Getting really high … 5,400 metres

Well, I know that I signed off my last blog as though I’d left Bolivia, but I have to make a short entry about our final day in Bolivia, where Lizzy and I embraced the challenge of climbing to 5,400 metres and reaching the summit of Austria Peak.

**I made it to 5,400 metres**
Celebrating the achievement on top of Austria Peak

We were advised that this was a hard day of trekking, although I think we thought that with all the walking we’d been doing, we’d be fine. However when our guide Julia stopped the car and pointed out a snow capped mountain lingering well into the distance … Lizzy and I started to quickly lose confidence and imagined ourselves aborting the trip half way up !!

But we persisted with the steep and in parts treacherous climb, scrambling across loose rumble on vertical drops and battling the raging icy wind on the numerous passes … and getting to the top after 4.5 hours was truly one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced. From the top we could see right out to Lake Titicaca and also across the the highest point in Bolivia, absolutely spectacular.

Our guide Julia even surprised us by unloading a still warm chicken and rice, complete with serviettes and a tablecloth and we ate lunch with 360 degree views from 5,400 metres, definitely a first time for everything hey! I would thoroughly recommend our guide and the company we organised it through, called Zigzag Bolivia.

**Our target looming in the distance**
The first sight of the mountain we were to climb scared us to death (the one to the left) … but we made it little by little

Anyway, Lizzy and I arrived back to La Paz exhausted after 8 hours of hiking and a 2 hour drive back to La Paz, but with an amazing sense of achievement!!

So .. that (definitely) ends my stories from Bolivia and the next instalment will be coming to you from Costa Rica …

Until next time!!