On July 1st, 2016 Andy and Dani (hereby known as Dandy) quit their engineering jobs in Seattle, WA to get married and travel the world. This is their story.
South of Nevados de
Chillan is Corralco, a ski area situated on a massive volcano – it would be our
home for the next week and consequently the last week of our year-long adventure.
On the drive we stocked up on groceries (primarily peanut butter) at the Jumbo grocery
story, which is a mega store which could be described as the child of papa Wal-Mart
(but higher quality) and mama Ikea (without all the furniture, but with the
awesome cafeteria). Once in Corralco, we settled into our “chalet”, which was
really just a cabin, relaxed, and did some research for the rest of the evening.
We took our time in
the next morning since it was a storm day. If you are a skier you know how
crazy that sounds: the snow is falling, fresh pow ready for the taking, and we
are taking our time… only in Chile. On a Chilean snow day you can count on the
resort being closed, which was exactly right. To be fair, it was also very
windy. Regardless, that morning was our first glimpse of the area, and wow was
it beautiful. Surrounded by unique trees in the parking area, the view up to
the vast bald (treeless) cone-like volcano was spectacular. After discovering
that none of the side roads were ripe for exploring thanks to mother nature, we
went back into town and found ourselves at Termas Manzanar hot springs where we
soaked for a couple hours.
After an unsuccessful
day of skiing (or not skiing) on our first full day, the rest of our time at
Corralco was exceptional. From the top of the resort, the views were seemingly
endless with scattered volcanic peaks as far as you could see. We spent the
next two days skiing the resort. Our first day in-bounds there was a freeride
competition which was entertaining to watch, but made the lift lines a little
long. Andy didn’t help matters by falling on the T-bar a few times – apparently
T-bars are hard for slow-boarders booohooo. On the 2nd day, we
decided to summit Longuimay volcano. From the top of the resort we boot packed
up to quickly find ourselves in a pretty precarious situation on an icy ridge
with a long slide to both sides. I chickened out because I am a complete wuss
when it comes to traction (boohoo) and Andy and Matt continued up. The boot
pack was a slog (so I hear), taking about 2 hours to reach the summit. I definitely
wish I would have had crampons with me because I am sure the view from the top
was unreal… not to mention the REALLY long epic run down to the base of the
resort.
Hot springs, cabin fever, and Corralco.
That evening back at
the cabin, we learned the sad news that Andy’s family dog, Cocoa (a fun-loving brown
lab that always found a way to make everyone laugh) would be put down the next
morning. After saying his goodbye’s over the phone, we turned in early, all a
little somber. The next day, about the same time as Cocoa was being put to
sleep, we had a visitor at the cabin door - an old black lab! She came straight up to Andy
and wanted pets and belly rubs. It is as if she knew that her presence was
exactly what he needed.
Cabin dogs and skiing.
We toured about 3-hours
up the SE face of Lonquimay on our last ski day in Chile. It felt good to
stretch our legs and breathe in the perfect blue-bird day after an emotional
night and morning. We topped out at about 8000 ft. and had a nice long run down
to the bottom on mostly champagne powder. No better way to end the trip!
That night we started
making our way back to Santiago. We splurged for the night at a super cool dome
yurt-cabin combo. Except for having to scrap together all the USD and CLP we
had left to pay for the dome since apparently, they didn’t take credit cards
(oops), the trip back to the US was uneventful.
Party lap on our last day of skiing in Chile and the cabin-yurt on the way back to Santiago.
It was bittersweet
to be heading home. The last year had pushed us to our breaking points, been
beyond words rewarding, and forever changed us for the better. I cannot lie and
say we weren’t looking forward to being re-united with Tucker, eating
accessible fresh food without worrying about Montezuma’s revenge, and squishing
our toes into carpet (who knew we would miss carpet so much). It wasn’t over
though, after all, this trip was only the beginning of “Dandy’s Grand Adventure.”
After about a 400 km
drive south from Santiago, we arrived in Chillian where we finished our errands
before heading to Las Trancas / Nevados de Chillan where we would spend the
next week. Matt had to use the WiFi for work while Andy and I finished grocery
shopping and sorted out the sim card for the phone (not an easy process with
lots of driving around to different places and guessing what the locals were
saying, but perseverance won).
