D262 - D279: Huayna Potosi to Sucre, Bolivia - 1 to 18 December 2012

Our expedition to Huayna Potosi with Altitude 6000 started early morning of D262. The group included Nico, Lisa, Paolo and Henning and me guided by Juancho, Wallis, Pollo and Tofi as our cook. The way up to Campo Bajo started from snowy flats passing through artificial lakes, abandoned mining villages with curious cemeteries and rose to majestic snow-capped peaks.

The cabana at Campo Bajo had a cosy dormitory and was serving our group delicious and nutritious meals customized for this altitude (4700m).

The afternoon plan of the day was to walk up to the glaciers and familiarize ourselves with the climate and the gear. This was the first time in my life when I had to wear crampons and pilots.

Walking with crampons was fine but the freaking out moment came when I had to climb up an almost 90 degree cliff using the first four spikes of the crampons and a pilot while I was tied to Wallis. All my body parts were shaking by the time I got on top of the cliff. Continuing we had to descend which was much easier for me as I have done it before at wall climbing. Once down I was calm and even tried to climb up almost to the top of the cliff with two technical pilots. This was the end of the practice from here we descended back to the camp.

During the night the first signs of the altitude sickness showed its signs in my body. My nostrils got extremely dry followed by headache despite drinking a lot of mate de coca (the best prevention remedy for altitude sickness).

Next morning (D263) ascended up to 5100m to Campo Alto through rocky paths and backed by dramatic mountains and glaciers. At some point during the walk I needed to stop as I was getting dizzy and losing balance. I feared falling into the steep ditch.

The Campo Alto had a basic bunk dormitory with the toilet constructed 50 m downhill. Getting down and up to the cabin from the toilet made my lungs to work big time. That evening we went to bed at 6 as we were supposed to start the walk at 1.

Just after midnight on D264 my head and stomach were not well and I could not eat much either even if I tried hard. It was snowing quite hard outside but despite this we still left at 1:30. I felt that not leaving the cabin was a good idea but despite this I gave it a try.

The first part of the uphill walking through fresh snow and dark over 5100m proved to be difficult to take. At around 5600m my body and lungs reached their limits and only my strong mental will was trying to push me forward. But I reached a point when I realized this is not fun anymore so I stopped. Juancho descended back with me to the Campo where I went back to sleep.

After the guys descended from the top exhausted and wrecked, we walked down to Campo Bajo to return to La Paz.

As it was my first time at this high altitude my objective was to enjoy the experience whatever happens. With the guidance of the professional, responsible and fun members of Altitude 6000 I achieved this. There is always a next time to try to reach 6000m in the snow. LOL!

Back in La Paz, D265 I spent visiting the Museo San Francisco hoping to have a nice view from the top of the tower, wandering around and said goodbye to Nico and my other agile hiking buddies. In the evening I took the overnight bus to Cochabamba.

The rain was pouring down when I arrived in Cochabamba shortly after 5 in the morning of D266. At this hour the staff members of the hotels that I checked were not in their friendliest mood at all as they rejected my request of seeing the room before committing to it. Eventually I ended up in Residencial Familiar where I slept a couple of hours before heading to explore the city. Cochabamba has a much milder climate than La Paz and it is famous for its tall Christ looming down from a hill. This day I paid a visit at the Museo Arqueologico checking the scary mummies displayed here.

The plan for D267 was to visit the famous Christ of Cochabamba by taking the teleferico. Once up the Christ was huge and the panoramic view of Cochabamba is pretty nice.

In the evening I squeezed myself through the hectic crowd at Terminal of Cochabamba to get my ticket to Santa Cruz, buy the 2.5 bolivianos for the terminal fee and then to check in my bag with Bolivar. People around here are not familiar with the meaning of the word queue. The bus ride despite its 12 hour duration was smooth and seemed quick enough.

