Warm Jalq'a designed accommodations

The lovely pink connecting section of the habitacion featured coloured  glass to add light and tecture.

On our trek with Condor Trekkers, we slept both nights in lodging that was designed according to Jalq'a traditions. The Jalq'a people are indigenous people of Bolivia who still live according to their cultural traditions. The tourist lodging was constructed by the villagers and is run by the community, with all proceeds going to the community.

At the end of our second day of trekking, we arrived at our home for the night.

Each of  the cabañas had three sections: the entrance and kitchen (from the right); a connecting hall where the bathroom was, a common area, and a sleeping area with two bedrooms.

Soft coloured light from inside our warm abode.

Our knowledgeable and kind guide, Johnny, cooked up delicious vegetarian meals in the kitchen. How did he know that a bowl of warm oatmeal for breakfast was one of my favourites : )

Simple. Beautiful. Functional.

The craftsmanship -- not to speak of the work collecting the stones -- was truly inspiring. Although we did not
have to light a fire to stay warm (layers of clothing was all we needed), just the presence of this masterpiece
in the common area warmed us.

The dinosaur theme was joyfully caried through the appliqués. At night, I dreamed of times long passed.

This view, looking up from the area outside our casa, shows the adobe used to create walls, houses and fences. The sun was resplendent every day.

Dinosaur tracks and awesome landscape (Part 3)

Donkeys are part of the landscape. They, like all animals, roam freely.

Jan sitting at the edge of Maragua Crater having a well earned sip of water after ascending from 3,100 to 3,300 in just a few minutes first thing in the morning. OK, so I found that harder than she did :)

Dinosaur tracks. These are for real.

But Tyrannosaurus Rex made for huge tracks. The story is the tracks fossilized due to a vulcano eruption or some such.

Me with much smaller dino tracks. The people think that when other parts of the landscape are revealed with big rains, many more tracks will be found.

Lunch break at a beautiful spot overlooking the valley toward Maragua and sporting this sculpted hangout for Jan.

Potolo, our destination for night 2. While at 3,100m it has more water than other places along this track and farming was active already as a result.

Day two of the Condor Treking Excursion brought some impressive moments with Dinosaurs. The landscape moved from the copper reds to the silver greys and greens and much in between. These mountains are rich in minerals, but they apparently are not dense enough to warrant mining. There  are other areas nearby, for instance, Potosi and its silver mines. Most of this trek is above treeline, but it is more a matter of how arid various areas are.

The days start early out here - yes, breakfast at 6:30 am - and the rewards are amazing. We have about 12 hours of day light so all activity outdoors takes place in that window. Johnny, our guide, while a bit reserved, was fun to spend 3 days with, converse about life, natural features, rocks, tracks and his plans for a 1 year work exchange to Germany. He is flying to Hamburg in mid-September. (I promised him he would be received well, enjoy German hospitality and make real friends.)

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

High Peaks serve up the best back country tests

(Scroll down for photos.) Last weekend we shouldered our 40+ pound backpacks and set off on a 3-day back country excursion in the Adirondack High Peak's wilderness. As usual, we carried our tent, sleeping bags, kitchen, the mandatory bear barrels with food, essential toiletries, first aid and clothing to suit every weather with a couple of extra bits just in case.

Friday night we made great time driving to Lake Placid (3 hours), got  dinner at the local brew pub and checked in at the Alpine Air motel, as it was too late to find a camp site. The next morning, we set off from the South Meadows area, about 2 miles from the Adirondack Loj, and hiked to Bushnell Falls via the Klondike Trail and John Brook Lodge. The 7 miles (just over 11 km) took about 5 hours: the hiking has some attention-getting uphill sections and enough blown down trees covering the trail to slow us down a bit. Of course, we took a couple of fine breaks along the way. Furthermore, the first bridge has been washed out for a while (Hurricane Irene I think), so we  forded the river which tends to slow things down a tiny bit, too. The good news: crews were rebuilding the bridge and it should be finished by now!

Bushnell Falls area has two lean-tos a few hundred yards and a river apart. We went to Number 2 which has a designated camp site beside a mountain stream;  we were all set. After setting up and settling in we took an hour to head back to the actual Bushnell Falls, a few hundred yards from our camp, and down a steep, muddy embankment. The falls are pretty and Jan made a sport of climbing around them in her ancient sandals ... because up close and personal is always better. A fun excursion spent trying to take interesting quality photos of moving water.

We settled in to our sleeping bags even before dark and soon fell asleep happy to be out there, on our own, self-sufficient, in gorgeous wilderness.

