Sunday (Feb 6) we left Oruro around noon and headed for Sajama National Park. We were destined to have the time of our life, or perhaps more aptly stated: the ride of our life. A driver, Edwin, and five of us were in a 4-wheel drive vehicle designed for four adults and a seat in the very back, which was meant for small children. Somehow I lucked out with the front passenger seat and was quite comfortable.

I suppose it's time to introduce some of the travelers who were along with us for Rutahsa's 2005 Bolivia trip:

We made fast friends with Larry and Judi F who are from San Diego. I enjoyed their outlook on life, good humor, terrific story telling and love of life. I learned a lot from them including tips on how to travel light, find good travel deals and arrange independent travel. I hope they also gleaned some tips from our travel experiences. Judi is a researcher and grant-writer who specializes in early speech & cognitive development. Larry is a professor who teaches and conducts research in child development. Judy W, also from San Diego, works in the same office as Judi F. The three of them had traveled together before on many trips and they were quite gracious to treat Ray and I as long lost friends. In a manner of speaking, the five of us had become a happy family quite quickly.

The middle seat of our 4-wheel drive would not stay fixed, so it glided. Judi and Judy kept sliding back and forth (and, we hadn't even left the paved roads.) Ray and Larry were in the child-sized backseat, which kept a very upright pitch. So, for hours we entertained ourselves by trying to remain comfortable, telling stories and carrying-on.

We stopped for lunch at Patacamaya about 2:30. The most notable thing about our luncheon spot was little clear plastic bags of water hanging under each ceiling light in the small restaurant: these were to frighten the flies away. Evidently the confusing light patterns created actually does keep the flies away. While we ate Edwin arranged to have the seats fixed. So, the remainder of our journey to Sajama was much less like a circus ride than earlier in the day.

The landscape had been quite bleak until we passed by a Bolivian military zone. We had seen mile upon mile of stark altiplano with the high Andes Mountains way off in the distance. This was different. All of a sudden in the middle of nowhere were little round huts painted in camouflage designs which jumped out at you. How could you not notice? Furthermore, to grab your visual sensitivities, cactus had been planted all along its perimeter in the colors of Bolivia's flag: red, yellow and green. Larry commented, "That one died of embarrassment". (Poor dead cactus with its colors showing through its decay!) We got the biggest chuckle out of all these patriotic one to three foot tall cacti which had been spaced evenly apart every fifteen feet or so.

About 4:45 we turned off on a dirt road to see the ruins of a church which had been built in the 1600's on an Inca holy site. Our altitude was 12,765 feet and we were near Curahuara de Carangas. My legs appreciated the stretch and my eyes appreciated the scenic beauty.

We went back out the dirt road to the pavement, drove past the city of Curahuara de Carangas and on to Sajama National Park. As we approached our destination every direction held new and glorious visual delights. It would be the next morning before we would see how fabulous this location actually was because low hanging clouds obstructed a truly fabulous view. The exotic flora impressed me. A break opened in the clouds and revealed Mount Sajama. We asked Edwin for a photo stop and took the first of many, many photos of Sajama, Bolivia's highest mountain. Along the way we saw a vizcacha, a high jumping rabbit. We also passed by llama and sheep grazing on the kewpie doll shaped grasses. I later learned this kewpie doll shaped grass is called paja brava, 'brave straw' by the natives. Campesinos burn it in the winter and spring so the plant will grow tender shoots for the animals. It snowed and hailed for awhile and the landscape became covered with a powdered-sugar like dusting. Forty-five minutes of daylight remained when we arrived at the Tomarapi ecotourist lodge about 6 PM.

The lodge sleeps 5 or 6 people to the room and there are accommodations for about 20 people total. Our group of five bunked together. Summertime in Bolivia: dont let that fool you -- Sajama National Park is cold! I was not the only one to hurry to the quick-change room (a.k.a. bathroom) and slip on silk long underwear. Tomarapi uses solar energy for lighting, a fire would be lit to provide hot water for the morning and our room was quite comfortable once the gas heater had been on for a few hours.

The evening passed quickly. Ray and I wandered outside and explored before dinner. We wandered through a herd of llamas and admired the pristine beauty. I welcomed the warm dinner. We had soup, followed by a llama-meat main course and Jell-O for dessert. Back to our rooms it was lights out, a wake-up alarm set for 6:00 AM and a no giggling rule. I was fast asleep.

