Blog Reader Quiz

Now for all you blog readers we`ve decided to hold a quiz with prize(s) to show our appreciation, and to try and get youse all to leave comments. In case you don´t know how to do this click on the comments link in blue at the bottom of each post and write away to your hearts content, we love to get messages! Special thanks to Sonja and family, Lewis and family and Mary L. who are the only regular commentors so far. Prizes for the lucky quiz winners will be sent by post. So without further ado, please find the list of questions below;

1. For all you blog swats out there, how many countries in total have Joe and Sue visited since leaving Dublin last October?

2. Joe has size 45 shoes, compared to most Bolivians and Peruvians shoes like these are only sold to circus clowns and therefore are hard to find. In how many shoe shops in Bolivia and Peru did Joe get laughed at, before he could find a pair of shoes big enougth to buy?

3. Climbing equipment is very heavy and we are carrying quite a lot of it, however we have lost some weight (personnal) since we left, to balance this off we have shed some clothes etc from our rucksacks aswell as purchased some souveniers. What is the current total weight of Joe and Sue and their rucksacks? Answers in kilos please!

To answer the questions leave a comment below with your name, winners of the competition will be announced on the blog, closing date for entries is the end of June. One entry per person, terms and conditions apply!!!

La Paz and the Cordillera Real

In La Paz we stayed in a place called Hotel Republica quite close to Plaza Murillo where the presidential palace is. We kept our eyes peeled for Evo Morales the controversial Bolivian President, however I think he`s quite busy trying to keep the Santa Cruz province in check (not to mention paying the bills and part of Bolivia!). It has all the newly nationalized gas reserves, pays most of the taxes and is currently talking about autonomy!

The hotel is apparently the home of ex president General Jose Pando before he was assassinated in 1917. A very nice place with one cobbled court yard leading onto another leading onto a small back garden with yes even a couple of small trees. We enjoyed La Paz`s various markets, theatre where a fellow called Mago Bryon produced flapping chickens out of handkerchiefs and made his beautiful assistant dissapear! Not to mention wonderful restaurants and a descent political row which kept the papers selling and the suited men in the coffee shop we frequented tut tutting.

Sue, James and I took a trip to the Condoriri group, a group of mountains within the Cordillera Real about 3 hours drive north east of La Paz. The group is so called because when the principle peak is viewed from afar the principle peak with it´s left and right shoulders looks like a condor, wings half spread as it prepares for take off, see the photo below. The other particularly aesthetic peak we had our eyes on here is called Pequeno Alpamayo, see the photo above (if you look carefully you can see climbers on the ridge and near the summit).

So after organising ourselves a lift as close as we could to the mountain which involved driving across many fields through a river as well as many places that a proper jeep would fear with our driver Jamie and his Toyota Corolla. After this there was a painfull high altitude walk with heavy bags to our base camp scenically nested among the peaks with llamas, alpacas and donkeys for good company not to mention two young English climbers from Newcastle, Tom and Joe who are silhouetted in the photo. We had brought some paraffin in town for our stove which proved a disaster not only did it burn very badly but left a sticky residue on everything and quickly blocked the stove! We just about managed to cook dinner but breakfast was out of the question!

So up very early the next morning, curse several times at the stove, forget about breakie and off we go! Its a short hike up the moraine only to realise that my sun glasses are back in the tent so run back down and gasp my way back to Sue and James who are putting on crampons and roping up at the bottom of the glacier. Its a long old walk up the glacier and this altitude isn´t getting any easier, however we seem to be overtaking the other three parties who have eyes on the same peak, the ascent of Huayni Potosi must of been worth something. To climb Pequeno Alpamayo you have to climb a smaller peak en route called Diente 5200m, from here you get your first view of the spectacular Alpaymayo. We climb down the back side of Diente and up the beautiful snowy ridge of Alpamayo as shown in the first photo. Huffing and puffing we eventually reach the summit, see picture of the red faced James and Sue at 5350m.

There is a fine bum slide back down the glacier and fortunately the kind English lads gave us some fuel so dinner was back on the menu.

The next morning James and I headed off very early to try and climb the cabeza of the condor 5648m (the middle peak in the picture above), there´s a long slog up a steep loose scree slope before we reach the glacier. But this is rewarded by a fantastic arete which leads past a rock step to a knife edge summit. The only problem is that we left too early, or we climbed too fast as we top out roughly a hour before the sun got up and its way too cold to hang around for the sun rise. We troop back down and meet Sue with the now fully working stove for breakfast! We lounge around all day eating the remains of our grub and avoiding the blistering high altitude sun.

The next day its the long tramp back across the wilderness to meet Jamie, in the random field we´d agreed on three days previous. He is there waiting much to our relief and its back to La Paz for beer and food!

