{"id":2797,"date":"2012-09-22T21:09:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T15:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/?p=2797"},"modified":"2015-12-28T13:16:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T17:16:36","slug":"up-the-khallapa-river-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/2012\/09\/22\/up-the-khallapa-river-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Up The Khallapa River Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Represa Hampaturi from the window of ruined building<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of my favorite memories of my first time in Bolivia, 25 years ago, involve days spent hiking, fishing, and floating around on the lakes (lagunas) in the Andes above La Paz.\u00a0 When I returned to Bolivia, two of the questions in the back of my mind were, \u201cWill they still be there?\u201d and \u201cWill they be the same?\u201d\u00a0 Although the answers (\u201csort of,\u201d and \u201cnot really\u201d) are not exactly what I might have preferred, the area containing the four lagoons (now all more or less reservoirs) above Represa Hampaturi, in the canyon above Irpavi, is still an interesting place to explore.\u00a0 And, for better or worse (actually, for better and<\/strong> worse) they are now much more accessible than they were 25 years ago.\u00a0 With the new roads, you can be at 15,000 feet in about an hour of driving from Irpavi, and I promise you can completely forget La Paz.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, these are great places to visit when the blockades are in place, as no one would ever blockade these roads.<\/p>\n

The Khallapa river valley extends up above Irpavi, in the Zona Sur of La Paz. \u00a0“Khallapa” in Aymara probably refers to the beams used to shore up a mine, and the name may be connected to the small-scale mining in the valley.<\/p>\n

Since getting to Bolivia I have made it up to five lakes above Hampaturi.\u00a0 There are also several more, including \u00a0Jachcha Khasiri,\u00a0up the canyon of the Palcoma River which winds up towards the Serranias Murillo just below Hampaturi.\u00a0 Although the nature of the lower lakes has been significantly changed by their conversion from natural lakes to reservoirs, the dams in the upper lakes tend to be less intrusive and the lakes retain more of their original character.\u00a0 In any case, all of them lie in spectacular high-mountain settings, several of them surrounded by bofedales and snowy peaks, with llamas roaming across the terrain.\u00a0 Sparkling brooks connect them and there are several spectacular waterfalls (and probably several more I haven\u2019t chanced upon).<\/p>\n

By the way, there seems to be no effective English translation for the Spanish term \u201cbofedal,\u201d probably because there are few \u201cbofedales\u201d in English-speaking countries.\u00a0 The term refers to a high-altitude wetland at above 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) of altitude.\u00a0 It is it\u2019s own special (and usually tiny) ecosystem, involving different forms of mosses and other plants adapted to the altitude, the cold, and the humidity.\u00a0 As an aside, Wikipedia, the source of all truth, has this to say about bofedales: \u201clos bofedales mas grandes se encuentran en la antartida , alberfando gran cantidad de elefantes y tigres de bengala<\/em>\u201d (the largest bofedales are in Antarctica, where they harbor large numbers of elephants and Bengal tigers) (http:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bofedal<\/a>).\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t Wikipedia, I might wonder about the accuracy of this statement. (Update: \u00a0apparently some vandal has since deleted this important information from wikipedia. \u00a0Luckily we have it recorded here for posterity.)<\/p>\n

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Bolivian “bofedales” do not generally host either tigers or elephants<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting There<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although this should be straightforward, since the lower part of the Irpavi Canyon is residential, there are actually a lot of twists and turns going up and a lot of turnoffs which could easily take you the wrong way.\u00a0 You would probably still get there eventually by always taking the route that climbs the canyon, but it might take you a while and involve a lot of backtracking.\u00a0 For that reason, my maps and gps directions might be of help.<\/p>\n

From the MegaCenter in Irpavi, you head north until you reach the mental hospital.\u00a0 Turn to the right just before the hospital parking lot onto a dirt road.\u00a0 Although there are occasional cobbled sections, most of the road from here on out is dirt.\u00a0 From Irpavi, follow the Rio Khallapa up past Kallapa Village and Estancia Lorokkota.\u00a0 At Palcoma, some nine miles from MegaCenter, is the turnoff to the right which leads to Laguna Jachcha Khasiri. (Maybe from the Aymara \u201cJach\u2019a,\u201d or large?)<\/p>\n

Another 2.5 miles up the road, lies the largest of the reservoirs in the canyon, Laguna Challa Pata, which may mean \u201csand in the heights.\u201d\u00a0 It is also known for the name of the dam, Represa Hampaturi.\u00a0 This is a fairly large lake, and had trout in it 25 years ago (can\u2019t say whether it still does).\u00a0 It\u2019s not the prettiest of the lakes, though, since the rising and dropping of the reservoir\u2019s waters have left it with the \u201cdead zone\u201d around the waterline characteristic of reservoirs.\u00a0 The road circles Challa Pata on the left.\u00a0 You can see that potatoes are grown on the edge of the lake and there are a few herders\u2019 huts.\u00a0 There is also a ruined hut on the side of the hill to the left of the road which makes a nice little walk (and offers a stunning view).\u00a0 Just past Challa Pata is an old mining camp, called Campamento Minero Soluci\u00f3n.\u00a0 Twenty-five years ago, it was an almost invisible ruin.\u00a0 Presumably because of the increase in metal prices, it looks like it is again a going concern.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have to stop by there one of these days and ask what it is they are mining.\u00a0 At about the same place is the Hampaturi Waterfall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aliciya at the Hampaturi Waterfall<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ll put up descriptions of the drive on up the canyon to the lakes soon, as well as descriptions of the side trips into other canyons.<\/p>\n

Mapping<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Attached is a .gdb file<\/a>\u00a0with all the routes and waypoints.\u00a0 You can find topographic maps (though somewhat outdated) covering the area at a 1:100,000 scale for free in the Perry-Casta\u00f1eda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas archive at Austin (http:\/\/www.lib.utexas.edu\/maps\/topo\/bolivia\/<\/a>).\u00a0 The relevant sheets are La Paz (South), La Paz (North) and Chulumani.\u00a0 If you load these maps into OziExplorer (http:\/\/www.oziexplorer.com<\/a>), you can also load the .gdb file (it has to be converted to .gpx first) which will plot the routes on the topo maps.\u00a0 Pretty cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of my favorite memories of my first time in Bolivia, 25 years ago, involve days spent hiking, fishing, and floating around on the lakes (lagunas) in the Andes above La Paz.\u00a0 When I returned to Bolivia, two of the questions in the back of my mind were, \u201cWill they still be there?\u201d and \u201cWill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,61,58,100,57,59,1],"tags":[15,187,172,189,168,55,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2797"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4812,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions\/4812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}