It was snowing by
the time we reached the AirBnB – good omen for the week to come! The cabin was
a quaint little A-frame in the woods with a loft, loved it! The only thing that
was not ideal was the sim card – which turns out did not provide service at the
cabin. Can’t win them all.
For the next 8 days,
we settled into a blissful routine: get up early, gear up, head to the mountains,
ski until exhausted, return to the cabin, drink Chilean wine, eat, enjoy
friendship, sleep, repeat. There was only one exception to the routine: when it
snowed so much that we couldn’t get the car out and ended up drinking wine all
day instead of just in the evening.
The routine. Top right photo shows when we ran out of wine on the snow day. The photo directly underneath proves that cutting onions with goggles works like a charm!
I cannot emphasize
enough how epic the skiing was! I never thought I would say this, but my only
complaint (which is kind of a big one) was that there was “too much snow and not
enough people.” Only in Chile would this be a problem. No matter how much it
snows, the employees start work at the same time – opening time for the resort
of course. They do not show up early to clear the lifts and start the chair turning,
no NO, they show up at 9am (when the resort opens) and moze around contemplating
working. With so much snow and not enough people to justify the effort of clearing
the lifts, not much work was actually accomplished and on many occasions we
found ourselves agitated and waiting around for hours (with about a dozen other
westerners) while we waited for the lifts to start. This only happened on “Chile
time” and, because the avalanche danger was so high, backcountry skiing was out
of the question on the best powder days.
Touring Nevados de Chillan. Note the fully buried, inoperable lift.
Skiing the resort.
Speaking of avalanches…
on day 4 we experienced probably the
most terrifying 2-hours of our ski careers (or lack of careers – we are not
that good). We were riding up the t-bar near the top of the resort when Andy
and Matt saw a snowboarder trigger an avalanche on an out-of-bounds slope to
the left of the t-bar. Three snowboarders had been cutting a heavily loaded
slope which led directly into a decent sized gully (in this case terrain trap).
The thing Andy and Matt saw was the slope give way, dropping about 3 feet of
snow on top of the 3rd snowboarder who fell and was dragged down
below sight line. All four of us (Scott, our new Australian friend included) quickly
made our way to the gully which was now completed buried in avalanche debris. Since
we knew the avalanche danger was very high that day, all of us were wearing avalanche
beacons and carried shovels and probes. We quickly got to work, yelling up to
other skiers on the t-bar to tell ski patrol! We soon discovered that none of
the snowboarders were wearing active beacons and the clock was ticking to
uncover the buried group. Ski patrol responded surprisingly fast and soon we
had about 40 people including ski patrol, resort staff, and a handful of
tourists with avalanche training probing the vast debris field hoping to find a
person and not a body. Ten, 20, 30 minutes past and the hope for survival was
lessening by the minute. Adrenaline was running VERY high and the work was
absolutely exhausting. To make matters worse the probes were too short to reach
the bottom of the snow field and eventually a pit was dug near where the snowboarder
was last seen and we began to make our way up the debris field hoping to get
lucky. After an hour and a half of probing and digging, ski patrol was alerted
on their radios that the snowboarders had been found having a beer in the lodge.
Apparently, they had ridden the avalanche out, narrowly missing being buried,
and decided not to tell anybody. The angle of the slope/gully made it so that
it was impossible to see down and know this from the t-bar. Although we were
obviously relieved and it was great practical training, I NEVER want to experience
anything like that again. Ski patrol invited us to join them for a celebration
beer and meal which we did, but our day of skiing was over. It took most of the
evening for our heart rates to return to their new normal (likely about 10 bpm
higher than that morning).
Avalanche "recovery"
We ended up touring 4
days and skiing the resort 3 days at Nevados de Chillan – although in full
disclosure, some of the touring days were actually side country (the resort
sold cheap freeride tickets for a single lift up and you could tour from the
top of the lifts). The highlight tour
was to a hot springs in a massive valley below the iconic Chillan Volcano. We
had actually intended to climb the volcano, but as we were waiting for Scott,
we looked up and the volcano farted – ash and smoke filled the air around the top
and we were quickly convinced that a change of plans was in order. We skinned
from the top of the resort up and over into a large valley with a natural hot
springs that we could not find. With the help of some other skiers, we eventually
found the small hot stream buried in 10+ feet of snow. The water was not deep enough
to get in, but we confirmed it was warm and ate lunch before returning out of
hot springs valley. The climb out was exhausting with crazy winds at the top.