Take me higher!

So, After a few days recovery in La Paz we planned our return to the mountains. Our goal this time was to reach the summit of Huayna Potosi which at 6088m (shown on left) was higher then any of us mountain goers had been before. We hired a driver to take us to our starting point but once again saved countless Bolivianos on donkeys by carrying our heavy bags ourselves! About three hours walk got us to our base camp , on a ridge near a hut. We pitched the tents and made ourselves comfortable. ¨Casa Purser¨ at base camp is shown on the left with the clouds filling the valley below.


The next day James took Brid out on the glaciar for her first go with crampons and he made her struggle up the hill only to slide back down and learn to break with an ice axe. Joe & I threw snow balls and ate food to ensure there was nothing let over to carry back down the hill! On Saturday 10th of May we got up about 12.30am and were rewarded with a beautifully clear night. Some cereal and a cup of tea later we struggled into thermals and raincoats and headed for the glaciar.

At the glaciar edge we roped up in twos and put our crampons on. Joe & I were the first to climb the ice that morning followed by Jim & Brid. We carefully picked our way through the crevasses, past a higher camp and on to the summit shoulder. It took us four and a half hours to get the summit with the last 150m being a 45 degree wall which we climbed on the front points of our crampons. As we passed the 6000m mark we both found this quite a struggle and very long!The sun was still lazing in bed when we got to the summit, the only sign of its arrival a red line across the sky. At 6088m it was a new height for both of us. Joe celebrated by rubbing his hands to warm them up as I sat with my feet in his arm pits!!! It was beautiful up there but cold, cold, cold. A few abseils and we were back at the base of the wall, passing Jim & Brid on their way up. The sun at this stage started to give us a bit of warmth .

Left: Joe at the base of the summit wall.

Below: Sue eagerly awaiting the sun!

It took us about three hours to get back to our base camp. We enjoyed wonderful views of beautiful mountains all around us as we descended. On our arrival at camp we collapsed into bed for a morning siesta before second breakfast. All meals took time as we took turns to collect bags of snow ( white not yellow) to melt for water. Mountain living is rewarding but it sure ain´t easy. In the afternoon Joe & I built a stone wall around our tent in preparation for a storm. As we nestled into our beds that night the sky cracked and our tent was illuminated with huge flashes of thunder. We awoke in the morning to about 4 inches of snow everywhere. We packed our bags took down the tent and descended from the ridge to meet our driver Jamie for the drive pack to Laz Paz. Below: Joe on the morning of our descent from base camp.

Bolivia, its not Chile, its freezing!!

Top: View down on La Paz Below: Stone statue in Tiwanaku



In our last few days in Sucre we built a wall in the boys orphanage in town. We meet a fellow Irish man who had raised some money and just happened to need a carpenter and some muscle. His plan was to create a play room in the orphanage and it would all start with the building of a partition wall. So with the wall firmly standing we boarded an overnight bus to La Paz. We found a hostel in a nice part of town, near enough to Murillo Square, home to the goverment, so we could hear the regular protests. La Paz is at about 3600m and full of big hills. It is nestled at the base of a bowl and the red brick buildings cover the hill sides. The city is hectic, its only relief is that not a lot of people can afford private cars and so the traffic keeps moving. Police with hand guns, automatic guns, hand cuffs and tear gas stand in groups on corners and practise not smiling. There are many markets around town where one can buy anything from a bag of mystery juice to a llama foetus.

Our first trip out of La Paz was to Tiwanaku, a huge pre-columbian site that was a precursor to the inca empire. There are huge stone structures and open top temples. There is the sun gateway, which gives a calender and many large and wonderful stone statues, all carved out of single pieces of rock. Unfortunately the Bolivians thought it would be great to have one of these statues outside the main football stadium in La Paz. As a result it survived thousands of years only to be hit with bottles by angry football hooligans and damaged. They have just opened a museum in which to put these wonderful artifacts on their original site.





Top: Semi-subterranean temple wall Below: the Sun gate


Our next trip was down hill to Sorata where we overnighted and then walked up to a fine base camp before making it all the way to Laguna Glacial for a pic-nic. We spent a few night on the ridge in the hills, enjoying the amazing vistas whenever the clouds cleared. Luckily when we went to the laguna glacial the clouds lifted and we could see for miles with a wonderful view of lake Titicaca.










Top: The long walk up hill with big bags!! Below: Joe, with fashionable scarf and me!






Top: Base camp in the clouds. Below: Joe enjoys sunset from or base camp

Joe looses his moustache but gains something else!

Sorry, have spent ages trying to rotate this video but with no joy! Still its this or nothing and this is worth seeing!!