Huayna Potosí

Two days and one night were dedicated to a short trip to a mountain not too far from La Paz.

Back in La Paz I went to different agencies to ask for this hiking trip. Due to the pandemic there were only little possibilities to do this tour. I had to wait a couple days until I was in wonderful company. Dania Maira just told me she’d like to join this trip. Since we were two people the tour was finally doable.

In the early morning we drove to the base camp. From there we had a two hour hike to the Campo Alto where we prepared for the next days climb. Dania brought some Singani which helped a lot against the below zero temperature.

At one o’clock in the morning the guides woke us up and we got ready to climb the summit. It was supposed to take 6 hours from Campo Alto to the summit.

We started walking and after an hour we were deep inside some frozen snowscape. We mounted our crampons and continued our adventure.

About 2 hours later our Brazilian friend who we met in the basecamp couldn’t continue due to severe altitude sickness. One of our two guides took him back to the Campo Alto. Dania, another buddy from Tarija and I continued our trip with our motivated guide.

After another 2 hours all of us started to have different problems. Mister Tarija was exhausted. Dania didn’t have any energy left and I suffered already for hours of a very strong stomach ache. I couldn’t continue even the guide told me we can try to go further. I tried with him while my two friends were left behind at a safe spot where they had to keep walking on the same spot in order to keep the muscles busy. Minus ten degree and still no sun out that made this place almost unbearable to exist. After ten seconds I stoped the guide and told him I rather stay with my friends and wait for the sunrise.

Not too much later the sun came out. It was absolutely epic. Even though my pain didn’t disappear, I had to enjoy this stunning moment and for a while I forgot about my bad condition.Read more