Rather than ski the route we were hoping to, we traversed through the wind and
exposed rocks to ski the icy resort down to the car. The whole way down we kept
saying how sticky our skis felt, turns out the volcanic ash from the morning’s flatulating
caused ash to become one with the wax on our bases. I can now confirm, 2 years
later, that the ash is very difficult to get out of the base of your skis.
Getting to Santiago was
a pleasant 2-day journey – for once I am not being sarcastic. We relaxed in
Sucre in the morning, drank some lemonade, read a book, and eventually caught
the local bus to the airport. From Sucre we flew to Cochabamba for a quick
layover and then on to La Paz for our last night in Bolivia. After some quick pretty
typical taxi drama, we made it to Host San Sebastian, a home stay on El Alto
with a really nice local owner that chatted with us for a while and brought us fruit
and coca tea before bed!
Before leaving for the
airport yet again, our host prepared breakfast complete with an entire carafe
of strong coffee which Andy happily went to town on. It wasn’t until the host
came in a few minutes later and looked at Andy with a shocked horrified
expression, that he realized that the coffee was actually coffee concentrate,
meant to be watered down. Andy had finished the entire carafe and the home
owner called him “loco”. We all had a good laugh!
After an uneventful flight,
we settled into an airport hotel in Santiago, worked out at the “gym”, watched
Goldfinger in Spanish, sat in the sauna, and ate an expensive hotel restaurant
dinner of gnocchi and chocolate flan – all around a pretty decent couple days
of travel.
Now that our travels
to Chile were complete, we returned to the airport… to pick up Matt and the
rental car! Matt found us easily with our awesome welcome sign, the rental car
pickup went smoothly, and before we knew it we were off to the Vega Central
market. At the market, we learned very quickly that Chilean Spanish is not Spanish
at all, it is a crazy unintelligible language that sounds nothing like Spanish
(okay… technically it is Spanish, but you would never know it). I could not even
understand numbers to know how much the produce cost – I literally opened my
hand of money and they grabbed the coins. They understood what I said just fine,
but it was like starting all over again learning the language. Anyway, I think
they were honest and the market was awesome with so many amazing food choices! Since
we are staying at AirBnB’s for the next 2 weeks, we stocked up before hitting
the road south to Chillian for some POW!
After setting a fast past since Lima in mid-July, we decided
to slow down and spend an entire week in Sucre. We ended up ditching the first
homestay after finding ourselves disgusted by the cleanliness and asking
ourselves the question, “Why we were continuing to slum it when we were way
under budget, tired of the struggle, and finishing the trip in less than a
month?” The homestay was also a 20-minute walk into the city and get this, up
hill both ways! So, instead, we more than doubled our accommodation cost and
landed in a ridiculously nice apartment in the center of town. So worth it!
Roaming around Sucre.
More roaming around Sucre.
Sucre is a beautiful city with lots of tourist infrastructure,
so naturally, being burnt out as we were, we spent a good majority of our time
there watching Game of Thrones. We also managed to tear ourselves away long
enough to eat some really amazing food, see the sites around the city, and take
the local bus to a dinosaur park with thousands of dinosaur footprints embalmed
(strange choice of words I realize) in a giant wall – super cool! We also
walked up Cerro Sica Sica where we found no view whatsoever, took a cooking
class, and toured the Basilica San Francisco.
Food in Sucre
Super fun dinosaur park with so many dino footprints!
Beauty of Sucre!
