Bolivia, January 2005

My brother, Chris, and I spent a few weeks in Bolivia touring around,
adventuring, climbing easy peaks, and getting acclimated for climbing
Aconcagua.

     
We blew through La Paz and spent a couple of days in Sucre (a very nice town) before heading to Potosi. At 13,300 feet it is the highest city in the world. The silver mines in Cerro Rico ("Rich Mountain") bankrolled the Spanish Empire for about 300 years. Mining is still active. Over several days we hiked up Cerro Rico (15,800 feet), did the very cool mine tour, and did some exploratory hiking near town, including ascents of Cerro Masoni (16,400 feet) and Cerro Illimani (16,500 feet). (These links are to Chris' reports and photos on www.summitpost.org)

Cerro Rico, 15,800 ft	Chris on the summit of Cerro Rico	Dynamite demo	Gifts for the miners

Hiking near Potosi

Cerro Maroni, 16,400 ft

Cerro Illimani, 16,500 ft

Friendly llama

Next we took a "flota" (chicken bus) to Uyuni and negotiated a 7-day custom tour of the southwest altiplano including the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. Since it was the wet season the salt flat, which averages roughly 80 miles across, was covered with 2-3 inches of water. Surreal.

Near Uyuni	Salar de Uyuni	Surreal!	A dry spot on the salar

     

We tried to climb Volcan Tunupa (17,800 feet), but due to terrible visibility, snow, and zero knowledge of the route we only got to around 17,000 feet. Still, a neat climb.

Basic accomodations	Celebration in "town"	On Tunupa	Bail out

     

Isla de la Pescadores	San Juan	Stopped to pull him out	Laguna Hedionda

     

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