Cerro Tunari and end of Training!

Well its been a little while again... but I think it may be like this from now on. We´ve finished training and have officially been Peace Corps Volunteers for just over a week now. Erica and I are in Tarija city doing some shopping for our new place in our permanent site. We need everything... stove, bed, mattress, chairs, dresser, pots & pans, the whole works. Again we realize the convenience of the US. Since we have a 3-4 hour bus ride out to our site it makes everything more complicated, and the fact that we stay in a hotel when we´re in the city. We´re trying to buy things in small lots so that we don´t have to transport too much at once, and so that we don´t give the impression of super wealthy foreigners moving into a tiny town. We figure it will take a month or two to fully get our place set up.

Anyway, the end of training was good and our swearing in ceremony was fun. We had a day off just before our last week of training and a few of us took advantage of the time and went camping. Actually, we had been eyeing a great mountain all of training and been saying,"One day we´ll climb it..." We knew that after training we´d all be split up and may not have another good chance, so our one day had arrived.

Mount Tunari is the name. We had a great view from our communities all during training and it beckoned to some of us. Some days it would be covered in snow, some days obscured by clouds, some nights the moon hung just above it, it was beautiful. We learned that it was the highest mountain in central Bolivia, and is prominently featured on the label of the local beer, Taquina. A few weeks into training a group of 5 or 6 tried to go up and summit, but they had bad weather and got a late start and ended up on a different mountain. I tried to buy a map at the Military Geographic Institute, but they told me they had sent the map to La Paz. I wasn´t quite sure what that meant, but we decided to try anyway.

(view of Tunari from road outside our house in community)

So three of us, John from Michigan, and Mike from Colorado persuaded our teachers to let us out of class early on a Thursday and we took a Micro to the town of Quillacollo, about 20 minutes out of Cochabamba. There, we looked for a taxi that would drive us as high as the road would go. Our plan was to camp that night, then get up at dawn on Friday and make a push for the summit. We had read that there was a town at about 4200 meters (13,776 ft), and that there was a trail leading 5 or 6 hours to the summit. For perspective, Cochabamba is about 3000 meters (9,840 ft.) It took a bit of haggling, but we finally found a taxi willing to drive us up the mountain. We rode for about 1 1/2 hours, though a few small towns, over a few small streams, and finally reached the highest point on the road. Unfortunately, there really was no town. It was already dark so we hiked up just a little more and made camp. John checked his GPS and we were just over 14,000 ft, already the highest any of us had ever been. Both John and Mike had climbed 12,000 foot peaks in Colorado, and the highest I´d ever been was just under 10,000 ft in Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe. That was years ago with another group of great friends, and we also have some incredible pictures, one photo in particular I´m sure we will never forget.

So we had some food and tried to sleep. Mike and I shared my tent and John slept in his military surplus Bivy sack. It was a rough night. Sleeping at that altitude was difficult because our pulses were racing. Although we were tired and laying down, our hearts were beating as if we´d just run a mile. To make things worse, about 3AM we were hit with freezing rain. Mike and I were pretty OK in the tent, but we were worried about John. It stormed for about 2 hours before clearing up just before dawn. Mike and I managed about 5 hours of sleep, John closer to 2 hours. When we woke up there was ice covering the outside of the tent and our food had frozen. We packed up, ate a little, and headed out from camp a little after 6AM. We all had slight headaches and our hearts were still racing, but the sky was relatively clear.

(morning at 14,000 ft, Mike on L, John on R)

We followed a dirt road for a few hours and passed one small community of about 5 brick houses. We talked to some kids, asked them for directions and took pictures of their llamas. Already the views were incredible and we felt like we were doing something special. Oh, I should mention that the reason we had the day off was that it was Semana Santa, or Good Friday. Bolivians have a custom of going into the mountains on this day and we were told there may be others making the trek up Tunari.

We stopped to eat some more and filter water around 9:30 at a small reservoir. We could see llamas in the distance and still had views of the little community we had passed about an hour prior. The kids told us we wouldn´t be able to see the true peak until we were past the reservoir. Without a map, we were pretty much going on instinct and feeling, but luck was on our side as there were still only passing clouds. John check the GPS at the reservoir and we were over 15,000 feet.

(John filtering water and reservoir at 15,000+ ft)

We left the reservoir and really began feeling the elevation. I was carrying my large pack with the tent and decided to leave it at this point and continue on with only my Camelbak and extra clothes. John and Mike also dropped weight from their packs and we continued up, all feeling much better. Soon the road was no more, but we had our first views of the true summit. We filtered more water from a stream at around 16,000 feet and scouted a route up a ridge and to the summit.

