It´s name was Tunari

Natural Resources and Environmental Education Project Meeting. We got to spend the night in a super lujo (lux) hotel.

View from the summit. The mountains of La Paz in the distance!!

A cristal clear lake at ~15,00 ft.

Yeeesss!!! The summit!!

Remember the expression ¨kickin´ ass and takin´ names¨? We´ll...it´s name was Tunari. A bunch of us from B-44 took the free weekend between project meeting and IST to climb Mt. Tunari, the highest mountain in central Bolivia. At 16,600 ft. it was definitely the highest I have ever been in my life and probably the most difficult hike (endurance wise) I have ever done. The hike itself is not really that technical, but the elevation makes puting two feet infront of you difficult enough. We took a truffi up as far as it could go and began the hike at about 14,500 ft. at 8:00 in the morning. We stumbled back to the truffi at about 5:00 in the evening.

As soon as you start to climb you immediately feel the effects of the elevation. For the very last strech to the summit I literally could not take five steps without having to rest and catch my breath again. I was very surprised I was able to make it at all, coming from 400 m in Bermejo. The only problem I had was with my damn contacts. Sunscreen and sweat along with plenty of dust got into my eyes. And I think the contacts only helped to trap them all in. Making my eyes water and burn for about half of the day. So it was a slow go to the top, but totally worth it! It was an absolutely gorgeous day with very few clouds in the sky. We could see the snow capped mountain range surrounding La Paz in the distance! We were all worried about the cold since it is the middle of winter, but it turned out to be a lovely day. It was kind of a bummer that all the llamas were lower down on the mountain and we didn´t get to hike with them. They´re really the coolest creatures. Very inquisitve and calm with there big pretty eyes and narly dreadlocks. I really want to bond with a llama to complete my Tunari experience ...haha... next time...