We've already enjoyed a wonderful three weeks in Bolivia - time is flying! I'm going to cover the first half of our Bolivian adventure thus far in this blog post and Shelley is going to cover the second half in an upcoming blog post.
What we love about Bolivia. | As we walked across the La Quiaca/ Villazón border into Bolivia, we were immediately struck by the colorful outfits, aroma of delicious food wafting from the abundance of street food vendors, and the dramatic decrease in prices. When we ventured into the rural farm communities on our trek from Potosí to Cochabamba, we were overcome with the grandiosity of these rugged mountains and the simple, perfect lives of the colorful people living within them. We had a hunch we'd love this place from the stories of fellow travelers and friends, and we do! Here are a few of our favorite things:
| | People!
- Despite warnings of ransom kidnappers and natives who sacrifice women and children, we have found people to be genuinely friendly, greeting us with big toothless smiles on the trail
- Quechua is the dominant language in the rural areas of Bolivia. Most elderly and children do not know Spanish so usually we seek out the folks in between for translation.
During our stay in LA, we were given the opportunity through Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation (ASC) to lay the groundwork for an entirely new cycling research program aimed at protecting animals and reducing roadkill. Gregg Treinish, the CEO of ASC, works to get people on expeditions or weekend warriors connected with researchers to aid them in their data collection. | | Particular to our bike, we are piloting a program for ASC that collects data points on roadkill. The idea behind it being that humans build roads without regard to what natural spaces and animal paths those roads might be cutting through; the results of this division of land has meant millions of animal deaths and millions of dollars in property damage for people and state governments.
ASC's most recent citizen science excursion took us far into the Elk Horn Mountain Range in the Helena National Forrest. We partnered with 12 veterans from the Fort Harrison VA to search for signs of the elusive lynx and contribute to an important body of research to understand the biodiversity present in the Helena National Forrest. We spend two days deep in the woods searching for the big cat's distinctive tracks, for tufts of fur caught on tree bark, and for the holy grail of tracking...a sighting of a lynx.
After six and a half months of intense traveling, we were all in dire need of some serious rest and relaxation; however, it took Josh bringing it to our attention that we never actually take a day off for us to react to our exhaustion. Sure we break from hiking often enough, but our time in towns is spent writing the blog post, contacting family, uploading pictures, planning our next route, backing up files, etc. Although initially the words "volunteering at an Organic farm" did not exactly elicit an immediate notion of rest, we decided that a quick two-day stint at Aldea Luna would be a nice change of pace before we continued on north to Bolivia. Twenty-four hours in, we realized that this was more than just a farm stay; this was an entirely necessary rejuvenating experience for our bodies, souls, and bellies, and two days was simply not enough. We laid out our options: a) stay one extra day then bus from Jujuy to Purmamarca, then through Humahuaca to Iruya - places of renowned unbelievable beauty - in order to explore and hike for about a day, then bus on to Bolivia, or b) stay three extra days, bus directly from Jujuy to Bolivia and have something to draw us back to Northern Argentina in the future. We easily picked option b. It is always difficult to pass up seeing areas that we know will be impressionable; however, we have not had a shortage of phenomenal sights and our recent bus/traveling experiences have been nothing less than extremely exhausting. The decision was made - we would spend five days at Aldea Luna before making the trip to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
Team Epoch is in the second phase of an astonishing adventure. Sonya Baumstein, Oliver Levick, Jonathan Crane and Chris Crane recently completed their 3,000 mile row across the Atlantic, beginning in the Canary Islands and ending in Barbados. This 56 day row was no small feat in itself, but it was just the opening portion of Team Epoch's 400Challenge. On March 15, after just 45 days on land, Sonya and new team members Michael McGovern and Christian Pendleton Thomas began their bike tour from the Mexican/U.S. border to Alaska. When they have completed this leg of their trek, they will kayak the Inside Passage (hugging the coastline from southeastern Alaska to northwestern Washington), and round out the excursion with a through hike on the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail. This is a truly amazing undertaking in preparation, athleticism, and mental stamina.