The paragraph above makes us sound busier than we really
were. We did, however, spent a good bit of time getting some R&R in the
form of massages, haircuts, and reading. The massage was going really well
until I was completely convinced that the man issuing the massage was
purposefully placing his testicles in my hand, which was lying face up on the
table while I was face down. If only I had learned the Spanish phrase for, “Can
you please stop putting your balls in my hand.” I might have been able to avoid
being stiff as a board for the rest of the massage. Even though we sought out the
fanciest looking “salon”, my haircut was also an epic fail. The hairdresser
literally clumped my dry hair together, chopped it 3 times, and then said she
was done. Again, a well-practiced Spanish sentence which said something along
the lines of, “Excuse me, but you just butchered my hair and I do not think
this is worth $10. Also, I think you are scamming me,” could have really come
in handy. Instead, I left in shame, had a good cry after, and wore my hair up
until we returned to the US, where it took 2 haircuts and 6 months to be pseudo
normal again. While my hair looked like I got it caught in a lawnmower, Andy
had a very successful haircut and shave… good for him. As for the reading: We
were seeking a quiet place to read and enjoy the weather, when we landed at the
cemetery. It was actually really nice until we became inescapably aware that
this was indeed a cemetery where dead people live. Our realization came in the
form of a MASSIVE congregation wailing in grief as they buried their loved one
right next to where we were reading… we left as soon as we could weed our way
through flow of bereaved Catholics.
Since we would return to the US without insurance, we also
took this opportunity to get some quality Bolivian medical care. You think I am
kidding, but no, it was actually fantastic (except the organization and confusion
about providing samples and picking up results, that was kind of ridiculous). We
wandered into what we thought was a clinic, but turned out to be an Emergency
Room at the hospital. Since we were clearly tourists and the locals are
insanely helpful (and very curious), the ER allowed us to be emitted for
physicals. The only catch – it would cost us $2 each. We guiltily cut the line
of waiting, actually sick, patients, and saw the doctor. Although the doc spoke
no English, he was thorough, surmised that Andy had a stomach infection, and
ordered a full set of blood, stool, and urine lab work for both of us. The next
morning, we arrived to return the now full stool and urine sample cups and get
blood drawn. What we did not realize is that blood is only drawn between very
limited hours very early in the morning and we had missed the deadline. They
graciously took our feces and pee though. We ended up returning the next
morning and without issue got the blood drawn. If you know me well, you know I
am terrified of needles, but they guy that took my blood was hands down the
best I have ever had. I barely even felt it and he distracted me perfectly.
Thanks Bolivian vampire! The results came back a few days later (which we
figured out through multiple rounds of trial and error) and although we
struggled to understand them, all seemed healthy except that the doc was right,
Andy had a e-coli and was prescribed targeted antibiotics (they had even run the
test to figure out which antibiotics would be most effective). The entire
hospital adventure cost us less than $35 total for 2 people. My cholesterol is
great by the way, thanks for asking.
We reluctantly left Sucre … stop over in La Paz … off to
Chile for ski-cation!
Yet another bus ride down and we had arrived in Potosi where
we started by wandering for 20 minutes (all uphill) trying to locate our
AirBnB. We eventually met the owners who showed us around a real American style
apartment equipped with a full kitchen! Woohoo!
In addition to being one of the highest cities in the world
at 13,420 ft (4090 m), Potosi is well-known for the nearby Cerro de Potosi (aka
Cerro Rico – Rich Mountain) – a mountain which has been mined (in atrocious
conditions) for silver and other precious metals since the mid-1500’s. An
astounding estimated 8 million slaves and workers have died throughout the
mine’s history. Although we had conflicting feelings about supporting tourism
in an active mine with continued deplorable conditions, curiosity got the
better of us and after settling in at the AirBnB we went out to attempt to book
a tour with an organization that supported miners and their families. Although
the first place we tried was owned by an ex-miner, we came into an awkward
situation when he aggressively told us to keep our minds open and not push our
beliefs of feminism on him or the people of Bolivia. Funny thing was that we
never said anything remotely touching on the subject of feminism, we were only
asking if he had a tour available the next day. Offended and more than a little downtrodden about my gender’s obvious inadequacies (it is taking everything I have not to get into a full blown rant here), we moved on and eventually settled
on a different tour company.
Pictures from around Potosi.
Cerro de Potosi.