The next day, we set our sights on Haystack, the 3rd highest 46er with 4,960 feet. We had heard that there would be snow - up to 4 feet - above 3,500 feet. It was hard to image given the summer weather we had been having. But then, there was much late winter snow that we had enjoyed in Ottawa, too. Indeed, once we passed Slant Rock we began to spot snow and as we ascended further, deep snow covered the trail. The spring melt water had been burrowing pathways across the trail underneath the snow pack. We broke through in places as the snow bridges were becoming less stable. The hiking toward summits is steep and slow. It took about 3 hours to get up Little Haystack. Just as we arrived dark clouds started rolling in. The change in weather was fast with visibility quickly reduced; when we reached the summit of Haystack, we could see just a few feet ahead and certainly no longer all the way across to Little Haystack, nor could we see any part of Mount Marcy.

Quick summit photos taken, we set out for the return to camp. A ranger had suggested that instead of crossing Haystack, descending its south side and returning along a path said to be quite difficult at the best of times - and likely treacherous with the snow and ice resulting in much challenging post holing - that we could take Shorey's Shortcut for variety. The way we hiked it, this is not a shortcut at all, quite the opposite, but it was different. Indeed, if we thought we struggled uphill through the snowy path, the downhill on Shorey was even more challenging. We applied all our snow travel skills, digging in heel first and post holed frequently as the snow bridges frequently gave way. Due to the trail's steepness with large boulders strewn everywhere, I went in more than hip-deep in a few spots struggling to gain solid ground again. With the rain falling, the snow and run-off beneath, we both got wet through and through. Perhaps needless to  say, the descent took as long as the way up. That is one of the things about the High Peak's: you can't assume that down is faster given the technically difficult terrain.

We made it back to camp safely after about 7 hours covering about 8 miles (13 km) and traversing about 2,000 vertical feet. By now we were completely soaked through and knew we'd get cold as soon as we stopped moving. We quickly decided to use the lean to until we would go to sleep in our tent. We boiled up water for tea as we changed into dry, warm clothes. Then we made dinner and tried to find a way to dry out our hiking boots that were wet inside and out. (see solution below)

With the challenges of the day, so rises the elation. Especially, since we were well equipped and had the sole use of the lean-to, we could review with relish the day's adventures and accomplishments.

The next morning, the rain let up. We packed up, wet clothes off the line making for some extra weight, and set off for the return to our car. The hike out felt easy in comparison to hiking Haystack. We enjoyed the effort and felt awesome after our last ford at South Meadows.

Jan explores her camera's settings. Result: beautiful!

Lunch near Klondike Lean-to on hike in.

Bushnell Falls and Jan.

First big snow.

Jan navigates the snowy path ably.

Clouds move in fast over Haystack.

Haystack summit, really! Just us and the thick clouds.

A tea light for every boot. This actually worked pretty well
to dry them out for a few hours.

Improvised clothes line to store our dry clothes for the night.

Back in the meadow steps from our car. Happy.

Bolivia 2013 mountaineering expedition

Vacations approved. Travel plans well underway.

We will be going to Bolivia for 5 weeks this fall! 5 weeks means the odds of achieving our ambitious mountaineering goals are quite good - as long as we both stay healthy. We will have 18 days for the acclimatization process and then 16 days of mountaineering, climbing glaciated mountains over 5,000 m and getting ready for up to 3 mountains over 6,000 m. Yes, that's over 20,000 feet.

That means our acclimatization process starts most likely at about 3,000 m with a series of higher day hikes. This will be followed by moving to La Paz where we will sleep at about 3,700 m and we have access to the Altiplano which sites at 4,000 m and the Cordillera Real with some relatively close to the city objectives over 5,000 m. By the time we get to the mountaineering expedition, we hope to have spent time at least twice over 5,000 m.

We'll spend the first week of the mountaineering part between 4,500 and 5,500 m before attempting two 6,000ers (Chachacomani and Chearoco mountains) in a seldom visited part of the Cordillera Real. If all goes well, we will follow this up with an ascent of the 6,438 m (21,122 feet) high Illimani, one of Bolivia's most iconic mountains standing just south of La Paz and the highest mountain in the Cordillera Real.

In 2010, we traversed a large part  of this mountain range which culminated in summitting Huayna Potosi (6,088m). The area we plan to explore this fall is further west in this impressive range.

We'll post training updates, itineraries and of course progress reports as this expedition unfolds.

Wind Smackdown in Torres del Paine or "Wondering why I did not buy technical waterproof pants?"