Llamas, alpacas, condors, towering, snow-capped peaks, sacred Inca sites, deserts, lakes and volcanoes: Bolivia has them all in great abundance! Bolivia also had 13 Waddesdon students for over 4 weeks in the summer holidays, taking part in the school’s first World Challenge expedition.

The team had spent the previous 20 months raising funds to pay for their expedition – a big challenge in itself, but one which we all embraced with enthusiasm! Bag-packing, book sales, clothes collections, donought-selling, cake-making and sponsored mountain climbing all featured as part of our fund raising efforts, so by the time July 24th came around, we were all ready to go, fully-equipped for desert and mountain landscapes!

Flying into El Alto airport, just outside the capital, La Paz, is unforgettable. The airport sits at an altitude of 4,200 metres (13,780 feet), so the air is very thin and simple tasks such as climbing stairs left us gasping for breath. La Paz itself is fascinating: a bustling city of 1.2 million, mainly indiginous, Aymara, Quechua and Spanish speaking people. The city resembles one huge market place with everyone hustling for the next Boliviano. The highlight was perhaps the Mercado Hecheria (Witches’ Market), where the most esoteric items, including dried llama foetuses are on sale, to help the locals pay homage to the Andean Mother Earth deity ‘Pachamama’.

We completed two fantastic mountain treks in the Andes: the first was our ‘Acclimatisation Trek’, designed to help us get used to the high altitude. In this trek we took an ancient Inca trail over a freezing high pass at 4,800 metres (15,700 feet), descending into the warm, humid cloudforest below. The major trek over 7 gruelling days demanded more from us: a steep muscle-aching ascent past glaciers and frozen lakes to the Paso Sunchulli at 5,200 metres (17,800 feet), through wooded ravines and desolate rocky ridges watched over by majestic condors and the odd hardy llama herd, to civilisation at the end of the trail at Cuerva, an isolated mountain village, near the border with Peru. We were ably supported by a local mountain guide, a cook, a translator and several muleteers and their mules.

In addition, we completed a social project, working for a week with an organisation called Habitat for Humanity, helping to build decent housing for slum dwellers. This was tough work, digging foundation trenches and 2.5 metre latrine holes into the solid clay and limestone of the Altiplano in the thin air at 4,200 metres. However, we were encouraged by our workmates, the families which were to live in the houses once they were built. During this week we also worked in the local primary school and had a fabulous time with the children and their teachers.

Our final week was for ‘Rest and Recreation’, which we spent travelling across the amazing Uyumi Salt Flats and the freezing, arid, high altitude desert on the border with Chile, with its active volcanoes and thermal springs. A definite highlight, however, was the incredible Lake Titicaca, the highest navagable waterway in the world. Watching the sunrise over the Andes from the Isla del Sol in the middle of the lake, where the Incas believed the sun was born, was simply unforgettable!

We had an experience of a lifetime and brought home with us unforgettable memories and great photographs!

Hannah, Will, Ben, Jake, James, Kieran, Connor, Scott, Ben, Kim, Jess, Dale, Jay.