chacaltaya
once the novelty of being in the highest capital city in the world wears off la paz actually doesn´t have that much to offer as a place in its own right. too hilly and oxygen light to mill around in comfort and with frankly limited rewards for any wandering managed on offer, it isn´t with a particularly heavy heart that we are off to uyuni tonight.of course whilst the city itself is a grimy collation of hardware stores and stray dogs it´s hard to argue with the impressiveness of its location, a location which facilitated our trip up to chacaltaya, a 5,400m peak which would be a monster almost anywhere else in the world but actually plays the role of kid brother to its exalted 6000m+ neighbours.
having stopped to wander around the valley of the moon, a craggy landscape of clay spires with lunar pretensions, we headed on to chalcataya. bumpy and dusty though the road may have been, it was still considerably easier to lurch in our van to 5,300m than by any other means, but it was the walk up the final 100m of altitude which was the real delight, as we breathlessly scrambled up the shale slope surrounded by massive white peaks on every side, bizarre multicoloured lagoons peppering the floor far below. having made it up the first climb we espied a second summit directly behind and, buoyed by a sudden acclimatisation to the absurd altitude, we continued our travails to be rewarded with further views of the glacier ridden peaks of the cordillera real towering over the cloud cover which seeemed to start somewhere near their bases. all in all a spectacular day, which only photos can really do justice, and an excellent farewell to la paz and its environs before heading south towards chile.
posted by bicrom @ 7:37 pm
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