The vistas of the Cordillera de los Frailes: Inka Trail to Waterfall (Part 2)

The Inca Trail connects over more than 1,000 kilometres. How did they get the stones so flat without the tools we have today? Inga benefits from the labour of others -- and is clearly super pleased about it.

The soft and subtle colours of the Cordillera de los Frailes envelop and welcome us.

The waterfall seems to come out of nowhere to greet the dry land.

Inspired by the land, Jan reflects the strength of the waterfall.

How close can Jan get without crawling in to every drop of water?

Condor Trekkers serves vegetarian food. Yum. After a wonderful morning hike, the assortment of fresh food delights the palate.

Trekking in the Cordillera de los Frailes: Part 1

5 am in Sucre - deserted streets. Just us heading to our pick up

 at Condor Trekking.

Breakfast at 3,600+ metres. Brand new Church built for the community at start of the Inka Trail.

Gorgeous Jan a few minutes down the Inka Trail. Check out those stones. Most from centuries ago, the local community now maintains it for tourism.

Moon over moon landscape: Bolivian Andes are impressive everywhere.

Water break along the trail toward Maragua. Lucille and Antoine (in back right) were part of our group fro day 2 and 3 as well.

Jan makes friends easily everywhere :)

Waiting for the local bus: Antoine, Lucille, Johnny (our guide who is about to go spend a year in Germany), and Jan.

Here are a few first impressions from our 3-day trek in the Cordillera de los Frailes, including that 1/2 day on the local bus back to Sucre today.

We went by car up to about 3,600m only to hike downhill on the Inka Trail for a few kilometres. We picked up a path along a river and then up into Maragua ´Crater´, a small village where we spent the first night. The hike went by a gorgeous waterfall around 2,800 m where we had lunch and then we got to hike uphill to get back up to about 3,100 m. That sure made for some heavy breathing on my part. But of course, that´s what I need to acclimatize to altitude gradually. Sleeping in Maragua - and then in Potolo for our second night - at about 3,100m also is part of that. Sleeping was actuallyt remarkably easy after long days hiking.

Condor Trekkers´ guides, David and Johnny, were great. Knowledgeable, kind, fine cooks and fun to be around. We will post pics from Jan´s camera shortly. With mine now officially out of battery, we took shots mostly with hers.

First impressions of Sucre

Casa Verde is easy to spot on the street of white washed buildings.

Sucre is a colonial town, with a much, much longer history reaching well before the Inca empire.

Plaza 25 de mayo is a popular city square surrounded by impressive architecture.

34 hours in Transit to Sucre, Bolivia

Good Monday morning!
Jan and I have arrived at Casa Verde in Sucre.
 
Our flights went off almost without a hitch. The Ottawa to Toronto, Toronto to Panama City and Panama City to Bogota, Colombia legs were uneventful and pleasant. We flew with Copa Airlines and Avianca (Colombian airline) and were pleased with modern planes and great service. The Bogota to La Paz flight left on time (just after 11pm) and was about to land in La Paz on time (3:45am). I noticed the plane was circling a couple of times and then the announcement that due to a major snow storm (yes, it is winter in the southern hemisphere) the El Alto airport did not allow anyone to land or take of. The storm was expected to last another  2 hours, so we would be diverted to Santa Cruz, an hour away by plane. Santa Cruz is in the jungle, at about 300 m above sea level, so perhaps not surprising it is Bolivia´s largest airport. Once we arrived, we waited for information about the next steps. Would the storm let up? Would we disembark and clear customs? Or perhaps we´d be able to get off the plane and just wait in the international waiting hall for updates?

The Avianca crew kept information flowing and everyone took the situation in stride. We were a bit concerned about flying on to Sucre and whether we´d make that flight if it was to leave. Well, at about 6:30 am we boarded the Avianca flight which was to leave to La Paz shortly. We taxied to the runway and the captain announced that it had started snowing again and that we would have to wait until El Alto gave permission. Most people - and certainly we - were sleeping. Nothing else to do really and we were working on a full day of travel already. There were a couple more on again, off again moments and by about 8:30am we took off to El Alto at 4,000m. Seeing the Cordillera Real with its glaciers and 5,000 and 6,000 m summits and the Altiplano clad in snow was beautiful. The landing was quite smooth.

