Kara Collo climb to the top last Friday

Friday 03 April, Bryam Sardon and I started hiking to the base of the hill, called in Aymara, Kara Collo. (I am unsure of any of the spellings of Aymara). We realized at some point that we had taken a wrong road, but I liked the view from there, so I took a picture looking mostly west, into the sun. It would have been better, photographically, to go in the morning, but that was not an option. I also wanted a picture of Sapa Collo that we climbed last month, and this seemed a good place to take it from.

This shot is looking southwest to the highest hill of the four surrounding Juli, which is called Pukara. There is a legend about Pukara that some prospectors started looking for gold that had been hidden in caves or tunnels by the ancients to hide it from the Spanish. The prospectors were met by "demons" who told them to stop looking for the gold, because it was theirs, and they would protect it. The thought came into my mind when I heard this legend: Perhaps this is the hill Cumorah, and those "demons" were actually angels protecting sacred records. :) Of course, that is purely fantasy on my part.

We went back and found the right road which took us to the base of the hill. We began the climb. About the time I looked over and saw that we were even with the top of Sapa Collo, I started getting a little dizzy, so I took a bit of a rest. I looked up and saw the moon above us, so I took a picture to show how close it seemed, but the picture turned out making it look far away.

When we got to the top, there was a shrine, so I took a couple of pictures of the inside.

It seemed a little bit in need of repairs.

It had a stone wall enclosure in front. The scenery was well worth the effort of the climb. This shot is looking north across Juli and Sapa Collo and Lake Titicaca.

This looking west.

And this one is east across Cerro San Bartolome and across Lake Titicaca to Bolivia.

And this is to the south across the lake to the towns of Yunguyo, Peru and Copacabana, Bolivia.

This is looking northeast across the Juli Harbor, with Pilcuyo across the bay.

I was trying to get the snow covered peaks across the lake in Bolivia to the southeast, but they don't seem to have been very cooperative in this shot.

Here is a shot of the front of the shrine with Pukara off to the southwest.

Then I had to get this of Bryam standing on the stone wall looking down on his hometown.

Then we left the shrine and went to the summit, which was about 50 yards (meters) distant and only about ten or twenty feet higher. I took this picture of the mountains to the south.

... and then off toward the southwest. Bryam told me his grandmother lives in those mountains.

We started down, heading towards Pukara, because it seemed less steep. We came across this rock construction. It looks like an oven, but there is no sign of it ever having been used for that purpose--no ashes or soot. Maybe it is just a place for shepherds to take shelter during a storm.

Here is another rock construction that I have no very good idea what it is for. It looks just big enough for a person to stand in.

And that is the end of the pictures. It was getting late and we just walked on down the hill to the road and went home. It was a wonderful adventure with a fascinating hiking companion.