In the morning, we revisited the devil's throat. Somehow, it looked a lot less menacing in the plain light of day ;-)
The guide showed us that we could also go inside, and of course I had to go too. This is the rest of the group seen from inside:
And if these rocks inside the throat don't look like the head of some mythical dragon-type monster, I'll eat a broomstick ;-)
Nearby there was a rock with a nice view - and the possibility to shoot dangerous-looking pictures:
After this detour, we returned to the village to climb the Maragua crater on the other side. The French couple had brought a bunch of pencils and the guide suggested to distribute them in front of the village school. Each of the kids was really happy to receive a pencil - a simple pencil! This finally made me realize how poor Bolivia really is, and I had tears in my eyes as we left.
Throughout the day, we encountered many animal herds that were being driven to or from pasture grounds. Most had about 20 to 40 animals, consisting of a mix of goats, sheep, donkeys, cows, and dogs, accompanied by the woman or couple owning them. If the dogs didn't do their herding job well enough, the woman aided by throwing stones at stray animals with a surprising accuracy.
The landscape was amazing again. Just look at the colors on these rocks!
The farm on the next picture is one of the bigger settlements we went past. Although we were at some 3000m of altitude, the smell of the fields and flowers, and the busy hum of the bees, reminded me of home in the summer.
Our guide told us that the people living in these mountainous areas don't even have beds in their houses. When I asked why - there were trees enough available to construct beds on the spot - he said that they sleep on sheep pelts on the ground, and that it might actually be warmer that way.
Our lunch spot today was right next to a huge rock with 65 million year old dinosaur footprints.
Just imagine - these are actual footprints left by animals that lived 65 MILLION YEARS ago! Here's a medium-sized one with my hand in it, just to give you an impression how big these guys were:
I wondered how they had been able to leave traces in stone, and the guide explained that the meteor that ultimately led to their extinction had heated, and thus softened, the stone. So as the dinosaurs tried to escape from this sudden hell, they ran over molten stone, leaving footprints that solidified when the stone began to cool down again. I found it really amazing to look at these prints and imagine how they were once part of events that would be prime action movie material.
A little later, we passed the village of Chullpa. We all knew that Bolivian people do not like to be photographed, so we were thankful to find some cows with nice ear decorations as substitute motives.
However, as we started taking pictures of the cows, we heard people yelling something that sounded like "don't take pictures!" A minute later, one of the men came towards us and started a discussion with our guide. He used a mix of Quechua and Spanish, so none of us was able to really understand all of it. What we could gather was that he was arguing that we'd need a permission to photograph anything in the village: people, animals, houses, mountain scenery - anything. After a few minutes of arguing, our guide accompanied the man to the village school. When they returned, he wrote down the phone number of the condor trekkers office on a piece of wall - apparently the school needs some support to build bathrooms and to buy food for the pupils. This finally made me wonder: was the entire picture-taking discussion only a ruse to procure money from condor trekkers? I'm certain they really are poor and in need of support, but they are also competing for it with a bunch of other villages...
After this event, the rest of the trek was fairly tranquil, so that the spectacular landscape could once again be our main object of focus:
During all three days of the trek, we found columns of leafcutter ants crossing our path. Apparently, they form quite a complex society, but what caught my attention without knowing that was leaves wandering over the ground seemingly on their own ;-)
The guide showed us that we could also go inside, and of course I had to go too. This is the rest of the group seen from inside:
And if these rocks inside the throat don't look like the head of some mythical dragon-type monster, I'll eat a broomstick ;-)
Nearby there was a rock with a nice view - and the possibility to shoot dangerous-looking pictures:
After this detour, we returned to the village to climb the Maragua crater on the other side. The French couple had brought a bunch of pencils and the guide suggested to distribute them in front of the village school. Each of the kids was really happy to receive a pencil - a simple pencil! This finally made me realize how poor Bolivia really is, and I had tears in my eyes as we left.
Throughout the day, we encountered many animal herds that were being driven to or from pasture grounds. Most had about 20 to 40 animals, consisting of a mix of goats, sheep, donkeys, cows, and dogs, accompanied by the woman or couple owning them. If the dogs didn't do their herding job well enough, the woman aided by throwing stones at stray animals with a surprising accuracy.
The landscape was amazing again. Just look at the colors on these rocks!
The farm on the next picture is one of the bigger settlements we went past. Although we were at some 3000m of altitude, the smell of the fields and flowers, and the busy hum of the bees, reminded me of home in the summer.
Our guide told us that the people living in these mountainous areas don't even have beds in their houses. When I asked why - there were trees enough available to construct beds on the spot - he said that they sleep on sheep pelts on the ground, and that it might actually be warmer that way.
Our lunch spot today was right next to a huge rock with 65 million year old dinosaur footprints.
Just imagine - these are actual footprints left by animals that lived 65 MILLION YEARS ago! Here's a medium-sized one with my hand in it, just to give you an impression how big these guys were:
I wondered how they had been able to leave traces in stone, and the guide explained that the meteor that ultimately led to their extinction had heated, and thus softened, the stone. So as the dinosaurs tried to escape from this sudden hell, they ran over molten stone, leaving footprints that solidified when the stone began to cool down again. I found it really amazing to look at these prints and imagine how they were once part of events that would be prime action movie material.
A little later, we passed the village of Chullpa. We all knew that Bolivian people do not like to be photographed, so we were thankful to find some cows with nice ear decorations as substitute motives.
However, as we started taking pictures of the cows, we heard people yelling something that sounded like "don't take pictures!" A minute later, one of the men came towards us and started a discussion with our guide. He used a mix of Quechua and Spanish, so none of us was able to really understand all of it. What we could gather was that he was arguing that we'd need a permission to photograph anything in the village: people, animals, houses, mountain scenery - anything. After a few minutes of arguing, our guide accompanied the man to the village school. When they returned, he wrote down the phone number of the condor trekkers office on a piece of wall - apparently the school needs some support to build bathrooms and to buy food for the pupils. This finally made me wonder: was the entire picture-taking discussion only a ruse to procure money from condor trekkers? I'm certain they really are poor and in need of support, but they are also competing for it with a bunch of other villages...
After this event, the rest of the trek was fairly tranquil, so that the spectacular landscape could once again be our main object of focus:
During all three days of the trek, we found columns of leafcutter ants crossing our path. Apparently, they form quite a complex society, but what caught my attention without knowing that was leaves wandering over the ground seemingly on their own ;-)
