Breathless Bolivia part 1

Bolivia is a country of extremes : it goes from the high Andes mountains to the low Amazon, from the cold Altiplano to the steaming Yungas jungle, from the very fast Internet to the very s-l-o-w busses, and from the very rich to the very poor. The capital La Paz is like a concentrated sample of all these extremes. The city just sits there in the valley, with all the nice areas and buildings downtown and the poorer areas shrugged against the hill. And on top of the hill, at 4000m, breaths El Alto, the fastest growing city in Latin America. El Alto lacks everything : air, paved streets, decent water and housing,... it just has lots of shacks, chaotic markets and blue diesel exhausts. It's quite a sight when you enter La Paz via El Alto : you think it's the city already, until you gasp down and see the soup bowl of the capital open up below you. La Paz itself isn't less chaotic then El Alto, just a bit cleaner and safer. The city looks like one big market place, where literally anything is sold on the street : from copied DVD's, car parts, clothes, stolen cameras, coca leafs to the bizarre of dried llama foetusses on the Witches Market. Apparently, no house in La Paz is build without a llama foetus under the foundations, keeps bad spirits away so they say. The street is also crowded with masked shoeshine boys (they look more dangerous than they are) and all sorts of fortune tellers, who by the side of fallen coca leafs can predict your luck. Anyways, La Paz wasn't really my kind of place to hang out at for too long : it's too crowded, noisy and polluted. But there are tons of fun things to do around La Paz ! And since I was getting the hang of these Bolivian extremes (getting stuck at the roadblock coming from Peru was a new one), I was in for a couple more ! Inspired by new met Canadian roomie John (I've met more Canadians on this trip than in the rest of my life), I took on the challenge to climb Huyana Potosi, a 6088m high mountain in the Cordillera Real. Yes ! I had to sleep on it one night when he asked me, but after some good climb advice and research on the internet (apparently this is a relatively safe and easy mountain) I was in for it ! So we left (me without telling Leen, she would have died in fear) in good spirits, but the 4 of us soon found out that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. After bringing up all our stuff to the base camp at 5500m, I got a pounding headache, and the others weren't in best shape either. Luckily, some Dafalgan and hot soup eased the pain, but much sleep wasn't to expect. I tried to rest some (and warm up) but by 1am the guides woke us up with coca tea and off we went ! It was a beautiful quiet night, and under the light of the stars and the full moon we made steady progress until John got very sick. He was in bad shape but miraculously caught up with us half way to the summit. By that time, I had no juice left in my legs (the chocolate helped some but not much) and for every 5 steps, I had to catch my breath for 30sec. Luckily, I felt fine for the rest and being able to stop at my ease, I made it to the base of the summit. There, at 5900m, we faced a 240m tall ice wall, on a 40 degrees angle, and we all stopped. 'Fuck ! Do we need to get up on this thing ?!!' We all gasped for air and I asked myself if I was really up for this. I had never climbed a mountain before (John had climbed Kilimanjaro) and this part was quite technical, where we would need to use our ice axe and crampons. Michael, the Austrian in our group, gave up at that moment, so we were left with the question if we wanted to continue or go down as well. After a minute of heavy breathing, some water and chocolate, and the view of the rising sun, I thought 'I didn't come all this way to quit here at the base of the summit !', so the crazy man in me told the guide ' Vamonos!' and off we climbed. It took us about 30min to get on top, but it seemed ages. My legs were about to cramp up completely, but they withstood the torture of the climb. I was warm the whole climb and that was my luck I think : thank God for Patagonia thermal underwear, North Face fleeces and Thinsulate glooves. I would have died without them. My other campanions were shivering though so being first on the rope, I tried to go as fast as I could. All my worst demons and cutest angels passed by on that climb, but it was worth it. At 7am we stood at 6088m, and I still don't know how we did it. But that time, the euphory had eased all the pain, and in no time we were down again, broke up base camp, made it to the jeep and slept for 14 hours. Bolivia has the kicks for sure ! For more downhill excitement, read Breathless Bolivia part 2 !