We cleared immigration and customs and were so happy to see Eduardo waiting for us (he will be our mountain guide in 2 weeks when we head into the Cordillera Real)! We had asked him  to meet us at the airport so we could hand off our mountaineering equipment to him for safekeeping until we need it. With the storm he had kept track of our flight and waited for us even though we arrived 6 hours late.

Then, moving slowly at 4,000m trying to avoid the altitude headache (we succeeded), we needed to work out our flight situation to get to Sucre. Our initial flight had left and only one other company had seats on their delayed flight (yeah, for the ripples of flight delays when strorms hit). We boarded at 1:20 pm and got to Sucre by 2:20. A 10 km cab ride and we got to Casa Verde. A beautiful B & B in the downtown area of town that Jan researched online. We unpacked, napped for 3 hours and then went out for dinner. We walked to the Plaza 25 de Mayo, the central square, and found many options settling on a trattoria with a cool vibe called Tentaciones. I had the best Chicken Parmesan, Jan enjoyed her pasta, the Campos de Soltanas Riesling (a vineyard in the Ssouth of Bolivia) was tasty and not sweet and the cappucinos were lovely.

It feels great to be in Bolivia again. And we are pleased to start in Sucre, at 2,200 m and not in La Paz at 3,600m, as this gives us a chance to manage our acclimatization process step by step and not just battle the symptoms of living high. We will head to La Paz at the end of the week.

Today, we will meet with Condor Trekking, deal with some electronics issues I have - didn´t find my camera´s battery charger when I was packing - see if I can get any refunds on the other flight we had booked, find some dinosaur tracks, and generally enjoy our first full day in Sucre.

Our transit stats: 34 hours (net flying time about 14 hours), 7 airports, 4 countries, 4 airlines, 1 snow storm, 2 happy travellers.

Bolivia in 2 days

On Saturday we are flying to La Paz. We were thrilled to find a flight on points. Turns out there's no fuel surcharge going to Bolivia, so we just paid the taxes - an awesome deal.The routing is a bit longer than it absolutely has to be: we're going from Ottawa-Toronto-Panama City-Bogota-La Paz then on to Sucre on a local carrier.

Our house sitters are all set up, so we know all will be well at home while we embark on this 5 week mountaineering expedition. Lots of anticipation, wondering whether we are ready. I inadvertently hurt my foot in May in the Adirondacks, basically pretty painful tendinitis in my foot. With lots of physio and stretching, and hot yoga, it has improved tremendously. All that to say, we couldn't follow our plans for backcountry hiking. However, I started joining Jan at  hot yoga and since early June I have logged 52 classes :) That has got to help, right!?

We will post updates and photos here as we go and when we have internet access. The basic itinerary is
week 1 - Sucre and area - with a 3 day, 2 night hike up to 3,800 m
week 2 - La Paz and day trips to the Altiplano and Cordillera Real
week 3 - Mountaineering with Bolivian Mountain Guides in Cordillera Real - training week
week 4 - Mountaineering with Bolivian Mountain Guides in Cordillera Real (Chearoco, Chachacomani, Illimani) - summit week
week 5 - Madidi National Park (the jungle)

The itinerary is designed for acclimatization. We will gradually sleep higher and higher as we progress through the first 3 weeks. At the same time we will be active hiking and trekking or day tripping much higher still. In fact, in week 2 we hope to spend a day trip driving all the way  to 5,400 metres, just to help the body get used to the lower air pressure and stimulate adaptation to the altitude over time.

We'll see how the mountaineering works out. We have our sights on a couple of 5,000+m peaks and several over 6,000 m. Summits are never a given and we have a lot of respect for the mountains. We are both eager to be in these mountains again and gain all manner of new experiences and deepen our skills along the way, too.

This is the highest spot we've ever walked to:
Huayna Potosi, 6,088m (19,975 feet)
November 19, 2010