Cerro Aconcagua is the tallest peak in the Americas. In fact, outside of the Himalaya Mountains in Asia, it´s the tallest peak in the world! Once in Mendoza, I set out to get the information I needed to see the mountain and possibly climb it. After some research I found that it would be several thousand dollars to actually climb the mountain. As Aconcagua is one of the "Seven Summits", the highest peak on each of the continents, guides can charge prices as high as the mountain itself! Climbers from all around the world want to climb all seven summits and are willing to pay almost any price. Getting to the summit was not that important to me, I would rather spend my money traveling to more places and seeing different things than spend it all climbing one mountain. So I decided that trekking into the area and climbing to base camp would be a more realistic option for my budget.

I hit all the local guiding agencies to find out how it all worked and how much it would be to hike to base camp. It was quite expensive still, just to trek into the area. I thought it was crazy to pay money for a guide to take me hiking in the mountains which is something I do all the time. So I picked up a map of the mountain and was also required to buy a permit to get into the backcountry. Once I had accomplished these things I bought a bus ticket to the town of Puente de Inka, a small village near the trailhead on the south side of the mountain. I was off! I had been in the city for many days. As enjoyable as eating steak and drinking delicious wine at outdoor cafes´can be, I was ready to get into the mountains, it is where I feel most at home.

Day 1 was arduous. The bus broke down on the way to the mountain causing us to arrive very late in the afternoon. I got off the bus in Puente de Inka, thinking it was a very short distance to the ranger station where I needed to register. Come to find out the bus continued up the mountain road to the trailhead. I hiked and additional 6 or so kilometers with my overloaded pack of about 65 pounds. After having too little food on my Choro Trek I went in the other direction and had too much food. One of these days I´ll get it right!! So I registered at 5 pm and began what was listed as a four hour hike, I had my headlamp ready. As slow as I was moving with the heavy pack(throw 65 lbs. of dead weight on your back and see how fast you can climb a mountain!) I still made it to camp by dark. The valley leading up to "Confluencia" or camp 1 was massive! The scale is difficult to comprehend, like an insect crossing a Wal-Mart parking lot. Frequent stops to catch my breath and rest my legs were good opportunities to take in the scenery around me. I'm not sure how to describe the atmosphere in the mountains, it doesn´t seem real. Like it's not possible that you are there, in an environment so remote and harsh yet beautiful. There is something addicting about it! Once at camp I set up my tent, had some food and did a recon walk of the camp with all of the major outfitters preping their groups to go up the mountain. We (the hikers) were kept in a seperate area than the climbers. Time to sleep.

Day 2 Very exciting day as I climbed up alongside the Horncones Glacier and up to the South Face of Aconcagua! The glacier is an enormous river of ice. Hiking alongside this for hours, I began to better understand the process of how glaciers carve through rock, carry them for distances and drop them in unsuspecting places when they receed. I reached the south wall late in the afternoon and just smiled. Partly because my feet hurt a lot and I could finally rest. But mostly because I was standing on one of the tallest mountains in the world! It had gotten cold the last hour or so as I made my way further up into the ravine which acted like an ice box. The south wall, thousands of feet high was awesome. At first it seemed silent, but as I sat stationary, there were "mountain" sounds. Chilling sounds, almost spooky. Sounds of wind moving, ice cracking and the feeling of being on the edge of the sky. As I was leaving I heard a thunderous crack. I turned and saw an avalanche! I watched a wall of snow slide over a cliff and crash onto a ledge below in an explosion of white. Wow! Avalaches are fun to watch on a video screen but to see one happen in front of me was wild. A day to remember for sure!

Day 3 worked out to be my out day. I had planned on staying longer but stomach problems, distances I needed to trek to the next camp and the excessive weight of my pack changed my plans. So it worked out to be a relaxing day, sleeping late and moving slow. This allowed me to absorb the experience and enjoy a long lunch with a view of Aconcagua's summit in the distance. A sunny ride through the Andes mountains back to Mendoza with thoughts of steak and good wine finished this excursion. Looking forward to the next one!! Life is good! Jeff.

The overland trip across the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia was an otherworldly experience! I have been meaning to tell you about it for weeks, so here it is. My memory is a little hazy as it has been a while since the trip, not to mention the fact that it began on new years morning. After a night of celebrating with the locals, dancing in the streets, dodging fireworks (while dancing!) and raising my glass to an endless number of toasts, stumbling "home" in the new daylight, I embarked on this journey with about an hour and a half of quality sleep.

