I vacationed in Bolivia, leaving 8/7/03 and returning 8/23/03. It was a great trip in many ways and I wouldn't mind going back.
Note: I've highlighted a few names you might want to recall as you read through this.
It only took 3 flights to get to Bolivia. Going I went Louisville to Atlanta to Miami to La Paz, Bolivia, the capitol. Coming back I went La Paz to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Miami (which was one flight) to Atlanta to Indianapolis.
When I first saw my flight schedule I wondered why we went from La Paz to Santa Cruz to Miami instead of going directly from La Paz to Miami as we did coming down. The reason is that La Paz is at such a high altitude, a fully loaded aircraft can't take off from there with enough fuel to make it all the way to Miami. Santa Cruz is at a much lower altitude and the aircraft can take off with enough fuel to get to Miami.
We spent our first day in Bolivia relaxing and getting used to the altitude since La Paz is at 12,000 feet. Then we visited some pre-Incan ruins before heading to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Copacabana, Bolivia is the place that the better known Copacabana is named after. Lake Titicaca is the largest, highest lake in the world. We did some training hikes and some shopping in Copacabana. We then went to a large island in Lake Titicaca, Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) where we camped two nights, hiked and saw some more ruins. We then returned to La Paz before heading out on the next leg of the trip. We did a one week trek through the Cordillera Real (Royal Mountain Range). We went over several passes at 16,000 feet and had two camp sites at 15,000 feet.
Sergio Fitch was our leader. This was the 6th trip I've been on with him. It's not that I select trips that he leads. Rather, he leads the kind of trips I like to take.
The border between Bolivia and Peru is really strange around Copacabana. On this branch of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia is on the east side of the lake, Peru on the west side and they meet on the south side. But there's a portion of Bolivia which includes Copacabana on the west side of the lake. This portion is cut off from the rest of Bolivia by Peru. We took a boat and our bus took a ferry across a narrow part of the lake so we didn't have to go through Peru to get there. When you look at the border along this area, there are several sweeping curves which look like someone had used a compass to draw. No one we asked could tell us how this cutoff section and strange border came about.
On our first day of hiking, from Copacabana to the boat we were taking to Isla del Sol, the cow incident took place. I was hiking along the road when 2 men came toward me, each leading a cow. I hopped up on the embankment to get out of the way because I heard a car coming up behind me. The first man had passed me when the cow decided to hop up the embankment too. The only problem with this was that the rope between the man and the cow was coming straight at me. I was able to duck and guide the rope over me with my arm. But other people hiking along some distance behind this thought the cow was going straight at me. That would have made a good story. But sorry, I just had to duck the rope. However quick reactions did save me from getting knocked down and may have saved some rope burns.
Bolivia was different from all the other South American countries I've been in as far as dogs. In Bolivia they're pets and friendly. I was able to make friends with a number of dogs as the trip progressed. In other countries the dogs are either scavengers or guards. The scavengers are afraid of everything and the guards are at best unfriendly. This was sure a pleasant difference.
Weather is always an important topic on any hiking trip. We were very lucky. While we had one or two times when there was a possibility of rain, we never got any serious rain. But let's talk about cold. It was really cold when we arrived in La Paz. I'm glad I was prepared with two extra layers in my carry-on bag. We arrived about 6 a.m. and it was probably around 30. Coming from temperatures in the 80's and 90's, this was quite a shock to our systems. You expect it to be cold at high altitudes and La Paz is at about 12,000 feet. But this was still colder than I expected. In the mountains during the trek, water outside the tents froze every night. But I had only one night when my water bottle in the tent got a bit crystaline. This really shows the importance of a good sleeping bag. It's the one really warm place at night up there.
All the guide books and a notice in a restaurant near the trail head warned hikers of robbers in a valley. We would be going through that valley the last day of the mountain trek. The previous group doing this trek did not see anyone in this valley at all. When we got there, we kept together and moved quickly. Sergio had a Bolivia policeman's hat which he wore that day. (I didn't ask where he got it.) We didn't see anyone either.