We met our tour the next morning, got geared up, bought some
“gifts” for the miners, and drove to the opening of the mine. The options for
“gifts” included dynamite, detonators for said dynamite, 96% alcohol (the drink
of choice in the mine), tobacco/coca/orange cigarettes (the smoke of choice in
the mine), or coca leaves (the chew of choice in the mine). The mine tour
lasted a few shocking hours. It is hard to put into words the conditions - dark
confined spaces often too small to stand upright, very poor air quality, and
visible asbestos leaching out of the wet walls of the caverns. It is no wonder
that every corner is marked by shrines to Tio, the devil that rules the
mountain and the mines. Justifiably so, superstitions (including women
underground being bad luck) and drug/alcohol abuse seem to be the coping
mechanism used by the workers. Fair to say we were glad for the experience, but
even more glad to see the light of day again afterwards.
Preparing to go into the mine.
Cerro de Potosi y Tio.
Back at the apartment we set on a quest to cook black beans
at high elevation - It took over 6 hours. After relaxing, chatting with Anita
(the AirBnB owner who was nice enough to buy and drop off our bus tickets), and
eating mostly cooked black bean burritos, we turned in for the night. The next
morning, we departed on the bus to Sucre: our last stop in Bolivia.
Sweet sweet showers! Tupiza was amazing, don’t get me wrong,
but one of the highlights of Tupiza was the shower at Hostal Butch Cassidy. In
addition to the awesome name, the hot water was flowing and the staff was on
top of things. Within a few hours of our arrival they took our laundry to be
washed, set us up with horseback riding tours for the next day, and in secret
(at my request) ordered Andy a massive tres leches cake from a local bakery for
his birthday the following day – all while we were enjoying scrubbing off the
filth from the previous 5-day jeep tour.
On Andy’s big day he was spoiled with a birthday card signed
by our whole soccer team back in Seattle courtesy of Lisa and an external
battery pack from Brandon! We have the BEST friends! From the hotel, he got a
bottle of wine to celebrate, and from his wife (yours truly) he got my presence
for his whole life and a cake… in all seriousness, I got him nothing. In my
defense, living out of a backpack does not lend itself well to material
possessions so I went with the gift of epic experiences.
After breakfast, the crew took off for horse trekking in the
desert-scape surrounding Tupiza. The variety of landscapes in Bolivia is
astounding – over the past week, we experienced jungle, salt-flats, high
altitude wasteland, geothermal and volcanic activity, river-lands, and finally
wild wild west desert. After arriving at the stables, the guide instructed us
to deck ourselves out in western wear – chaps, cowboy hats, and bandannas (which
turned out to be clutch against the dust). Now cowboys and cowgirls, we mounted
our steeds and rode off into the sunset (well not that last part – it was
mid-morning and some of us had never ridden a horse before). The ride was
spectacular!... although we quickly learned that riding a horse for multiple
hours is less than comfortable. We visited Canon del Duende, Los Machos, Canon
del Inco, and Puerta del Diablo. Even in the desert, the scenery was diverse!
Back at the hotel and a handful of birthday calls later, we made our way to an
Italian place in town for dinner. Cake, cards, and craft Bolivian beers before
bed rounded out the day.
Horse trekking around Tupiza.
Desert landscape.
More pictures of horse trekking and desert... you get the idea.
The next morning, we said goodbye to our friends. Our time
with Brandon and Lisa was truly one of the most memorable parts of the entire
trip. It was sad to see them go. After a good cry, we got to work planning,
logging, blogging, backing up photos, and binge watching Game of Thrones. After
a jam packed Peru and Bolivia, it felt good to sit around and do nothing for a
day. In the evening, we dragged ourselves away from the computer to buy bus
tickets. Perhaps it was the less than subliminal messaging from the bus ticket
ladies who continuously screamed “Potosi, Potosi, Potosi, Potosiiiiiiiiiiii,”
but we decided to go to Potosi.
After a long delay standing on the street corner wondering
if we had missed the bus or were in the wrong place, our chariot arrived and we
were on our way. In good news, the long wait gave us time to scope out a worthy
recipient for the mini soccer ball we had purchased as a sand flats prop. The
young boy we gave it to had been shyly working on the streets selling
cool-aid-esque drinks. When we gave him the ball, he stared at it for several
minutes before a massive grin developed on his face. For the hour after, he did
not play with the ball, but instead neglected his selling duties, to hold and
stare happily at it. It felt good to do something nice, but his reaction was
also a bit gut wrenching. Moments like that make you truly remember how lucky
you are. We could all do a better job of appreciating and cherishing what we
have.