The Salar is a salt flat, this particular one happens to be the largest in the world. It sits at 3653 meters (almost 11,000 feet) above sea level and blankets 12,000 square kilometers! It was part of a prehistoric salt lake, Lago Minchín, which covered most of southwest Bolivia. When it dried up it left a couple of salt pans, including the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa. It is a blinding white desert that extends farther than the eyes can see (your eyes need to be covered with sunglasses or you can´t see anything!). There are only a few pictures of the salt plains on the photo link as I was feeling a bit under the weather that day. You can get the idea though, lots of white everywhere you turn! On day one we stopped at the Isla de los Pescadores, a very cool island covered with giant cactus (or is it cacti?). Also a visit to one of the salt hotels, yes, a structure made entirly of cinder-block sized salt chunks! Really wild, if it wasn´t so hot I would have thought it was an ice palace.

Day Two. We had passed through the salar at the end of a very long day one and stayed in a small encampment in the middle of the southwestern, Bolivian desert. With the white behind us our Land Cruiser jetted across this vast, remote corner of Bolivia. The surreal landscape is nearly treeless punctuated by gentle hills and volcanoes with an almost psychadelic mix of colors wallpapering their flanks. It was beautiful! I hadn´t expected to see anything like what I was experiencing. I had initially intended to skip northern Chile knowing that the Atacama Desert covered much of it and really, how exciting could the desert be? Pleasantly suprised to say the least! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, hands down! The colors are subtle and bold at the same time, natures' colors are far more spectacular than anything man could ever hope to create. Once again, a very long day driving through the desert but very enjoyable too. I have been fortunate to end up with good groups on the tours I have chosen. I had a younger American couple from Kentucky, a Frenchman and a South African guy with his Aussie girlfriend for company over the course of these three days in the vehicle. We all got along really well and had good conversation which made the experience that much more enjoyable.

Day Three. Another stellar day! We had stayed at an old military camp the previous night, crude accomodation but it mattered very little because we were up at 4:30 a.m. and out in the sub- zero temperatures to see the geyser basin just before sunrise. At almost 15,000 feet above sea level (hence the cold temps.) the geyser basin with it's sulfurous fumaroles and boiling mud pits were something to see! Check out these photos on the link, they are cool to see and you don´t have to smell the sulpher! Afterwords we continued south towards Chile and stopped at several very colorful lakes. Beautiful but poisonous, we could not swim as the colors, depending on the lake, were derived from Borax, Sulpher and Arsenic! Some of the lakes were not poisonous and supported interesting wildlife including many flamingos.

The second half of my day was spent crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile. This part of the day was not so stellar. Several hours at Chilean immigrations as they emptied the bus of people and gear to search everyone and everything. Borders have not been an issue until now. Once in Chile I realized that the culture here is very different than the northern part of the continent (and many things that are legal in Boivia are very illegal in Chile)! It's completly westernized, very modern, air conditioning and malls! I couldn't belive it, a mall, how strange after four months in countries with mud brick buildings and people going to the bathroom in the streets!

Well, if you ever find yourself in the desert in Bolivia, be sure to check out the Salar, it is beautiful beyond words and the Mad Max style of transport was mad fun! Peace, Jeff.

