From La Paz we took a bus to Patacamaya, which dropped us off at the side of the highway. From there, it was 10 blocks to the city centre of Patacamaya - we went to find the bus terminal, but there was none just about 3 minibuses going different directions. We were lucky because the one for Sajama was leaving in just 15min, we made it! We loaded our backpacks onto the roof and squeezed inside the car - we were 18 in a car for 9.

The road to Sajama was mostly deserted and went along some beautiful canyons. Bolivia has huge problems with lack of water and it was really visible here. The rivers had poor streams or none. Tap water is also not suitable for drinking, so you have to buy bottled water all the time…

As we were approaching to Sajama, the Sajama Nevado appeared in our sight. It is a 6500m volcano, whose peak is always snow covered. Besides the mountains, the area is quite flat, but sits at an enormous elevation of 4200m!

When we arrived to Sajama, it was cold. So I bought a lama beanie and Simon a lama scarf to have something warm. We sat for beer and snacks with our Italian and Austrian friends from the minivan. I got bread with egg and Simon got “maiz tostado”, which was popcorn instead of a cornflour toast (new vocab learned!). Soon we left Sajama to go camping. In about 30min, it started heavily raining and we had to build the tent - we didn’t make it quite so far…

The next day, we enjoyed some hot springs. First, we were in a really nice natural pool with the perfect view on the Nevado, which just peeped out from behind the clouds. The other pools were man made and the lady told us they built them only 3 months ago. Brand new facilities, Bolivia is heavily investing in tourism, which is good because it gives employment to the local communities.

Tonight, we camped out at 4600m and when we were inside the tent, it started hailing. It was a very cold night and in the morning, we had frost on our tent and there was snow all around. We got up and started going up to the Lagunas Altas - the ascent was incredibly hard in this elevation, we had to stop every 50 vertical meters to breathe some more air… At one of those stops, we made a fire and ate breakfast, tasty rice with seeds.

Then, it started snowing. But there was no way back so we continued going up.. Eventually, we made it to the first Laguna and thankfully the sun came out! I couldn’t resist taking a swim at 5300m, the highest I’ve ever been in my life, even if it would be bloody cold. I was surprised it actually wasn’t that bad, I could stay in the water for 15 seconds..

We were on the border with Chile and had to continue leftwards onto the snow field. It wasn’t deep, only 10cm or so. There was loads of wildlife around - birds in the lagunas including Flamingos and rabbits just about everywhere. The views were stunning. Finally, we were going down, the Nevado was again in our sight. We both had a small headache from the elevation change, but coca leaves work perfectly against this :)

During our last night, we camped out by the geysirs. They were many and each of them of different temperature or colours. I took a free bath in the creek coming out of them in the morning, that was so nice! We then walked back to Sajama, hitched to the main road (but of course Bolivians asked us to pay..) and then stopped a bus going from Chile and we were on our way to the Oruro Carnaval!

Costs:

• bus from la paz to Patacamaya B$15
• minibus to Sajama B$30
• National Park fee B$100
• breakfast in Sajama (for us dinner) B$20
• hot springs spa B$30 pp (we paid B$45)