(ridge and summit)

(Mike and John coming up the ridge)

About 11:00 we began the ridge and the final push. It was quite hard, our heads hurt and it was steep, but we were so close. And still the weather was cooperating. It took a little over an hour, but we finally made it up the ridge and gained a summit. After a few minutes we realized we were not on the true summit, and now we could see a small group of people below us. We went down a little and around, then back up and finally reached the true summit. It was awesome. We were exhausted, and honestly not 100% sure we were on the true Tunari. After about 30 minutes three Bolivians reached the summit also. One was a mountain guide who confirmed we had reached Cerro Tunari. The highest mountain in central Bolivia, 5200 meters, 17,056 feet. Amazing. We shared cheese, crackers, salami, and the celebratory cervezas we had carried along. The clouds cleared for a little while and we had views of the Cochabamba valley below and the entire Tunari mountain range. It was beautiful.

(Cerrro Tunari, 5200 meters)

(Bolivian mountain guide, in low-tops and sweat pants) (John and I on summit, Cochabamba in background)

Knowing we had a long trek back we left the summit a little after 1pm. The walk down was also hard, we were tired and now our heads and legs really felt the effects of elevation. We went as fast as we could, but the Bolivians passed us after about an hour even though they stayed on the summit longer. After coming down about 2000 feet we saw the llamas again and sat and watched them and ate a little more.

(road with ridge and summit in background)

About 5pm we reached the community and to our surprise there was a small bus parked there. We had seen a large group of people on another mountain earlier in the day and learned that they were a group of Dutch missionaries who were touring South America. They had rented a bus and come up to the mountains also. We really had no way to get back to the city, our plan was to hail a truck, so we waited for the Dutch group to come down and we asked them for rides. Thankfully, they obliged and only asked for 10 Bolivianos each (about $1.25). The ride home was interesting. The Dutch group was mostly kids, from 14-18 years old. They had only been in Bolivia for two days, coming straight from Europe. They also were not so well prepared for hiking at elevation. While we had pretty serious gear -- hiking boots, fleeces, rain pants, gloves, hydration packs, etc -- most of them hiked in Converse and jeans, and carried small water bottles. Most of them were pretty sick during the ride home, some were throwing up out the window and one guy had fainted during the hike. We were grateful for our US gear.

(waiting for the bus)

We got back to our communities in Cochabamba around 7pm that night. I ate a hearty dinner and tried to go to sleep. To my surprise my heartbeat was still racing and I had a hard time falling asleep. By the next morning my pulse was pretty much back to normal, but still a little fast.

So the three of us had an amazing time, shared some good stories and some good laughs, and made a memory that will last a lifetime. We also all climbed much higher than we´d ever been and were all surprised that we passed the 17,000 foot barrier.

The next day we had our family ceremony and a week later our swearing-in ceremony. We´ve now all gone our separate ways to our permanent sites in Bolivia. John is in the altiplano, near Oruro, about a 10 hour bus ride from Tarija, and Mike is in the chaco, near Santa Cruz, about an 18 hour bus ride from Tarija. We´ll all be back in Cochabamba in July for a 3-month "catch up" meeting. There is already talk of going to the mountains again. We´ll see.

So besides our mountain adventure, we also had our swearing-in ceremony. It was the following Friday at a nice hotel in the city. Everyone got dressed up, I shaved my beard, and we became official Peace Corps Volunteers. The US Ambassador was there as well as representatives from the Embassy and USAID. About 6 weeks prior, the group of 29 was asked to pick a "valedictorian." Someone who they thought could represent the group and deliver a speech at our ceremony. I was honored to be selected by the group to be our representative and give the speech. I was a little nervous, but the speech went great. Erica helped me with ideas and work out the kinks and it had a good balance of humor and seriousness.

(Erica and I with our Training Director, Bill Green; Bill and US Ambassador and I)

(Erica with our Project Director, US Ambassador, and PC Country Director; us after swear-in)

After the ceremony we were treated to dinner at a Brazilian-style steak restaurant. Basically it was all the meat one could ever desire, salad and potatoes. There was even some meat that you may never desire, such as shish-kebabs of chicken hearts. To both of our surprise, the chicken hearts were quite tasty. After the dinner we had a small fiesta with current volunteers to celebrate our new non-trainee status. It was supposed to be a dress up theme party, but our group kind of revolted. We didn´t have time or desire to find costumes so most of us went to the used ropa section of the market during a two hour break and threw together outfits. I was being creative with my beard and left some pretty impressive lamb chops and a large goatee. I´ve since lost the lamb chops in case any of you were worried. Erica went with the standard toga complete with a crown of ivy, although she learned through the night that many Bolivians did not really know what a toga was. She educated them on Roman history and US college traditions that night. A good time was had by all.

So now we´re official. We´ve had just over a week of Volunteer status. We´re setting up our house and beginning to discover what our work will be. I will spend some time in the school this week and Erica will go into the Mayor´s office. We have three months to define and write up a work plan so there is no rush. The most important things now are to integrate into our site and begin to understand what the community needs and wants.

We do not have internet access in our site and there is only one public phone. We plan on coming into Tarija about every three weeks or so and checking email and updating the blog. Thanks to all who´ve been reading and again for your support in this adventure.

(last day of training)

Hasta lluego,

Marcos