Ray somehow sneaked out early in the morning well before sunrise. I heard him come back in. "You've got to get up! It's fantastic out here!", exclaimed Ray.

Next was Larry saying, "Judi, what's taking you so long?"

And Judi's response, "I didn't sleep in my clothes like some people".

Well, Ray and I do a fair bit of camping and each of us decided the night before to sleep camping style, which is in our clothes. I was glad for the quick start: jump out of bed and go! Ray was right. It was fantastic! There was a chill in the morning air, but it was much warmer than the day before. The low clouds disappeared during the night and all around us were tall snow-capped mountains. Thanks to Ray I was outside and caught the first glimpse of sunlight as it hit the mountains and surrounding landscape. Breakfast was to be served at 6:30 and I think everyone was about fifteen minutes late because the morning light was just so glorious and captivating.

I purchased some nice hand-woven alpaca hats for 16 Bolivianos each at the little shop inside Tomarapi's restaurant. The weather was glorious so I made another trip to our quick-change room and removed my silk long underwear. After breakfast it didn't take our group of adventures long to be seated in our four-wheel drive vehicles ready to explore Sajama.

Our first stop was at a lagoon (I believe it was Laguna Huaña Khota.), where we saw giant coots and flamingos. Ray's altimeter read 14,150 feet. Twin volcanoes, the Payachatas, Mount Sajama and other majestic, tall snow-capped mountains graced every vista. We hiked up to a large boulder-shaped yaneta plant that was bright mossy-green in color and about three or four feet in diameter. Our guides explained that if you cut into the plant you would find perhaps a foot of dense, soft, mossy plant life before you hit rock. Yaneta grows about a centimeter per year and some of the bigger plants are around 2500 years old. The natives burn this plant for fuel.

Thola, another plant, grows all over the altiplano. This plant is small and shrub-like. Although it is similar in size and shape to sagebrush of the desert southwest USA, it lacks a pungent smell and is green in color. There are six or seven varieties and locals also burn this plant for fuel.

Next, we drove through Patococo Zona where we passed many herds of vicuña. We got out once again and hiked around. Here we saw lesser rheas, Andean geese, many vicuña and some small dwellings. Binoculars were an asset here and provided close-up looks. (Don't leave home without them!)

Our next destination was to the trailhead leading to Sajama. It was at a spot of this trail where we burned the offering prepared by the kallawaya in La Paz. We were informed the best times of day to make an offering to pachamama were 6 and 12. Our guides, Eliazar and Natalie, kept us on schedule and we made our offering at 14,500 feet just at noon.

On the way up the trailhead we were instructed to pick up a rock which we felt an affinity for to use as part of the offering ceremony. The rocks were placed in a pile to create a cairn and symbolized our own Andean apu, a sacred mountain. We built our apu between the fire and Mount Sajama. Sounds of a burbling brook and a few birds provided background music.

Eliazar explained the items, which the kallawaya included in our offering. A key component of the offering was a dried llama fetus. Because of the conditions on the altiplano many llama are aborted and it is the aborted fetus that is offered to pachamama. Llamas are sacred animals and are put on top of the mesa. (Mesa is the word used for offering.) Many other items had been placed beneath the dried llama fetus. Many of these items were special shapes made from sugar to provide a sweet presentation to pachamama. Silver icicles (like what is used to decorate Christmas trees) represented how rich the land was before the conquest. Star-shaped sugary shapes in the mesa represent appreciation for the significant role that the constellations played in timing agricultural plantings. Llama-shaped sugary shapes represent the sacred llamas.

We were each given coca leaves to chew. We chewed them, created a wad and moved the wad of coca leaves to a pouch in our cheeks. Eliazar explained ritual components of an offering are done three times: once for pachamama (the earth), once for the sky, and once for what's below the earth.

As we stood in a circle around the fire, Eliazar said some prayers in Spanish, which thanked pachamama & Tata (father) Sajama for our journey. A small bottle of red wine was poured in a counter clockwise motion over the offering. He asked for our safety, health, a good journey and each participant's intentions. He then poured some 100 proof alcohol on each of mesa's four corners in a counter-clockwise motion. (Counter clockwise was represents the turn of the ancient Andean cross: the symbol is a mirror image of the Nazi swasticka.) ". Eliazar drank a little of the alcohol and finished by saying "Hallalla" (roughly translated as "cheers"). We echoed back, "Hallalla". He then passed the alcohol to the next person. Then, in turn each of us said our own prayer, poured the alcohol on the four corners of the mesa (beginning with the corner closest to the apu we had built), took a sip and ended our prayer with "Hallalla". The group repeated, "Hallalla".