By 9:30 of D268 I arrived in the chaotic Terminal Bimodal of Santa Cruz from where continued by taxi (20 bolivianos) to catch a trufi (7-seater colectivo) to Samaipata. Santa Cruz at first glance looked to be more modern with more European inhabitants than La Paz but was not interested to explore in depth. The three hour trip to Samaipata drove us through green hilly scenery. Once in Samaipata I had no idea which direction to head to find a hotel so I asked one of the passengers. He mentioned that he has a place and seeing the pretty white corner house with a lot of flowers where he got off I followed him. Vivero Sarita, the rustic garden house became my home for the next three nights.

Samaipata is the place to wind down, enjoy the perfect climate and explore the surrounding nature trails. My only plan here was to explore the Ruta del Che (reach the places related to Ernesto Che Guevara). Shortly after being in Samaipata I learned that this was difficult to achieve on my own without my own transportation. This left me no option just to find an agency providing this tour. After checking with many I was lucky to find a group of two wanting to do the same through a Dutch owned agency leaving the next morning. Me, the Che Guevara follower was happy bunny!!!

On D269 the Ruta del Che adventure started with Nina and Steve guided by Santiago, the Colombian artists temporarily leaving in Bolivia.

The first stop on the itinerary was Vallegrande famous for its tallest stone tower in Bolivia and also is the place where Che and his guerrillas were secretly buried by the Bolivian army.

In the back of the Hospital of Senor del Malta the lavanderia of Che can be found where Che lifeless body was washed and some of his death shots were taken. It was interesting enough to see the Cuban “5 volveran” propaganda painted on the side of the lavanderia. Cuba was full of them.

Next to this it is the morgue painted yellow with interesting wall paintings and writings. This also had a memorial plaque for his 45th anniversary from his death celebrated this year on the 9^th of October.

Just outside town at the airport, a memorial was built over the place where Che’s body and others were secretly buried and ultimately discovered in 1997. The same year the remains were sent back to the corresponding families for a proper burial. Most of the Cubans are buried in the Mausoleum of Santa Clara, Cuba.

Following this we drove to the next graveyard where eleven others bodies were found including Tania's. She was an Argentine - German woman who also died in a battle being the only female victim.

In the afternoon we took a peek at the small museum in the square that displays the story boards of the Bolivian guerrilla war and some replicas of the items of the guerrillas, testimonials of the people that encountered Che alive or dead. There was a German guy who was visiting Vallegrande at the time and took pictures of Che’s lifeless body :(.

The final destination of the day was La Higuera another two and half drive away through a dirt road seeing in the horizon the beautiful Cordillera Occidental and Rio Grande. On the way we stopped to take a picture at the stone beret of Che (Boina del Che).

Just before sunset we passed by Pucara where they were celebrating the Virgen Inmaculada Concepcion, the matron saint of the village. We stopped to take some pictures when a woman brought a litre of beer pouring into a glass for us to have a sip. It was so funny driving through this manic village with narrow and steep dirt roads in the middle of nowhere.

As we just entering La Higuera at around 7:30 in the evening a little girl welcomed us with a big grin and her father’s riffle. At first I did not realize that it was a gun as in my mind a little girl and a gun do not fit. It took me a few seconds to register. We spent the night in rustic and amazing old Casa de la Telegrafista where the rooms were candlelit with no electricity.

The adventure continued on D270 with a walk to Quebrada del Churo where the last battle took place. On the way we passed by the spots where three guerrillas were killed. Walking down in the Chaco forest was new experience seeing a lot of spikey trees and bushes, colourful Nina-ninas and beetles.

Just before reaching the place of the last battle some trees were turned over and all of us had to become Tarzan or Jane climbing on them to pass through.

A round stone star memorial is placed here to mark this sad event.

From here we walked 5 minutes along the Quebrado del Churo to see the bullet holes from the battle. Once out of from the banks of the creek we ended in a potato plantation of a local farmer. I noticed that this charismatic elderly guy had properly cracked heels shielded by muddy sandals similar to the Mallorcanas. Now I know from where the idea of Mallorcanas originates from.

Once back in the village we walked to the main square decorated with three Che statues. These were inaugurated in three different occasions the first one being the small head in the middle, the next the golden full statue and the last the badly made silver bust on the side.

