The astonishing mountains surrounding La Paz fall under the name of Cordillera Real. There are 8 peaks above 6000mt, the highest of them being the llampu at 6485mt, the most famous being the Illimani at 6462mt and the easiest to climb being the Huayna Potosi at 6088.
Here some images taken from Huayna Potosi and the Nevado Condoriri:
Huayna Potosi
According to wikipedia the Huayna Potosi is the easiest 6000+ mt mountain to climb. It is indeed not very difficult, except for the end, although at 6000 your legs don’t answer properly and your lungs struggle to get some oxygen. The climb can be done in two days, first day from campo base to campo alto (5130 mt) and second day a 5 to 7 hours climb up to the top. Now, that’s what people normally say, in reality if you have a good pace you can climb from campo Alto in less than 3 hours. I had to slowdown during the climb to avoid arriving too early at the top, which is actually what happened; at 5.30 I was contemplating the stars in the sky and the lights of La Paz almost 3 kilometers below me. At 6.48 the sun finally rose and I could see more clearly the amazing landscape before me. The descent can also be done in less than 2 hours and except for the top and a couple of crevasses is pretty easy.
Here’s a short video from the top, the sun was still not over the horizon so it’s a bit dark:
Condoriri
The nevado Condoriri is house of several rewarding climbs and beatiful landscape, I trekked a couple of days from Lago Tuni (4400mt) to Zongo (~3300), passing through peaks at about 5200 in order to acclimatize before the climb to Huayna Potosi.
Here’s a small video showing the major peaks, taken from almost the top of Cerro Jallaco (5230).
Now it’s time to move at lower altitudes 
Published on
August 4, 2010 in
Bolivia and Travel Writing.
Tags: bolivia, drinks, ernesto cavour, food, la paz, language, market, music, parade, safety, transports, travel.
Of course you didn’t, it’s not a place that you can actually visit, but it looks like there are four of them, somewhere around La Paz.
According to the legend, an elephant’s graveyard is a place where all elderly elephants, once feeling that their life was coming to an end, directed in order to die far from the group.
Continue reading ‘Did you visit the elephants graveyard in La Paz ?’
I was sitting inside this restaurant in La Paz watching outside the window a ten years old kid polishing the shoes of a man for a couple of pesos; then another kid of about the same age entered the restaurant with his family and started to take pictures everywhere with its new digital camera.
Contrast between rich and poor is nothing new but it’s never been so clear to me as it is in Bolivia. The president, Evo Morales, although of indigenous origins, seem to have turned his back on native people who accounts for about 70% of the total population.
He is actually transforming himself into a little dictator, as it’s now almost 6 years that he’s leading the country, placing his men as mayors of the most important cities and trying to be elected again (he changed the law to be able to be elected more than two consecutive times).
Continue reading ‘Teach yourself Bolivia in 5 minutes’
This years is a year of big celebrations in Argentina as it marks the 200th year since its independence.
So much time, but such a fragile nation. Argentina has been taken down several times last century, by the Great Depression and by the frequent coup d’etats. Then it was the turn of the military dictatorship and the guerra sucia and finally the difficult transition to democracy led by disastrous and heavily corrupted presidents like Carlos Menem that precipitated the country to the economic collapse.
Continue reading ‘Bicentenario en Salta’
Before traveling through Argentina I had the misconception that the best scenery could be found in Patagonia.
I’m not saying the north is better as that is a matter of taste.
Here some pictures taken in the north of Argentina, precisely between Amaicha del Valle and Salta . The first is a small and dusty village of few thousands people and 360 days of sun, the second is one of the biggest cities in the north, not far from the bolivian and chilean border.
I’ll post more pictures in the next days.