All the items in the mesa had been placed on a piece of white paper. Eliazar and Ric picked up the mesa by holding the corners of the paper and placed it on the fire. After the mesa began to burn, Eliazar poured the remainder of the alcohol on our apu. We deposited our chewed coca leaves on the fire and left pachamama to consume the offering. (Pacamama prefers to consume the offerings in private and it is supposedly bad luck to hang around and watch.)

After making our offering we walked down the trailhead to where we had parked the four-wheel drive vehicles. From this vantage point we could see the system of Pre-Columbian lines or ritual paths. These lines are much like the Nazca lines in form and make straight lines that point to the sacred mountains. We picnicked amongst the keñua trees and boulders with our box lunches: llama-meat sandwiches, apples, peach nectar, chips, some chocolate bars and little candies. Well nourished we headed off to explore the hot springs and geysers in other areas of the park. The hike right after lunch at the hot springs wore me out. So, when we arrived at the geysers I enjoyed the scenery and skipped out on the hike to the best geysers. I had noticed earlier in the trip that right after eating was not the time for me to hike at this altitude; and probably should have skipped out on the first hike. Missing that hike would have been pure torture because the splendid scenery and terrain captivated me. You do what you've got to do!

Ray's altimeter came in at 14,755 feet while we were exploring the wonders of Sajama National Park and would remain the trip's record height.

Email address for Tomarapi Ecotourist Lodge: tomarapi@hotmail.com Phone/Fax: (00 591 2) 241-4753 (La Paz)

Drive from Sajama National Park to Oruro

We left the splendors of Sajama National Park late afternoon. On the way back to Oruro we stopped in Curahuara de Carangas to see the 'Sistine Chapel of the Altiplano'. When we arrived at Curahuara de Carangas a small group of campesinos were conducting a blessing ritual around the four corners of the town's plaza. I was glad to have had the exposure to our own blessing ceremony. This experience let me understand at least a little when I heard the 'Hallalla' refrain. After their ceremony finished in front of the church we entered and viewed the fabulous murals. Murals cover the walls and ceiling of this Colonial era church. Scenes depict many of the Bible's most important stories: Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, the Last Supper, Christ's passion and the final judgement. The work was similar to a lot of medieval church murals I have seen because they were highly stylized, decorative and colorful with a Mestizo-Baroque quality. One interesting touch to the Last Supper painting is that native foods are used with guinea pig featured as the main dish.

We passed funerary towers, chullpas, on the way back and stopped along the road to inspect them. We learned these towers were 500 years old, usually one person was buried in each tower with their possessions and the taller towers we for more important persons. Doors to these towers faced east.

On the drive back our driver, Edwin, was quite sleepy. Our group stopped to buy him coffee and I used every bit of conversational Spanish I knew to help keep him awake. We were all so relieved to arrive back in Oruro safely about 9:00 PM.

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Come visit with me at http://travelerstogo.com/ by posting your follow-up questions in the Carribean, Mexico, Central & South American forum. My alias is Sharon Mc1, and I am the destination moderator for that forum -- I love talking about travel!

I recently wrote a practical travel guide for the Peruvian and Bolivian high Andes. I had a great deal of fun writing it, and particularly enjoyed writing the restaurant reviews. Here is the link:

http://p104.ezboard.com/feuropetogofrm21.showMessage?topicID=40.topic

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Articles in this series include:

Miami, Jupiter, & the Everglades (Florida) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141804/index.html

La Paz, Tiwanaku & Valley of the Moon (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141500/index.html

Oruro Carnival (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141977/index.html

Sajama National Park (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/143197/index.html

Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/143714/index.html

Train Graveyard - Uyuni (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141742/index.html

Train Graveyard - Pulacayo (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/141647/index.html

Along the Road from Uyuni to Potosí (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/143868/index.html

Potosí (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/145509/index.html

Sucre (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/182068/index.html

Tarabuco (Bolivia) http://worldisround.com/articles/182063/index.html

Jatun Yampara (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/169005/index.html

Lake Titikaka (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/261030/index.html

Copacabana (Bolivia) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/261498/index.html

Along the Road - Copacabana (Bolivia) to Puno (Peru) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/261584/index.html

Cusco, Sacsayhuaman & Lima (Peru) http://www.worldisround.com/articles/270254/index.html