Lauca National Park, Chile

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We took the 2000 peso (it sounds expensive, but the chilean peso is 575 to the dollar) ride from arica to putre, at the entrance to lauca national park. this park is a unesco world heritage site and it is entirely over 4000m (about 13,000ft.) above sea level. the pictures looked really beautiful, so we had to give it a try. we were glad we did.

its cooler than a polar bear{s toenail there. we took a 10,000 peso cab from putre to parinacota, a town of literally 17 people. there we got a room with one of the families and then huddled under some alpaca blankets to keep warm. it was damn cold.

the next day tom and i made the mistake of trying to climb a 5100m peak that was near the town. it looked really close to the town, but while we were hiking there we realized that it was a hell of a long way away. we climbed and climbed, but eventually the altitude (which, believe me, fucks you up) and the steep terrain got the best of us and we had to turn back without reaching the summit. dejected, we hiked back only to be hit by a sleet storm - which added insult to injury.

a note on the altitude. when we got to parinacota it was the highest altitude i had ever reached in my life (higher than the dead woman{s pass on the inca trail, my previous high). we thought that after several weeks in cuzco (3000m), the inca trail (2700 - 4200m), arequipa (2500m) and colca canyon (3200m), that we would be prepared for the altitude. well, i slept like shit. i woke up with terrible cotton mouth from the dry air and even found myself gasping for air at times. i can only compare it to having a bit of a cold and trying only to breath through
your nose. you get winded very easily.

despite our failure to reach 5000m, we enjoyed lauca a great deal. there are 2 gigantic 6000m volcanos right next to parinacota which are just awe inspiring. viewing them from the lago chungara (at 4500m) is even more spectacular. it was made even better by the fact that there were almost NO tourists there. we were the only ones in parinacota, and we saw about 6 others at lago chungara. it is amazing that such a beautiful site was so empty.

we caught a bus from lago chungara directly to la paz, where we are now.

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