Laguna Chiarkhota (Bolivia)

To visit Bolivia is to visit a land of varied, multiple landscapes; encounter indigenous peoples; and experience the process of surpassing your normal limits. And trekking in the Cordillera Real is an example of all these things!

Before setting off, however, there are certain precautions to take: physical preparation, altitude acclimatisation, ensuring you are in a good state of health, ensuring you have the right equipment … If you're confident you can satisfy all these conditions, it's time to contact one of the agencies, which will have several trekking options to offer you. And yes, it does go without saying that it would be unthinkable to head off on this adventure alone and unaccompanied.

But as for the actual trekking itself … After two days of walking, with all the various ascents and descents involved and with our knees and calves suffering, we were still in good spirits. Our guide always knew the right thing to say to encourage us. Day 3: Having already visited and seen Laguna Congelada, it took us another four hours of walking to reach Laguna Chiarkhota,, the place we'd be camping for the night. Night fell, and the reflection of the star-filled sky appeared in the lake. It felt almost as if we were the only people in the world …