Back on the Map

I lie awake. Now for at least seven hours without sleep in the tent. Natalie is sleeping restlessly next to me. All I hear are the snowflakes on the walls of our tent, almost inaudable against the pounding of blood in my head with each all too rapid heartbeat. As each flake lands, my thoughts drift to our steep, rocky, unmarked route home--now being covered in a blanket of white. We are camped just below what we think is Laguna Glacier at 16,500ft. It is the highest either of us has been, let alone slept. The two day trek up to the lake from Sorata was one of the most challenging either of us had experienced. Not only were we hiking at altitude with full packs, but the routefinding continually tested our patience. Both with ourselves, and more importantly, each other! Hiking and sleeping that high brought new backcountry experiences for both of us--namely headaches, nausea, insomnia, increased heartrate and breathing at rest, needing to prime to stove with pure alcohol, food taking a LONG time to cook, etc. I am now more convinced that high altitude mountaineering is an unneccessary sufferfest of mental and physical endurance.

Including the three day trek, we remained in the Sorata area for six nights, held by the beautiful mountains, friendly people, and a wonderful hostal run by a German woman. Sorata lies on the flanks for the Cordillera Real mountains, between the high peaks and Lake Titikaka. ...and I'm burned out on the computer, so here's Natalie...

Lucky for Sam, there's a microbrewery upstairs in this hostel. We are now back in La Paz, for a stopover night between awkwardly long bus rides. Oh, there's another story> the bus ride to Sorata. It was our first ride in a cambion, which is basically a twelve passenger van, which uses every last bit of space to fit as many people as possible, but certainly not less than fifteen. Needless to say, Sam not only lost all leg room, but also head space. We were certain that a group of rowdy young men in the back were going to make it a less than pleasant trip, as they started cracking beers almost immediately, but as the older couple next to me (who appeared to be dying when they got on, but they must have just been really hungover because they perked right up once they started drinking), and the another couple in front started passing beers back and forth, it was actually the jovens in back who kept the driver, the only one on the bus besides Sam and I, from drinking (which also almost started a bus brawl). Long story short, it was a long, interesting and less than comfortable bus ride. Sorata, however, immediately embraced us as a home away from home, with green mountain vistas all around. After we settled in to our hostel, we watched a community futbol match, and checked out the very small market. We hung out for an extra day to be entirely prepared for our three day trek, meaning that we had written instructions, topo map, extra rest and appropriate provisions. Still, it was very challenging, especially because of the route finding and altitude, but the scenery was incredible! After arriving back in Sorata, we took a day to walk seven miles each way to the San Pedro cave. The walk was more impressive than the cave itself, but I did get to drive a paddleboat around a lake inside the cave, and it made for a nice recuperation day for the sore but perpetually moving adventurers that we are. Tomorrow we're headed to Cochibamba, which is a smaller (than La Paz) city, surrounded by National Parks and mountains to climb. Additionally, it is known for being a city of good eating, which could be trouble of the very best kind....