August 27, 2007

Guide Mark Johnson just called in from Day 3 of the Bolivia Expedition. The team is currently underway on their Taquesi Trek. Here is what Mark reported:

Hi everyone, this is Mark calling at 8pm Bolivian time. We are currently at camp near Mina San Francisco around 13,500 feet. We had a wonderful trek today. The bus took us to the head of Canyon de Palca, where we began hiking down through the canyon. The canyon itself is a very cool place - a narrow river bed with vertical cliffs made of cobblestone mud-plastered walls that rise 300 feet above you. We saw an interesting recent geologic event - probably in the last year or so - a chunk of the wall fell down and has come to rest in a huge debris pile which is blocking the river (just a trickle right now). We had to climb over the debris pile - it was pretty neat.

We then hiked through the farmland around the town of Palca and on up to Ventilla, which is where the pre-Columbian Inca road to Taquesi Pass begins. We are now camped below the pass.

The weather has been changing pretty dramatically - there's been lots of wind today. We arrived at camp in entirely socked-in skies that were spitting rain. We were so glad to see our Bolivian staff, who had already set up out tents, so we could just move right in. The wind calmed when the sun went down. Right now it's partly cloudy, and there is a huge full moon coming up over the hillside. Other than that, it's totally dark.

Everyone did very well - it was definitely an acclimatization day, and we all felt the altitude a little. Tomorrow we will go up and over the pass (around 15,000') and down to the village of Taquesi. I'll try to call then!