Altitude attitude

The highest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciuszko at 2228m altitude. Now in South America, they scarcely bother giving such little hills a name. 

We marveled at the passes over the Andes between Chile and Argentina, and were turned back from a few due to weather and rockfalls - which only added to the mystique. We ticked off the major milestones as we passed them at 1923m (Mt Feathertop our Australian favorite), 2228m Mt Kosciuszko, 2500m, 3000m etc.  

We received our first taste of altitude sickness one night when we camped at 3650m with a breathless broken sleep, headache and nausea. But after spending some time traveling the Alta Plano in Bolivia at around 3800m for weeks, any thing under about 4000m seemed rather pedestrian.

The Mitsubishi Fuso begins to get noticeably breathless at about 4200m where the accelerator stops responding properly, and the engine tops out at about 2400rpm. Usually when you run out of power ascending a hill, changing down a gear delivers plenty more power. Not so at altitude, where changing to a higher gear (and lower rpm) delivers more power.

Our highest camp was at 5100m on the side of Volcan Ollague, perched on a tight switch-back on a ridge-line to avoid rocks coming down overnight. The following morning we drove to our highest point at 5350m, where the road became impassable. We managed another breathless 200m altitude on foot over the next hour or so. It was a fascinating experience.

We spent another memorable night at the stunning turquoise glacial Punta Olimpica at  4670m. The following day we descended over 4550m - fully twice the height of Australia!

Yet another fantastic experience was paddling for a couple of hours at 4350m on  Lago Surasaca in the fantastic Zona Reservada Cordillera Huayhuas in Peru.

We could not resist, at the end of our time in South America, making a mad dash up the length of Argentina, to spend just a few more days and nights at altitude.

5★ Peru 2017-10-01

We reached this late camp at an unnamed lake at 4884m altitude after a adventurous climb and a gallery of spectacular colors in the evening light. Cold, breathless and isolated. map

5★ Peru, Punta Olimpica 2017-09-25

The approach to this pass was spectacular up a steep paved road, with multiple switchbacks and glaciers hanging from the mountains. The ultimate summit was undercut by a tunnel but the old road to the original pass remained. We camped at 4670m altitude above the tunnel, and overlooking a stunning turquoise glacial lake. In the morning we attempted the original pass but were blocked by rock falls, and so reverted to the tunnel. map

5★ Peru, Surasaca 2017-08-08

We had a very interesting day and it was getting late as we headed north into Coordillera Huayhuash - famous for trekking, and infamous for violence done to trekkers. We found this camp within inches of Laguna Sura Saca at 4350m altitude. We enjoyed a visit from the local farmer, his brother and his son - a bright eyes lad of fifteen. The scenery was spectacular and we paddled the length of the lake in the morning, before a second visit from the lad - proudly on his pony. map

5★ Peru Chinchaycocha 2017-08-07

This expansive shallow lake is very close to the most distant tributary of the Amazon river. A partially constructed, and entirely under-utilized, visitor viewing area offered an ideal camp overlooking the waters and wildlife. map

5★ Peru Carpapata 2017-08-05.

We were traveling north along a relatively good, but very high gravel road in Peru, marveling at the potato farmers working the severe slopes. This camp was just 150m off the road, over the ridge-line and out of sight. On occasion, we could hear the political propaganda wafting up from the village, perhaps some 600m below, but entirely out of sight. It was cold at 4300m altitude. map

★★★★★ camps

One of the great delights in traveling the way we do is the prospect spending our evenings and mornings in spectacular locations. The things that really make a location special for us include a superb view, a sense of isolation, exposure, extremes in geography or weather, and a cheeky position (internet access is a bonus). We usually start looking for a camp from 2-3 hours before dusk, and sometimes we end up camping in the dark (makes for an interesting sunrise). I select a single photo to try and capture the essence of each camp. There is also a map

Our most wonderful camps in South America include ....

Chile, Volcan Lliama 2017-05-23
Chile, Pichidangul 2017-06-05
Chile, El Espino 2017-06-06
Chile, El Totoral 2017-06-14
Chile, CuadrillaDiez 2017-06-18
Chile, Caleta La Cichara 2017-06-25
Chile, Vocan Ollague 2017-06-29
Bolivia, Laguna Pastos Grandes 2017-07-01
Peru, Carpapata 2017-08-05
Peru, Chinchaycocha 2017-08-07
Peru, Surasaca 2017-08-08
Peru, Punta Olimpica 2017-09-25
Peru, 2017-10-01
Bolivia, 2017-11-07
Uruguay, San Gregorio De Polanco 2017-12-22
Argentina, Priest Road 2018-01-02
Argentina, Las Vegas 2018-01-08
Argentina, Parque Provinvial Laguan Daimante 2018-01-09
Argentina, Parque Provinvial Laguan Daimante 2018-01-10
Argentina, El Tromen 2018-01-13
Argentina, Punta Ninfas Lighthouse 2018-03-06
Argentina, Cabo San Pablo 2018-04-11
Argentina, Tolombon 2018-05-09
Argentina, El Quenoal 2018-01-13

2017-10-09 Day 176 Mon

Drove to the Peru/Chile border and crossed without any concerns. We did not have one of the pieces of paperwork, a lady in the queue said she had a spare and retrieved it from her car. The Chile Customs took all our food scraps (I had not found a pig to feed in the past few days). All the other food had been cooked including the eggs so all good there. They did not want the ginger.

