Just as being in a city that is at an altitude of 3500 m is not enough, we decided that a trip to Chacaltaya (which is 5300m just at the parking lot) would be fun. I had recuperated enough with my bout of food poisoning to go along on the trip, but it seemed that Philippe had begun to suffer from the same.
After a short stop in a market to buy provisions for a tail gate picnic, we headed off for the mountains. Philippe works as an adventure guide and his tool of trade is a Toyota 4X4, seeing the condition of some of the roads, we were happy to be traveling in it. After crossing El Alto, we headed towards Chacaltaya. We stopped for lunch by the side of the road (4500m) with a beautiful view of Mount Potosi; SB donned his Bolivian bonnet for the first time. It was important to stop at regular intervals to get accustomed to the change in altitude. Lunch consisted of avocados, figs, mangos, bananas, and bread. Yours truly just dined on an apple, doctor’s order, after all. After lunch JN and SB wandered down the road to see a herd of Lamas, the girls all found discreet rocks behind which we could relieve ourselves. Without mentioning names (and I can tell you right now that it was not me) one among us made a lonely lama herders day, if you get what I mean.
The view continued to amaze us the higher up we went. Christiane remarked that it was almost if we took two trips, seeing how much the landscape changed during our journey. The flat plains changed to the steep cliffs. By the time we got to Chacaltaya, SB was knocked out either from the fatigue or from the lack of oxygen. I wandered feebly out of the car and made it to a bench. Philippe and Alejandra stayed in the car and took a nap with SB. The only true adventurers were Christiane, JN and Laetitia who climbed to a first bench to admire the view.
Christiane stayed there for awhile by herself as JN and Laetitia made there way to the summit. They made the climb to 5580m and they said the view was spectacular.(with a little help from some Coca leaves given to them half way up by a native who took pity on them). They could see Lake Titicaca off in the distance with Peru just beyond.
On the way back to the capitol, we crossed a herd of Lamas that were kind enough to pose for a few photographs. SB and everyone else seemed to be revived with the return of a “normal” level of oxygen. We passed a soccer field at one point at our descent and were amazed that they were able to run around after the ball.
