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Sajama National Park
04th June 2010
South west of La Paz, near the border with Chile, lies Sajama National Park, Bolivia´s first. We spent 2 nights in the small pueblo of Sajama (4200 metres) below the majestic, snow capped Sajama Volcano. When the sun set behind the twin volcanos on the Chile border, the temperature dropped to well below zero.
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Inside the park we walked in a forest of keñua trees, the highest in the world, at over 4400 metres. We cooked eggs in a bubbling geyser, ate llama, soaked in an open air hot springs surrounded by volcanos and observed llamas, alpacas and vicuñas.
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On the way we passed many ancient Aymara funeral towers, made of adobe brick and almost always facing the rising sun in the east. Many still contain human remains.
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A striking adobe and thatch church stands proudly above the humble dewllings in many of the local villages. The largest and best restored of these is the church of Santiago de Carangas, built between 1587 and 1608. Inside the walls and ceiling are covered in original frescoes of bible scenes in the Mestizo style.
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Aymara burial towers ....

.... 800 years old

Inside the church at Calamarca are paintings of angels

One of the angels

Crumbling adobe church at Ichiga

Llamas grazing at the foot of Sajama Volcano

Sajama Church

Twin volcanos on the Bolivia/Chile border

Boiling eggs in a geyser at 4400 metres

Soaking in the hot springs

A trek to Sajama base camp

The church of Santiago de Carangas from 1587

Its bell tower

Inside mural of Santiago Matamoros (The Moor slayer)

Bible scenes ....

.... painted 300 years ago

A chapel at Curahuara de Carangas

Vicuñas

Multi-coloured Alpaca herd

Church at Tomarapi village

Llama going to market in style