Found Kaufmann after traveling a few roads, but they were closed for a public holiday. Located TNT for our tires so we knew where to go the next day. 

Found a nice spot above the ocean south of Arica and had an early camp and lazy afternoon.

2017-10-08 Day 175 Sun

The sealed road only lasted a few more km’s then back to gravel. Drove through some fantastic dessert. 

I was feeling a bit time pressured as we needed to get to Arica by the 9^th to give us a few days to organize the vehicle parking and service, collect 4 new tyres  and who knows what will be around the next corner.

A lot of work is being done on this road and we were wondering if they will seal it.

The road improved greatly and in the end we were doing our set limit of 75kph. We made it to Los Palos just a 30 min drive before the border to Chile.

We finally found a nice camp on the beach after a few false starts.

381km

2017-10-07 Day 174 Sat

Had breakfast in the house with Marie family and students. We wondered up town to the markets to try to find a hat for JG. Didn’t find what we were looking for but found a hat and a little cap and Jumper for Greg and Lisa’s baby. Spent some time in EC waiting for Maria. Finally John went to get out laundry off the line and woke Maria.

Got Johns glasses and said our goodbye’s. Headed out of town rather late… SE towards Puquina.

We had trouble getting on high way, the entry ramp had road works on it. So rather a long way round to join up with highway. Then a road block where we watched a policeman try to get a big truck around a very tight corner with cars and bikes getting in the way. The truckie gave up and parked, I guess he will wait till the road reopens.

I think the witch directed us on the wrong road, as after 2hrs of very rough road, we joined onto a sealed road, what a relief. On dusk we turned onto a side road along a ridge and camped near a aqua duct.

64km today.

2017-10-06 Day 173 Fri

-6.3°C last night. Caterina and Adrian did not freeze into their roof top tent. Together we drove out a different route which at times was quite rough. Lots of Vacuna and Suri which is on the endangered list. Said good bye and then decided instead of going all the way round on red road we would cut the corner off the park.

Great white road across but when we got to the red road very glad we had not gone around. Very, very rough and corrugated. Stopped near the salt lake for lunch. The salt lake was being dug up and put into trucks – not the salt but the mud underneath. Saw about 15 trucks motoring across the salt.

Saw two salt-devils out on the salt pan.

Arrived into Areiquipa and did a quick shop. Don't want to buy much as Chile will take all fresh fruit & veg & eggs off us.

Parked outside Maria’s house which has had a major face-lift and looks great. We gave EC a quick internal clean and then Maria came out to see us. Great to catch up. We had a shower and took a couple of bottles of wine and sat in the lovely front garden. An Alaskan family and an American lady, are all staying here so lots of talking. Chicken soup for supper and off to bed.

2017-10-05 Day 172 Thu

Woke up to watch eagles gliding below us. A great view. Have decided to go north of Arequipa into the Reserva National Salinas y Aguada Blanca and not to enter it from the southern side.

The red road that skirts Arequipa to the West is obviously the main route to Cusco and Puno. Full of trucks and buses. A fast road but way too busy for our liking….

The train that kept us awake while staying in Arequipa with Maria.

We finally found a track off the road and perched on a hillock for lunch. Just as we were cleaning up we had visitors. Yes Adrian and Caterina (from ICA supermarket) had seen us perched and stopped by. They informed us that the southern route into the park was not passable. We decided to go find a camp spot together

The two roads into the park on our map had been closed off but google maps showed another that was still usable, so we drove down a lovely smooth sandy track to the reservoir and camped above it.

Saw one Vacuna chasing another so stopped and watched. We assume that the Alfa male was removing a young male from his herd.

We had a nice time in EC Chatting and eating dinner. Nice to get to know some fellow traveling Aussies.

2017-10-04 Day 171 Wed

Drove down more switchbacks on a rough road to the archeology site. No one was around so we entered and had a look around. A big site and well worth a visit.

Now on a reasonable yellow dirt road. Which finally turned to bitumen. The valley floors here are well irrigated. There are small herds of dairy cows and lots of different crops growing.





We had a diversion around road-works which was not well signposted, but finally found the guy waving a red stop sign in a corn field. A very narrow windy road up out of the river bed. Made it to the tarseal again only to initially turn the wrong way until map was consulted. We had crossed from one converging road onto the other so were now on the other side of the valley.

Starting at 400m alt we drove up the side of a cliff to the top at 1050m alt. We camped overlooking the very fertile valley floor.