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in Bolivia Photos |
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in Bolivia Photos |
In April of 1993 I took a trip to Bolivia. I went on a guided mountaineering trip with Condor Adventures. I was able to break away from the group for a while and do some exploring by myself. I went to Lake Titicaca and stayed in the city of Copacabana for a couple days. That side trip was highlighted by a trip to the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca and a shower head with wires sticking out of it. There are people living out on the Island of the Sun with no cars and no electricity. Another Side trip was to the ancient ruins of Tiwanaku. The ruins are an impressive display of rock wall building and design.On the mountaineering side of the trip we set out to climb (and did) three peaks. The first acclimatization climb was 17,500 foot Tarija, the second peak 20,000 foot Huayna Potosi (the best climb), and finally 21,200 foot Illimani. We were successful on all our climbs. We only had one person on our trip who had any trouble with altitude. The weather turned out perfect for all our climbs. (we did descend off Illimani on the tail end of a thunderstorm though) Bolivia has some nice peaks to climb It is well worth the trip to get into some high altitude climbing in a real mountain setting.
Bolivia is a great place to travel to. The people are friendly for the most part and the Spanish has an understandable accent. This was my first time in a third world country and it was quite a shock at first but I think I grew to love it and would like to go back. The City of La Paz (elevation 13,000 feet) is a great city. There is culture and looks quite livable. I saw a neighborhood I wouldn't mind living in. The police with machine guns and army fatigues take a little getting used to though. I only had one person try to rob me.
This show consists of 42 of my favorite photos. I would have liked more but I only have 5 megabytes to use. You can use the thumbnails to get to a particular picture or browse through them if your connection is seeming sluggish. Enjoy...........
Near the summit of Illimani at 21,000 feet
