Part 34 - Chacaltaya and the Moon Valley

From the left, Huayna Potosí, Larissa, me, and Aaron

A lovely German couple I met on the Salkantay trek (Aaron and Larissa) invited me to join them on a day trek from La Paz to see Chacaltaya and the Moon Valley. It all sounded very civilised and convivial (and safe) so I signed up, not stopping at any point to find out what Chacaltaya was, or more importantly, how we were going to get there.  

We set off in a minibus, and not before long, we were weaving our way up a mountain road with a 100m drop merely inches away. Somehow I always seem to pick the seat on the precipice side. Even this wouldn't have been too bad if the driver didn't have to stop every so often TO REBUILD THE EFFING ROAD. (Don't be fooled by the terrain in this video, the only time I felt safe recording the impromptu roadworks was when we weren't dangling on the edge of a cliff).

They really do love a dangerous road in Bolivia. And I hadn't even been to the Death Road yet (see Part 35).

Suddenly the road ended and we arrived at a small car park beside a couple of seemingly abandoned buildings, one of which looked like it was about to fall off a cliff. As an aficionado of ghost towns and buildings, I was disappointed to find that even in a "do what you like" country such as Bolivia, someone had the foresight to lock up the building so I couldn't have a nosy around. 

How did they even build that conservatory?

Nextdoor was the slightly less abandoned Chacaltaya Ski Lodge which, at one time, was home to the highest ski report in the world. Thanks to climate change, there was barely a flake of snow to be seen and nobody has skied here since 2009 (edit: just realised it was summer. But there's hee-haw snow there in winter either). It was kinda eerie, even more so when some old chap emerged from the semi-ruins to sell us an entry ticket. How the hell did he even get up there in the first place?

With its spooky caretaker, this place wouldn't have looked out of place in a Scooby-Doo cartoon

Sadly, the ski lift was long since out of commission, so we had to climb the remaining 300 or so metres to the top. At 5,400m, this was probably the highest I'd been on this trip (or ever, if you discount flying in aeroplanes). Under normal circumstances, the climb wouldn't have been much of a challenge, but at this altitude, I need to stop every 30 seconds just to my breath back (there was about 50% less oxygen than you'd normally find at sea level).

The remains of the ski lift

New roof needed

I need a holiday

The remains of the ski lift did make for quite a handy "whirligig" for taking panoramic views of the surrounding areas. 

After lunch (the time, not the actual meal, of which there was none to be had), we returned to La Paz. Despite the fact that the road was barely wide enough for a minibus, we passed a full sized bus that we were assured was also making the same trip. 

We were en route to Moon Valley, named by Neil Armstrong as it resembled the surface of the moon. Not that it was without its charms, but after the literal highs of the morning, a park full of knobbly rocks seemed to be a bit of an anti-climax (and getting here required us to drive through La Paz, where every hour is rush hour). 

Still, overall, a great day out - the tour guide was really good and spoke excellent English, and I was only made to feel like a pariah about six or seven times for being the only person not proficient enough in Spanish not to require any translations.