The Cordillera Real area of Bolivia is so beautiful that I decided to stay and explore it on foot at a slower pace than the mountain bike ride provided. I returned to La Paz after waiting out the elections in Coroico. I looked into a guided tour of the "Choro Trek", a 60 plus kilometer hike down a southern stretch of the Inka Trail. The guiding agencies wanted around one hundred american dollars to do this 4 day trek. I smiled and said "gracias, pero no. mas carro!" (thanks, but too expensive) and walked out of the office. I found another traveler with a guide book for hiking in the central andes and asked to photocopy the section on the Choro Trek. It included a map, trail description and suggested hiking times. I packed my pack, checked out of my hostel and caught a bus up to La Cumbre or the pass above La Paz where the trailhead was located. The book said there would be small pueblos where food and clean water could be picked up along the way. So in an effort to keep my pack light (total pack weight is exactly 55 pounds and I left some items at the hostal so I was just under 50 pounds) I purchased only three peices of crusty bread, a bag of cookies and a roll of TP. So far the trip cost me about $3 american dollars, a far cry from the $100 the guides wanted, life is good.
The morning was crisp at the top of the pass but the sky was blue and the sun was starting to warm things a bit. An initial acsent of 1000 meters of altitude got the heart pumping (elevation 13,800 feet) after that it was all downhill, no kidding, eight hours of downhill! The knees were a bit tired but my lungs got a rest on the first day after the initial acsent. The views are spectacular coming through the mountain passes, check out the photos on flickr because I don´t have the words to describe. I passed some Incan ruins along the way, not Machu Pichu mind you, but the trail itself was more beautiful and less crowded than the Inka Trail on the more famous Peruvian stretch. Just after mid day I was feeling very depleted and stopped for a lunch of bread, water and cookies in a small village near a river. I very happily dropped my pack which seemed to weigh 300 pounds at this point in the hike, and used it for a seat. With a stellar view of the river and a rocky mountain backdrop I took out my nutritious and delicious lunch. Only a few moments had passed when I was joined by two very large pigs who had taken a vested interest in my lunch. As I looked around I realized that I had settled in their "pen." So, needless to say, my lunch was less than enjoyable as I spent much of it fending off these two pigs. With some food in my system I gathered my small world that I carry on my back and said goodbye to Wilbur and his girlfriend. The angle of decsent had relented somewhat and the temperature was warmer, I headed off down the trail for the afternoon piece of the days trek.
I found myself becoming more depleted as the afternoon went on. Probably as a result of not having any real food since the day before. The villages that I passed who were supposed to have food to offer did not. After all, everything in this area has to be hiked in, it´s not like there are any roads or rail systems available here. I had my water purifier and there was no shortage of river to draw H2O from so no worries there. I was looking to camp at a village called Cha llapampa a few hours down the trail, surely they would have food there! Late afternoon I finally reached my destination. Totaly depleted, I couldn´t wait to get something to eat, hot or cold, I wanted solid food. I was greeted by some local kids in this village of about 50 0r 60 people. I dropped my pack and rested. The kids wanted to play, wouldn´t you if you lived in the mountains and rarely saw any outsiders? Not speaking much spanish, I couldn´t have conversation with the adults. I needed a place to sleep and some food so I thought it a good idea to keep the kids occupied for a time, a gesture that I could carry out non verbally. Two of them had raquetballs, (I didn´t know they played raquetball in Bolivia) so we all played pass for a while and then it evolved into a soccer game. A time later, my duties done, I inquired about a bed and a meal. They had no problem with me camping but there was no food to be had. Major bummer. I was exhausted from a full day of pounding down rocks with a full pack so I was happy to be able to get horizontal and rest my legs. I dined on cookies and water for dinner, they were some of the best cookies I have ever had.
This story is way too long already so I´ll make the second day brief. It had to be one of the longest days I have ever spent hiking. The lack of real food in my system became a real problem as I worked my way through day two of this four day hike. Much more difficult in that I was acsending and decsending again throught the steep mountain valley's. You will notice very few pictures of this section of the trail, although it was stunningly beautiful, I hadn´t the energy to enjoy it. My body was burning huge amounts of callories and I was not fueling it. I was fortunate to come across a village of about 5 stone buildings. One of them sold water, Coca cola and candy bars. Not a hearty Snickers bar mind you but sugar none the less. I bought 10. The man was very happy, he hadn´t done this much business in weeks. They got me through to the next campsite which was a spot on the side of a ravine wall overlooking the valley both up and down the river, an amazing place. The land was owned by a Japanese man who had settled here many years ago. He charged me ten bollivianos, or about one dollar and fifteen cents. I paid it, after all he had worked to flaten some spots so a tent could be laid down.
Day 3. I woke up to rain and the blisters I had developed over the last two days had not shown any signs of drying out or getting better. I so love that feeling of putting on boots over raw, blistered, sore feet. This is why I hike. Today, however, was to be a good day. It was a short day, only four hours of hiking and I could camp in the town of Chairo. To my suprise I dropped out of the mountains and into Chairo within three hours. Even better still, I was able to get an almuerzo or hot lunch. A plate of hot rice, a piece of beef, a fried plantain and a bottle of coke. I was in heaven! I had fuel in my system. It was raining and the town was miserable. I decided to continue hiking to Coroico. It would make a collosal day but I had been to Coroico and it had all the amenities; hot shower, a bed, as much food as you had money! I was doing it, I couldn´t picture sitting in this dreary town for 9 hours until it got dark and still being there when I woke up. So off I went, no longer on the Inka trail, it was now a dirt road. Not as pretty a walk as the previous two and a half days but it was flat and I was tired. I carefully made my way past more than a few angry dogs protecting their homes (unlike home, dogs are not tied and they are encouraged to keep passers by at bay). I was most of the way to Coroico, the latter part a steep uphill, when a man I had talked with in Chairo had driven by and stopped. He offered a ride and I gladly accepted a lift up the last 3 kilometers of hill into town.
The story ends with a shower and a meal on what happened to be Christmas Eve. After a good nights sleep in a bed I woke up to a warm, sunny Bolivian Christmas in the jungle. The impression you got may have been that it was a miserable trip but it really was not. Day 2 was difficult because I didn´t have the proper fuel in my body. Regardless, the scenery was phenomenal and the experience was one that I will not soon forget. As time passes, you do forget about the sore muscles and the blisters, you only remember the sun shining down and the mountains and green, plush jungle. It´s a good life.

Keep on keepin' on! Jeff.