Up the Mountains We Go!

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We left at 4am on Friday for our adventure through the mountains of Bolivia!

There are 5 of us in total, Adam, three other volunteers and me. We started with just a 4 hour drive to the starting point of our tour. We left early to make sure we would not get stopped with road blocks from the protests. We had a few delays, but nothing major.

We stopped in a very cute town called Tupiza. Tuk tuks are their main taxi service there which are just so adorable running down the skinny roads. We had a quick lunch, loaded up and hit the road.

We are seeing tons of Lammas now that we are up in the mountains. I also learned about a new animal I was not aware of. The Vicuña is a smaller and more regal version of a Laama. They live in the very highlands of Bolivia and were almost hunted to extinction. But their population has grown and we have seen a lot of them. They have some of the most expensive wool available in the world. While you can shear a llama or alapca every year, you can only shear a Vicuña every three years. They have extremely fine wool. I hope to see some of their wool to compare.

We stopped to see some amazing sand stone rock formations called the Ciudad del Encanto. Very interesting and unique formations. We then had lunch in a tiny village. The woman that rides along with us cooks all our meals and so far every meal has been delicious! Tomorrow we will hit our highest altitude, but we are already extremely high. We are currently at 5000 meters. I took medicine so I am not having altitude sickness, but as soon as you walk even a short distance you are short of breath

We then visited the Ruins of San Antonio de Lipez. It was constructed in 1625 and was primarily a mining town. The inhabitants eventually died off from in-breeding and disease.

We stayed in a small town that had about 200 families in residence. We didn't arrive until after 7:00pm. While we had dinner their church service was broadcasted on the load speakers in the city streets. The service ended at about 9:30pm. But, unfortunately for us, call to prayer in the morning started at 5:15am so we did not get as much sleep as we had hoped for!

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