We arrived in La Paz, Bolivia yesterday morning after ten hours of flying and were exhausted. We got a taxi and headed to the hotel where we met the rest of our group who had gotten there the day before. There are nine people on our climb including me and my dad. Our group comes from Ohio, California, the UK, and includes a father and son from Texas. Our guide is named Alejandro and he is from Ecuador; he is very nice. He will also be our guide when we do Aconcagua in December. I am the only girl. Everyone is super nice and friendly. We won't start hiking for a few days because we have to get used to the elevation first. The elevation of La Paz is around 12,000 ft.
From the hotel, we drove two hours to a village to look at ancient ruins. A local named Rosemary is extremely knowledgeable on Bolivia's history and she will travel with us for the first few days to teach us about the culture. Along the way to the village we stopped to see the view of the Kari Kari mountain range which is in the Bolivian Andes. They were really beautiful. Rosemary taught us a phrase to thank the mountains "Achachicha" and then we continued on the bus. We got to the village and then Rosemary showed us around the old destroyed temples that pre-dated the Incas. She told us the temples which had been destroyed were from around 12-700 BC. She gave the group each a necklace that had a spiritual symbol on it and explained what it meant. My dad's was a turtle and represented Mother Earth and nature. Mine was two people hugging and represented unconditional love. Rosemary explained that this was not love from humans; it was love from the gods because humans can't love unconditionally but the gods can.
After that, we went to Rosemary's house and she showed us a religious ritual and explained what everything represented. She told us that her house was a very spiritual place and that people came from all over to see it. The house was full of color and all of the walls were painted with beautiful pictures. In the middle of the house there was a huge hole in ground. There were steps that went in circles down into the hole and the bottom was full of rocks. We all sat down on some chairs and she started the ceremony. She first passed a bag of coca leafs around and had us each choose four with an intention for each of them. Then she went around asking us questions about where we were from and to say our names. Each time we stated a place or our names she put a piece of some type of spice in a little basket. Then she lined the basket with all of our leaves and she handed us all different shaped drawings. On each of the drawings, which we later found out were made of sugar, there was a spiritual meaning. She told us what they all meant and then had us put them into the basket. Then she put more little carvings made out of sugar into the baskets, like llamas which are a special religious animal. Once it was full, we brought it outside and burned it, sending our blessings up to the gods. Then we ate lunch and drove another three hours to where we would stay for the next few days, called Copacabana, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We had dinner at one of Rosemary favorite restaurants and then headed to our hotel where I fell right to sleep.
From Mom-Mom: Mother Earth and your Dad’s turtle will see you through this amazing journey!
That’s so cool Emma! Stay safe out there in the 🏔️’s
Wow is right. How exciting. Hope this comment makes it. Prior ones didn’t.
Wow!!!