Mountains & Ruins
It's been a long time since our last post!
We did a 3 week trip this past May to Bolivia and Peru.
Bolivia: We did a 4 day mountaineering course with 2 summits: Tariha at 5300m and Huyana Potosi at 6088m. We arrived in La Paz after 2 days of traveling and the altitude hit us right away, it definitely defined the theme of our trip. We met our super awesome guide, Gaspar, from Mountain Madness. We spent 2 days in La Paz adjusting to the altitude, then we visited Tiwanaku ruins, Copacabana and Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. We had a wonderful cultural guide, Eldy, who taught us so much about the history, the culture and the landscape. We ate really well, had some llama and alpaca, chicken, saltenas, humitas and lots of potatoes. Our 4 day mountaineering course started in the Condoriri range where we camped at the base of the glacier to Tariha. Gaspar showed us some many great tips, he was patient, thorough and safe. He knew when to push us but also recognized our limits and respected them. The best guide we've ever had!!! We practiced walking on a glacier, ice anchors, roping systems, ice climbing (in a crevasse), assisted rescue (out of a crevasse) and prusiking (how to get out of a crevasse). The final day we summitted Tariha!
The next part of our trip was to summit Huyana Potosi at 6,088m (19,974ft). It was the toughest thing we did. Day 1 was climbing up to high camp at 5,300m and then Day 2 was up at 3am, breakfast and then our climb up the glacier began at 4am. We crossed the entire glacier in the dark and it took us a total of 7hrs to summit (and of course 2hrs to get down!). The altitude was very challenging and this was the toughest climb we've done because of that. In the end we got to the summit, sat down, recovered a bit and took some photos. Our Bolivia trip was over.
Peru: We spent our trip in the Sacred Valley where we visited Inca ruins. We started in Cusco where we visited the ruins of Saqsaywaman (or "sexy-woman") and Tipon. After Cusco we went to Ollantaytambo, which we thought was the best kept secret in the valley! It's a town of 700 and we stumbled upon the biggest celebration, their patron saints birthday. It was a 6 day fiesta complete with bull fight, partying and massive amounts of drinking. It was a great experience. The ruins in Ollantaytambo are also very impressive. Finally, we were off to Macchu Picchu - this was an adventure! We took a 6hr mini bus to a hydro electric station where we took a tyrolean traverse across the roaring river, hiked for 1hr through the jungle in light and then 2hrs in the dark(!), then at 4am the next morning we got up and hiked the 500m trek from Aguas Calientes (worst town in the world by the way!) to the gate of Machu Picchu. We were about #30 in line out of 100's. We were lucky to get in and see the site sans tourists. It was peaceful and beautiful. We then hiked up Wayna Picchu (they only allow 400 people/day vs. Machu Picchu that has about 2500 people/day).
We had an amazing experience, learned a lot about the culture, the language and history. Highly recommended to all!
Enjoy our PICTURES!
It's been a long time since our last post!
We did a 3 week trip this past May to Bolivia and Peru.
Bolivia: We did a 4 day mountaineering course with 2 summits: Tariha at 5300m and Huyana Potosi at 6088m. We arrived in La Paz after 2 days of traveling and the altitude hit us right away, it definitely defined the theme of our trip. We met our super awesome guide, Gaspar, from Mountain Madness. We spent 2 days in La Paz adjusting to the altitude, then we visited Tiwanaku ruins, Copacabana and Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. We had a wonderful cultural guide, Eldy, who taught us so much about the history, the culture and the landscape. We ate really well, had some llama and alpaca, chicken, saltenas, humitas and lots of potatoes. Our 4 day mountaineering course started in the Condoriri range where we camped at the base of the glacier to Tariha. Gaspar showed us some many great tips, he was patient, thorough and safe. He knew when to push us but also recognized our limits and respected them. The best guide we've ever had!!! We practiced walking on a glacier, ice anchors, roping systems, ice climbing (in a crevasse), assisted rescue (out of a crevasse) and prusiking (how to get out of a crevasse). The final day we summitted Tariha!
The next part of our trip was to summit Huyana Potosi at 6,088m (19,974ft). It was the toughest thing we did. Day 1 was climbing up to high camp at 5,300m and then Day 2 was up at 3am, breakfast and then our climb up the glacier began at 4am. We crossed the entire glacier in the dark and it took us a total of 7hrs to summit (and of course 2hrs to get down!). The altitude was very challenging and this was the toughest climb we've done because of that. In the end we got to the summit, sat down, recovered a bit and took some photos. Our Bolivia trip was over.
Peru: We spent our trip in the Sacred Valley where we visited Inca ruins. We started in Cusco where we visited the ruins of Saqsaywaman (or "sexy-woman") and Tipon. After Cusco we went to Ollantaytambo, which we thought was the best kept secret in the valley! It's a town of 700 and we stumbled upon the biggest celebration, their patron saints birthday. It was a 6 day fiesta complete with bull fight, partying and massive amounts of drinking. It was a great experience. The ruins in Ollantaytambo are also very impressive. Finally, we were off to Macchu Picchu - this was an adventure! We took a 6hr mini bus to a hydro electric station where we took a tyrolean traverse across the roaring river, hiked for 1hr through the jungle in light and then 2hrs in the dark(!), then at 4am the next morning we got up and hiked the 500m trek from Aguas Calientes (worst town in the world by the way!) to the gate of Machu Picchu. We were about #30 in line out of 100's. We were lucky to get in and see the site sans tourists. It was peaceful and beautiful. We then hiked up Wayna Picchu (they only allow 400 people/day vs. Machu Picchu that has about 2500 people/day).
We had an amazing experience, learned a lot about the culture, the language and history. Highly recommended to all!
Enjoy our PICTURES!
posted by Marie & Tom at
5:55 PM