One story was that only small groups were bothered. We were 14 clients plus all the guides, cooks and llama wranglers. But another possibility is that the bandits were not around any more. Perhaps the government had chased them off or caught them. And perhaps this is all folklore. Who knows?
We saw several different pre-Incan ruins. I really found this interesting because of the interest I developed in the Incas on my various trips to Peru. The legend is that the first Inca came from Isla del Sol and went North to establish the Incan empire. There were a number of similarities between the ruins we saw and the Incan ruins I've seen in Peru. Nitches in the walls were not as trapazoidal as the Incans. But the stonework had a lot in common.
One of the new things I saw in South America was Pringles. Yes, those cans of potato chip like things we have here. Almost all snack shops carried them. In fact they were in the hotel's mini-bar. When we finished the trek and got back to La Paz it took much longer for our duffles to get back. Since I had a room to myself, I couldn't really wander off because I needed to hang around to await my duffle. But that means I couldn't go out for lunch. So I raided the mini-bar and had two of the small cans of Pringles. When I checked out the next morning, they always asked what you had from the mini-bar. I just set the empty cans on the counter in front of the person checking us out. He got a chuckle out of my demonstration of what I had from the mini-bar.
This was a good starter trek for people who'd hiked and camped before but hadn't done a high altitude trek. The trip wasn't as long as many treks. Bolivia and the Andes are much easier to get to than, for example, Nepal and the Himalayas. And there was only at most 7 straight nights of camping compared to some treks with 20 or so nights of camping. And before hitting those 7 nights, there were 2 nights camping on Isla del Sol to get used to the tents and camp sites.
There were several people who were doing their first trek of this type. I had fun mentoring some of these folks. For example the "rest step" is a style of hiking which works very well when ascending. At high altitude it's almost necessary. I taught this to several people. It didn't take them long on the trail to see the difference it could make.
On a number of days I stayed in the back to keep company with some of the slower people. They appreciated having someone with them helping out. On the tough days the guides did this. But on some of the easier days I did.
We had some interesting people in the group. As always, it was a good group. Jerks generally don't want to go to South America to go hiking and camping. On most treks I've been on something like 15 - 35% of the group is women. On the more civilized trips, for example Switzerland, the ratio is more like 50/50. But in this group of 14, we had 8 women.
One fellow was in his early 30's, strong and in great shape. Mark reminded me a little bit of taking a dog for a walk. You go down the sidewalk while the dog is following your baseline but almost never actually following the sidewalk. We would be hiking along and someone would point out Mark way up the hillside. Then awhile later he would be up the hillside on the other side of the valley. He must have hiked twice as far as the rest of us. He also seemed to be impervious to the weather.
Jeff had a shaved head, a number of ear rings and tatoos everywhere I could see and I'm told most places I couldn't see. These are just not characteristics which I've seen among very many trekkers. And this is probably the first time I've seen all 3 on the same trekker.
I generally don't like big cities no matter what country they're in. That held for La Paz just because it was big. But the layout of the city was interesting in a number of ways. For example the airport is at 13,000 feet but the city center is at 12,000 feet. It's quite a ride from the airport into the city. Picture a huge box canyon. La Paz basically covered the 3 sides and valley floor of that box canyon. Unlike San Francisco, there aren't many hills. There's the city center and city going up from there on 3 sides. We have to leave for the airport about 5 a.m. for our flights back home. That was quite a sight seeing the city from above all lite up.
Coming back to La Paz after the first leg of our trekking, we were on a bus. Instead of taking the direct, quick route which we'd taken from the airport when we arrived, we took a more circuitous route on back streets. This was maybe to avoid the mid-day traffic that we would have hit if we'd taken the standard route. When we arrived at the hotel, we got off the bus and several people pointed out that the brakes on the bus were smoking.
The title for this trip report came from what became a running joke on the trek. Sergio is noted for his heavy snoring. He usually has his tent setup some distance from all others for that reason. One day when he came to dinner someone kidded him about taking a nap because they heard him snoring away in his tent. Of course trip leaders don't take naps since they have infinite energy. So Sergio said that wasn't him. That someone else must have been snoring in his tent.
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