Huayna Potosi

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Last Sat there was a giant festival in all of La Paz that started at about 9am and went till about 3am. The streets were packed with people and there was a huge on-going parade. It was pretty fun to watch. It was also the day of the Bolivia vs. Venezuela soccer match. We spent the day walking through the festival and then went to the soccer game, which was pretty exciting, but Bolivia lost..

On Monday I started the H.P. climb. The first day we tried on gear and then headed to our first refuge camp, which was really really nice. We then had a few hours of practice on a glacier so we could get used to the crampons and using our ice picks. Day two we were able to sleep in, had lunch, then started a three hour hike to the second camp out. They said this was an easy hike, but it def was not. We had to carry all of our gear which made it really hard. We had dinner, and went to bed about 7pm.

After pretty much no sleep we left at 2am and headed off to the summit. The first hour was pretty easy. But soon after the altitude got to me and I was pretty dizzy. If I looked anywhere other than right in front of me I pretty much fell over. Technically the climb is not very difficult, and if not for the altitude then it would have been really easy. It was mostly just really really slow walking in the snow, we only had to use our ice picks once. About two and a half hours into the 5 hour climb I started to feel pretty nauseous. We slowly trekked on and our guide wouldn't let us stop and rest because of the cold. Our guide was pretty crazy, he had done the climb 850 times! There were about 100 times where I just wanted to lye down and quit. Finally, we could see the summit and maybe about 10min from the top I threw up about 5 times, felt a lot better, and was able to make it! We made it a little after sunrise and it was so gorgeous. I wish I had taken more pics but I was feeling so crappy that I didn't really care at the time. We sat on the summit for maybe 5 min before starting back down, but it was definitely worth it. It was one of the hardest things I have done, but it was very rewarding. I don't think there will be any other time in my life where I will be able to climb that high.

Tomorrow night I am taking an overnight bus to see the salt flats and then I am headed home!

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