Chacaltaya used to boast with the highest situated sky lift in the world, unfortunately the global warming let to a considerable shrinkage of the glacier, thus skiing is nearly impossible these days. We will however climb the few hundred meters to the top of Chacaltaya, if the group feels bodily capable of it, since the high altitude might have adverse affect on the physical condition of some people. There are amazing views from the top of the mountain, if there is a good visibility, Bolivia's highest mountain can be seen from here; the volcano Sajama (6542 m – 21463 f). There are also views of the other important mountains around La Paz (Illimani, Mururata), and even the southern part of the Lake Titicaca can be seen from here.We will have our boxed lunch here.
We will leave Chacaltaya along the same road we have came and once on the Altiplano plateau we shall drive south towards La Paz , and start to descent into the La Paz valley. Solitary adobe houses start to appear along the way, and small fields are again in evidence. However after several kilometres we will turn east and descent down to the Kalyuo river (which eventually becomes river La Paz ). We cross the river and start gentle ascent along its valley northwards. Here there are usually herds of llamas and alpacas in evidence. We pass several abandoned mining operations, and then we will arrive to the area where locals mine the earth “turba” from the valley floor, to be sold for La Paz gardens. Eventually we'll arrive to Chacaltaya community, we'll pass it and keep going along the now no more then a stream of Kalyuo river, until we arrive to the end of the road. Here we take a short hike to a small lagoon hidden at the base of the valley, and we will appreciate beautiful views of glacier covered Mt. Manquilisani (5324 m -17468 f)
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