We walked out of Tinogasta excited with the promise of clear rivers the whole 70km (three days) through the desert landscape to Londres, as specifically indicated to us by the tourist information office. As we neared the end of our first day having only crossed one muddy stream, we luckily flagged down a utility vehicle (the last car we ended up seeing) that told us we would only have one chance for water (in 4km) until we arrived at Londres. As we walked the remaining 4km to the muddy stream, we contemplated how or if we would be able to continue with only one more water resupply. At full capacity, we each barely had enough room in our water vessels to carry about a day's worth of water, considering the desert heat. We would have to turn back in the morning. Then we realized we could use the discarded plastic soda and alcohol bottles along the side of the road- we excitedly started collecting bottles until we had armfuls (but sad that this beautiful low-traveled road was so littered). We filled the bottles with muddy water to settle overnight, adding chlorine dioxide tablets to disinfect. The next morning we were on our way to Londres with 6-7.5L of cloudy but settled water each (uff! that equates to 12-15 pounds)! Even though nature was about to stop us, we were able to overcome the obstacle of not having a water source for two days.
The Hayduke Trail covers 800 miles through some of the most remote and challenging country the National Park Service, BLM, and Forest Service have to offer. It links six national parks in Utah and Arizona and is considered very difficult in each of its many sections. Last week, Andrew Rivers, Travis Anderson, and Zach Luinder, began tackling the trail in its entirety, and they plan to do it in just six to seven weeks. These accomplished hikers can boast multiple completions of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail, just to name a few. Their current route is marked by dangerously hot and arid conditions, grueling elevation changes, and some of the most beautiful country in the world. Fortunately, their journey through various remote and fascinating ecosystems will be benefiting the area itself.
It is unusual that we see six in the morning these days. Stumbling off the bus from Córdoba with limbs still half asleep we had arrived in Chilecito. Our mind in a haze, we were enthusiastically greeted by the newest member of our ever-growing wolfpack- Josh Mahan (our guide from rafting the Futaleufu back in December) has joined us for a couple weeks of "wandering in the middle of nowhere." He was stoked to learn we actually, literally, were going to be in the middle of nowhere. Naturally, our estrogen-packed foursome was a little hesitant at first, but after the first discussion of "pee-rags" and his childhood in the yurt, we knew he would mesh well. Josh, however, is not on the lightweight backpacking kick that we are; I am sure everyone who sees our five-some thinks we have hired this male figure as a porter for us, lugging around his monstrous 65L pack.This time of year in the desert the "rivers" marked on the maps no longer exist. Finding water on the trail was not an option. Long thru-hikes, therefore, were also not an option. This was the first time on our journey where running out of water was a serious concern. We transitioned from bringing merely our filled bladders to each bringing an additional 2L bottle for a total of 6L each (heavy!). Our route evolved travelling between towns in multiple two-day stretches via dry washes, as that was as much water we could (or were willing to) carry. Town hopping through the infamous Famatina Valley, our first stop after Chilecito was Famatina itself.
Snapshot:
Aconcagua towers 9,000 feet above our current lunching spot at a scrawny elevation of 13,000 feet. The sheer magnitude of the mountain is hard for us to grasp. Our best attempt at comprehending exactly what 22,841 feet is is to break the south face currently staring at us into 1,000 foot sections. Even then we still can't quite wrap our heads around the number (this could also be a side-effect of our current lack of oxygen). We sit in awe, in the middle of this stunning valley, surrounded by vibrantly colored rock patterns streaking the shark-tooth-ridged 16,000 foot plus peaks on all sides, next to a multi-kilometer long meringue-peaked glacier, while this 22,000 foot "melting Oreo ice cream cake" monster of a mountain silences us with its power. Behind us, the scree flows down the majestic mountains like a dripping watercolor painting, beckoning us to return to camp. So goes our lunch break on just another Saturday in South America.
They have adopted the phrase “one of the exploration world’s last great firsts.” They are men who have
summited the world’s tallest peaks, won national championship adventure races, and completed record
setting rows. Their journey will be nonstop, will take 30 days to cover 1,100 miles of frigid, unforgiving
water, and will make history. In July of 2012, four men will row the Arctic Ocean in a 29-foot-long, six-
foot-wide boat – and they will be doing it for science and conservation.
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