Birthday, goodbye, and spreading the joy of "football"
The 5-day jeep tour through western Bolivia was indisputably
one of the highlights of the entire trip! Our journey began in Uyuni. As is the
case when we arrived in almost any new city, we began by being ripped off at
the airport for a $10, 5-min. taxi ride (yes, yes, you’re thinking – not
terrible from the airport: well, keep in mind that this equates to about their
average daily income – made in 5 minutes. Where can I find a job like that?!).
We then settled into the hotel and were instantly faced with a problem that
would plague our trip … It was FREEEEEZING! Not just outside, but inside too.
Arguably it was colder inside. We mentioned this to the hotel owner and he graciously
installed a giant propane heater, made for outdoor use, in our little room. Carbon monoxide poisoning
anyone? We were too afraid of going to sleep and not waking up that we turned
it off and gritted out the night in extra layers.
Uyuni's wonderful indoor heating and interesting tourist headgear
The next morning, after an appetizing stale breakfast, we
met our driver and guide, Luis Alberto, and his wife and the chef, Noemi. Although
Noemi was quite shy, we had a great time joking around and practicing our Spanish
with Luis (He did not speak any English). My conversations with him were mostly
him laughing at me – I’m not sure why. The first stop in our journey was the Railroad
Museum, which was really just a junkyard for old trains. We had a blast exploring
and playing on all the train shells – Andy for academic reasons, Brandon for
the unique graffiti, and Lisa and I because it was an adult playground! Before
leaving we attempted a jumping photo, the failed attempts were hilarious!
Train jumping. Luckily, my face-plant was just out of the camera's view. We also spared Lisa the embarrassment of posting the first series of photos - oh the terror of jumping off a 2-3 foot platform onto flat ground.
Turns out train graveyards are pretty cool!
After prying ourselves away from the least popular
attraction on the trip, we stopped at an artisan market (aka tourist trap)
where we stocked up on some warmer clothes before driving to the Salar de Uyuni
(famous salt flats in Bolivia)!!!! It was astounding – the texture of the salt,
the pure white color, the vastness, the flatness, none of us had ever seen
anything like it! While Naomi made lunch at the Hotel de Sal at the Dakar
Monument (Salt hotel at the Dakar car racing monument), we went out onto the
sand flats, played soccer, and attempted some play-on-depth photos. It turns
out these photos are much harder than we expected – fail.
Just a few of our salt flat photos. The "Flags of Many Nations" at the Dakar Monument did not include a US flag. Going out on a limb and assuming that our missing flag and the hassle at the border crossing are related...
After lunch, we drove through the endless expanse to Incahuasi (house of Inca) which was a small hill rising out of the salt flats populated with lots and lots of cacti and featuring an incredible view from the top! Did you know that there is such a thing as cactus wood?! Mind blown! Next stop was a deserted spot in the salt for picture fun! With all of his experience, Luis was quite the photographer, so we handed over our cameras and spent several hours coming up with creative hilarious photos and one epic video (not shown are the 5+ outtakes which were highly unsuccessful for various reasons). Our last stop for the night was another deserted location to watch the sun go down. So beautiful, but also very cold so while Andy, Brandon, and Lisa toughed it out, I hung with Luis and Noemi in the car and watched from the window. The hotel for the night was incredible! It was made entirely of salt! Unfortunately, we were doing the traditional route in reverse, so what we did not realize at the time was that this was a HUGE step up from the places we were slated to stay for the next 3-nights.
The vastness and the flatness
The textures (and views) at Incahuasi were stellar!
Oh hey! More staple salt flat tourist photos! (note: we still don't care that everyone does these, they're hilarious!)
Sunset on the salt flats was alien and ethereal.
