want/wish to do, about something that you enjoyed, about listening to what they think about life or politics or family or whatever else. It is about being mesmerized by the beauty, the simplicity, the kindness, the love people are showing in everyday life. I mean I can say I have met someone though I have actually just looked at what the person was doing from the other side of the street. Even if you don't talk to that person it still to me one of those instant where you "meet" someone. For instance I can say I have met a trumpeter in Chiclayo, Peru whereas I simply observed him playing the trumpet and begging for money. I just liked the moment, his music, his attitude, observing people passing by. I just liked observing some among them stopping, giving a coin or two and exchanging smiles with the trumpeter.

I really think that being living in world with no one else, being absolutely ALONE, would be the most boring thing ever. You could be mesmerized by an amazing landscapes/scenery but with no one to share it with, what's the point?

I can completely understand that sometimes you can experience something truly amazing by yourself. Reaching the top of that mountain Huayna Potosi in Bolivia is one example. Reaching finally the top at 6088m after several hours of intense efforts in the dark, in the cold, and slowly moving up one (small) step after another I can tell you that for an instant you don't think about anyone else than you. You fight against yourself, you're talking to yourself, you're saying one more step, one more step... And when you do reach stop, when you finally stand on the top and you see the sun coming out you feel happy, truly happy. The pain is gone, you don't feel cold anymore, you don't think of anything anymore. You look around you, you look at the sun rays piercing through the clouds, slowly shining on the snow, and warming up your skin. You look at the city lights far far away. It is really hard to put words on what you can possibly think of during that instant because you simply can't come up with words to describe how beautiful it is, how happy you feel, how mesmerized you are. I think that during that particular instant your brain is overflown by all your sensations and it becomes blank. Then slowly the overflow dissipates and your brain gets back in control. Finally, you start to think I need to tell someone about this. I need to tell someone how happy I feel. I need to ask someone if he/she feels the same. I need to share it with someone.

Meeting people is what gives you the possibility to share those moments and even more. It offers you the possibility to make them last forever, to make them become something unforgettable, to make them become memories.

So yes I have met plenty of people, yes I have traveled with other people for a day or more, yes I have met lots of local people, yes I have the most unbelievable persons/travelers/backpackers ever, yes I met people I think I will keep in touch with.
The thing I like so much about this question: "Did you meet people?" is that every time I am being asked I have all those people's faces that flash in my mind. After 1 sec it is not 5 faces that flash in my mind but several dozens of faces. You think of someone. It brings back a memory, an instant, something funny, amazing, sad, anything that link you to that person. One more second later you mind moved to another person, and another, and another...

Three words to say it all: I Love People