Next we dropped into the new school which walls were painted with Che related profiles, quotes. There was a particularly interesting painting the contour of his face filled with colourful palm prints from Bolivian and Argentine pupils and teachers.

In the old school of La Higuera, Che and two others was executed. The old school was demolished since then but a new one was rebuilt which serves as a museum displaying a few replicas and only two original items from the old school a door and three benches.

After lunch we headed back to Samaipata through again the dramatic scenery spotting an amazing rainbow and some cloud-forest clouds covering our horizon.

D271 spent chilling in the little gem of Samaipata leaving the next day (D272) to San Jose del Chiquitos via Santa Cruz. San Jose de Chiquitos, is one of the towns on the Jesuit Missionary circuit situated in a flatter west area of Bolivia. Here I checked into Hotel El Patriarca on the big green plaza backed by a long yellow majestic Jesuit church.

The architecture of the church is quite interesting, different from the ones that I have been seeing the last 9 months.

On D273 I was disappointed to learn that I missed the bus to San Rafael and the next one would be at midnight. I had no choice just but to waste time around this not so interesting town in the middle of nowhere. To make time past faster I visited the museum in the building of the church, sat at a bench in two different parks, chatted to a charismatic English lady who came to Bolivia to spread God’s words as part of Jehovah’s witnesses. At midnight I was really ready to move on.

The exploration of the Jesuit missionary circuit continued in San Rafael de Velasco in the early morning of D274. The style of the church differed from the one in San Jose in size and height.

The clean and pretty village of San Miguel de Velasco followed.

After waiting two hours for a trufi in San Miguel I reached San Ignacio de Velasco which seemed bigger and busier town with dirt roads. The main plaza with the church was reined by tranquillity and peace.

Next I travelled five hours through green flats to reach Concepcion. This proved to be another pleasant and peaceful village with one of the prettiest main plaza and row of Jesuit buildings including the church, bell tower and museum.

The last destination of the missionary circuit of the day was San Xavier de Velasco, a small and busy village on the main road to Santa Cruz. Here I stayed overnight in the friendly Alojamento El Tulichi.

In the morning of D275 I popped into the Casa Natal de German Busch, a Bolivian president born in the house and I strolled around village in the mist. After this I took a bus to Santa Cruz continuing to Sucre.

The 14 hours overnight trip to Sucre was a real Bolivian experience. The landscape transformed from the flats of Santa Cruz to green mountains with curvy dirt roads backed up by screaming music throughout the night, the different human odours and the sound of people’s humming. On top of that a charismatic local woman who sat beside me occupied a quarter of my seat and releasing a huge amount of body heat leaving me restless in my small intimate space. We stopped in Mainara to use the toilet as in Bolivia the buses do not have toilets or if they have one they lock it. The toilet cubicle here was so small that I had problem keeping the balance on my tiptoes with my small backpack and holding a door with one hand. What a comedy!

At 7 in the morning of the D276 finally we reached in Sucre, the white capital of Bolivia. Shortly after, I crashed into the bed at Hotel Charpas.

Following this I wandered around the hilly and white streets of this beautiful gem of a city. Definitely is one of the prettiest cities in the Bolivia so far. Later on I watched Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and met up with Nina and Steve at their Alojameniento.

On the D277 I travelled to the nearby Tarabuco, a village famous for its Sunday market but in my opinion its diverse inhabitants are more than interesting and curious than the small and repetitive displays of the artisanal stalls. Plus I disliked that the local sellers were quite pushy and sometimes acted like the poor victims. Back in Sucre in the evening I enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by the lovely Nina and Steve washed down by a not-too-bad at all bottle of Bolivian Cabernet Sauvignon. Sweet!

Lately I have been on a move a lot and I am quite wrecked. The plan for D278 and D279 was to chill, stroll up and down the narrow streets with washed houses, enjoying the beautiful view of Sucre from Mirador Recoleta and hanging out with Nina and Steve. Sucre is the right spot to wind down chill. Tomorrow is another day, I will be continuing to the tragic Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4067m.