On the 2nd day of the tour, we visited a bunch of names of places that would mean nothing to you – and honestly nothing to me anymore 10 months later as I write this post. The takeaway message is that Bolivia is astoundingly beautiful and diverse. We visited lagoons brimming with flamingos (my favorite of which being Laguna Colorado – not just for the name), crazy rock formations, and viewpoints for some incredible scenery. In the late afternoon, Andy’s health took a turn for the worse. After arriving at the hotel, he spent the rest of the evening in fitful fever induced sleep with stomach pains and a symptom we were very familiar with at this point: nausea.
Surprisingly, for such a desolate place, there is a ton of wildlife in the area. A viscacha is shown in the top left, flamingos in the top right, and llamas in the center (which are admittedly not wild - the ear tassels are a dead giveaway).
So many flamingos! Don't worry, there are more pictures of them below also 😊
Our lunch spot on the second day was awesome!
Laguna Colorado - one of the top highlights of the whole trip!
The next morning, Andy’s symptoms were worse, but he dragged himself away from the bathroom and we continued on our way. We stopped at a geyser area where Luis balanced a full bottle of water in a steam vent! Standing on top of the active hydrothermal area may have been the only time I was warm for the entire trip – well there and at the hot springs that we visited later in the day. We also stopped at several more small salt flats and lagunas, each unique from the rest. Unfortunately, as the day progressed, so did Andy’s symptoms. By the time we arrived at the town where we would spend the night, he was desperate for medical attention. Luckily, there was a small clinic in town. The doctor(??) administered a few intravenous shots, told Andy he was too skinny and had a weak stomach, and told me that I look like a model. He was pretty great. Overall, we were impressed by the knowledge and sterile equipment at the clinic (not that the clinic itself was sterile, but at least the needle was new). As a side note to this scary experience, it again highlighted our need to brush up on medical terms in Spanish. Besides gleaning that Andy had a stomach infection, his actually diagnosis and what shots were administered remains a mystery. Whatever the shots were, they worked because 4-hours of sleep later, Andy felt well enough to have some soup and get beat at cards before turning in for our coldest night on the tour. Andy’s fever at least served the purpose of making him feel warm while the rest of us froze.
The thermal activity was a nice surprise to see at 15,000+ft!
Just a couple of the countless other lagunas that we saw, along with a borax mine, emus, and a sick Andy, snug as a bug in a rug.
Andy’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous. The next day, we woke up at 4am and climbed Uturunku volcano up to 19,725 ft. Andy ascended the mountain like a champ, while Lisa made it to her typical 17,000 ft elevation and lost her breakfast (also like a champ). The true champion though was our 70-year old guide that has climbed the mountain over 600 times in the last 5-years (sometimes 2x/day) and whooped all of us. The human powered ascent was actually only about 2,200 feet of walking since we drove from about 14,000 to 17,594ft and climbed the rest of the way. The view from the top was spectacular and we all surprised ourselves at how manageable climbing to 20,000 ft is when you’ve been sleeping at or around 14,000 feet for the past couple weeks. Unfortunately, our guide chose to take the most direct route off the volcano. I will concede that sliding down an active landslide is faster, but is it safer? Back at the hotel before noon, we emptied our shoes of the sand we had accumulated, packed our stuff, and were on our way. During the drive, we played Cheers Governor with Luis, which was hilarious since he was especially bad at it. In the early evening, we arrived at Rio San Pablo where we stayed at Luis and Noemi’s house. We did some sink laundry, indulged in a veggie lasagna and wine, and went to bed early.
Even with two sick people, Uturunku proved to be an amazing day hike!
Our descent was quite terrifying and beautiful. Then we saw "sexy llamas" (vicuna) and ruins later in the day.
We woke up to cake the next morning! Noemi had baked a cake for Andy’s birthday! On the final leg of the trip, we explored Ciudad Encantada where a massive amount of sedimentary rock has eroded to form millions of spires and hidden caves. After a few more viewpoints and many many many MANY llamas, we arrived in the desert city of Tupiza. It had been a memorable trip, but shower-free since La Paz, we were more than ready for the comforts of city life! It’s not that our hotels didn’t have showers, it’s just that taking a shower with cold water when it’s in the 30’s at best was not an option.
Luis and Noemi's home and the incredible sedimentary formations at Ciudad Encantada.
