Back in 2006 I was guiding a trip up Ancohuma, in the northern part of the Cordillera Real. Our first camp was at Laguna Chilate (4200m), which has a small lake and fantastic views over towards Peru and the lake Titicaca. If through this place can be very touristic there is not that feeling of over crowdedness. There are many trekkers coming and going every day, usually camping one or two nights at Laguna Chilate. From here most tourists will spend the following day climbing up to Laguna Glaciar (5050m) and back to Laguna Chilate.

On this trip I found more and more rub

bish that was left behind, not only by the local guides but also by the tourists. Most of the tourists are guided by local guides from the area, which is a great way for the local people to earn some extra money. The trips sold are with the use of mules to carry their lauage, so would think taking their rubbish back down would not be a difficult thing?

First there are few problems! The guides should take more responsible to make sure the rubbish is taken down, and the tourists should control the rubbish more. Two things that are not happing!

Why you may ask are these things not happing? First problem is the guides. These people are just local farmers who have had no real training to be a guide. For them, taking your rubbish back down is not really their main concern. There motto is out of sight out of mind! This comes back to a lack of education about the environment and that guiding is more than just a holiday, not really the guides fault if no one has taught them.

Second are the tourists, also not looking after the environment, not controlling the guides, or even if the tourists could teach them little bit about the environment this would all help

So after my trip up Ancohuma I decided it would be up to me to start the process. I got together with some of the expats from the local village (Sorata) and came up with a program and found some money kindle donated by people in Switzerland. The program was to clean up as much of the rubbish from these two places, teach the younger kids about their environment for the future, also make some signs in English and Spanish to leave up at Laguna Chilate and Laguna Glaciar for the tourists and guides to be more aware of the rubbish problem. Once I got both signs made and painted we made a date to head up to Laguna Chilate and Laguna Glaciar to clean up the rubbish and put the signs up. I would lend all the tents, camping gear, stoves and whatever other thing we needed for the trip, we were 22 people all up. Most of us were kids from Sorata. We picked a long weekend as we would need three days to finish our mission. The hike up is a good three to four hours, all up hill. The kids seem to run nonstop and we were hoping once at camp they would be tried and slow down. We make it up to Laguna Chilate in good time. We first set up camp, just before some rain. Later we cleaned and dup holes for the post of the signs. The ground was hard and the altitude didn’t make it easier. After cleaning as much of the rubbish as we could it was time for rest, or at least for us grownups. The kids played football all evening and still had energy left.

Sign at Laguna chilate

We made dinner, soup and a big past meal. Good energy for the next day. We were all nice and warm in the big kitchen tents. It was time to sleep and rest for the next day.

Breakfast was served early so we have plenty of time to head up to Laguna Glaciar. We had porters to carry the posts and signs up. The porters also helped with the cleaning and bring down the rubbish.

After three hours of climbing we made it to Laguna Glaciar where we started to clean the area and dig holes for the posts. The ground up here was even harder and altitude higher making slow work for us. After a good two hours we got the signs up and most of the rubbish cleaned up. We eat lunch and then headed back down to Laguna Chilate. Some of the guys stayed behind at Laguna Chilate and had hot tea waiting for us.

Once back the kids started playing football, don't these kids every run out of energy?

Next day the mules came up to take all our gear back down and the rubbish we had collected. All in all we had collected 60kg of rubbish, not bad for a few days work, making the place clean again.

Packing up to head down

Everyone had a great experience, and let's hope next time we head up to Laguna chilate or Laguna Glaciar the place is going to be cleaner!

Thanks everyone for their help.

By Jeff Sandifort