Huayna Potosi & Zongo glacier

Last weekend Maria and I went to the base of Huayna Potosi, 6088m high, to look at the Zongo glacier and its glacial lake, so Maria can use it for her project.

As soon as we got to El Alto, we could see the beautiful mountain of Huayna Potosi, as well as an awesome view over La Paz and Illimani in the background. It's only a one and a half hour ride to the base of the mountain, and in the way you can see an old tin mine, where our driver had worked until they closed it. We drove by the mine's cementery, which was full of graves from all the workers that died in the mine. Quite a sad view.

Illimani to the left with a view over La Paz. And Huayna Potosí to the right, seen from El Alto.

Once we arrived we found a place to sleep in one of the several "refugios" and hiked up to the glacial lake and around the glaciar tongue. It is clear to see how the glacier has retreated, but it is still impressive. We hiked up to a height above 5000 meters where the glacier was wider and then decided to go down, so it wouldn't get too late. We also found interesting beautiful alpine plants, which Andrés enjoyed looking and taking pictures at.

Zongo glacier with Huayna Potosí in the background.

The upper part of the glacier.

Glacier lake.

On our way down we took an alternative route towards the Zongo valley and lagoon, which is actually a dam. The wind was getting stronger and the path more and more unclear. We think we took a llama-trail and not a real trail. But we arrived well to the "refugio" and slept quite well, even though it was very cold, about -8ºC outside. Andrés had only his old summer sleeping bag, so his feet didn't warm up until next day's walk.

The next morning we started walking down the road towards La Paz with the hope of stopping a passing car and get a ride. On the way we saw many llama flocks, as well as a mountain caracaras (below to the left) and an Andean condor (below to the right). We felt really blessed.

Finally, a car took us down to El Alto, from where we walked to the cable-way and got home. It was a short but intense and great trip.