Second week in Bolivia

At the mo I am resting in the hotel in La Paz after driving into the city at 6 o'clock this morning to avoid traffic. All went well, luckily.

After my last post I travelled to the national park of Sajama. Nevado Sajama is also the highest mountain in Bolivia, at 6542 m. The weather was good and I got some classic shots of the glacier covered volcano. However on day two it all changed and I got heavy rain and thunder. I am quit fund of these conditions since they give the opportunity of getting something else. Above is the top of Sajama behind a rain shower.

There were plenty of wildlife in the park. I spent a night and a morning by a lake, getting nice light on some water birds. The park was also a good place to spot Vicuñas, the wild relative of the Llamas. Estimates suggest there were more than one million Vicuñas in Bolivia during pre-Inca times, however in 1965 just 6000 remained. The numbers are now up again, but the beautiful animal is still considered threatened.

After Sajama I wanting to experience more of Bolivia I travelled further north to Lake Titicaca, on the border to Peru. The lake is enormous and is situated 3810 meters above the ocean. There was plenty of birds along the shore to observe and work with. However, for me it is more important to include more of the landscapes in pristine places like this. Below is a flock of cormorants moving above the Lago Menor in the evening.

The climate on the Altiplano is rather challenging, but at the same time predictable, hot in the day and bitterly cold in the night. Differences during my stay varied between about 25-30 Celsius in the day and -5 in the night. At Titicaca every evening brought winds and as the day turned into night, lightning and thunder struck the shores.

On my last day I went to the nice town of Sorata. At only 2695 it was clearly easier to breath! The town is right in between the Altiplano and the Yungas, and the rainforest. In a way it was a short glimpse of what I might expect on my next trip to this stunningly diverse country.


PS! Now I am really curious to learn more about the new Nikon D3s released two days after I left!!!