Into the Wild

When we decided to take this trip and travel the world, people kept asking me “why”? It was tempting to answer “because I would like to take long holidays”, but it didn’t sound very serious… So I started to ask myself, why, except from the obvious reasons, I wanted this break?

I am an hyperactive person and I always need to be into something. I am unable of laziness, quietness or inactive days. My mind seems to want to be working 24/7. And then I realised, this is it.

I wanted to stop.

Stop running all day from a busy agenda to another. Stop doing things in a hurry. Stop keeping on feeling tired and over-busy. I wanted calm, I wanted silence, I wanted to think and not act like a robot. It’s been three weeks since we left, and for the very first time, I had the feeling that I have reached my goal.

Hiking at 5421mts

Yesterday we took a hiking tour from Chacaltaya to the bottom of Huayana Potosi Mountains, 30km from La Paz. Very few agencies offer this hike. Usually they would bring you to the very top of Chacaltaya to take some pictures and then back to La Paz center to visit the Moon Valley. We were lucky enough to discover this unusual path through the Kanoo Tours agency.

Our tour started at the base of Chacaltaya mountain where there used to be a ski station, closed nowadays. We started hiking until the very top at 5421mts where we could admire an incredible view. All around us was surrounded by mountains and lagoons. Nothing else, but pure wild Nature. We could barely see La Paz in the horizon.

We walked one hour on the very top edge of this mountain and it was the most liberating experience. This feeling of being part of an outstanding scenery. The landscapes were so contrasted. On top of the mountain we could see reddish rocky ground and on the very bottom of this gigantic peak, lagoons with crystal blue, red and green colours. The more we were walking the more lunar the landscape was turning into.

Then the real fun began as we had to go down from this high cliff. There are no trails on this wild mountain, so we had to take our way down the old fashion way. We started to zigzag down this steep, slippery rocky mountain. It was like skiing without snow. We had real fun going down.

As we reached half way down, the nature was being more lively. We started seeing small plants with unnatural green colours. It was a real surprise to find these unexpected little green spots here and there. This is when we stopped to have some lunch. A delicious cheese/avocado sandwich freshly made by our guide. We stopped on this mountain plateau where we could see in front of us the magnificent Huayana Potosi peak struggling with the mist voile which was trying to cover it.This is when it stroke me.

This place was so peaceful, silent and real.

Even the wind, the birds flying by were silenced. It was an impressive feeling. It seemed for a second that the nature just wanted us to admire what it had to offer.

After this unique moment we hurried up to get to the bottom as a snow storm started.

Here a sneak peek into our one day dream, please enjoy as those are the best shots we have made so far. And whenever you can, go and do this hike, you will never regret it!