Larry Memmott's Blog

One of the great things about Bolivia is that wherever you go, even if it is not where you wanted or intended to go, you will likely find excitement of some sort.  Twice now I have tried to find my way to Laguna Arkhata, nestled as it is in the upper folds of the skirt of Mururata.  Twice, I’ve failed to get there, coming up against cliffs, either above me or below, which did not allow me to continue.  However, twice I’ve come across beautiful areas, and last weekend I saw condors and eagles soaring against the Illimani and Mururata peaks.  In ten years in the Andes, this was the first time I have seen condors in the wild, so it was a very satisfying hike, even if I didn’t reach the destination.

Seeing condors took me way back, and I can’t help but get distracted from the task at hand.  When I was in Bolivia for the first time, 25 years ago, I discovered Peruvian writer José María Arguedas.  Arguedas, one of the greatest of Peruvian writers, was what we might call “intercultural.”  He had one foot (and much of his childhood) firmly planted in the Quechua world, and the other in the white/mestizo world of Peruvian intellectuals.  In his exhaustive study of Arguedas, La utopía arcaica: Jose María Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo, Mario Vargas Llosa argues that Arguedas, “. . . was a good man and a good writer, but would have been better if . . . he had not ceded to the political pressure of the academic and intellectual world . . .”  Yawar Fiesta, Arguedas’ first novel, was written before he “ceded,” and it is a great short novel.  It paints the picture of an indigenous “running of the bulls” in Andean Peru, including, as its culmination, the battle between a great Andean Condor, and a massive and fierce bull.  For anyone who wants to begin to understand Andean indigenous culture, Arguedas, and Yawar Fiesta, make a good place to start.

Condor soaring over Illimani

I saw more than condors on this hike, though.  Also soaring between the Illimani and Mururata was a pair of Black Chested Buzzard Eagles.

 

The flora of the high Andes is also very beautiful, and I found a number of plants in flower.  Some are common, but some I saw for the first time.

To get to Laguna Arkhata, take the road to Palca out of the city, as described in the post on hiking in the Valle de las Animas.  Rather than turning south towards Palca, continue on this road towards the Yungas.  At 5.5 miles from the intersection of Ballivian with Calle 25 (Arturo Fortun Sanjines) you will pass over the ridge from the Valley of La Paz into the Valley of Palca.  You will see the area which is called the Valle de las Animas, an area of stone and dirt spires with surrounds the Valley of Palca.  It’s not clear to me exactly what area the name “Valle de las Animas” refers to, but there is lots of Animas country around this area.  Some 20 miles further, passing through fields of flowers and potatoes (in rainy season) is the pass

 

 

 

over the eastern range of the Andes, at some 14,825 feet of altitude.  The turnoff to the left onto the small road leading up the canyon of the Khuchuchani River is only 2.5 miles further.  This canyon runs parallel and just west of the canyon harboring the four lagunas: Laram Kkota, Chiar Kkota (Black Lake, in Aymara), Kollhua Kkota, and, largest and highest, Arkhata.  You’ll get less than a mile off of the main road before coming upon a shiny new chain which has been installed to keep you from traveling any further, at least by car.  This tranca was installed by a mining company which is operating up the canyon further, but if your destination is one or more of the lagunas, it won’t both you much, since this is about where you need to get out and start walking, anyway.

 

My theory, from studying the maps and Google Earth, has been that the easiest way to get to Arkhata would be climbing the ridge between the two canyons and then dropping back down to Arkhata.  I’ve tried that twice now, and failed.  So, the next attempt will have to be up the Arkhata canyon itself, past the other three lakes, and to Arkhata.

Anyway, there is a .gdb file attached with the driving route and the loop hike we did.  I’ve marked the places from which the photos were taken, but as a friend said yesterday, “You could go up there another ten times and not see condors; or you could go up tomorrow and see them.  There is just no telling.”

Relevant topo maps (see mapping page):  50k: 6044 III Palca; 100k: 3337 Cairoma; 250k: SE-19-03 La Paz.