On the Cordillera Real, Bolivia
CNN, Jen Rose,1 Wed July 18, 2018
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Calling out greetings in her Aymara language, a herdswoman limped as she approached our campsite, where we were sipping hot tea and stamping our feet against the morning chill.

At almost 15,500 feet above sea level, the camp was among the highest – and coldest – stops of our six-day trek through Bolivia’s Cordillera Real, and temperatures had dropped far below freezing overnight, turning our water bottles into solid ice.

The old woman, who introduced herself simply as Rosa, was tending a herd of llamas. The animals’ thick fleece protected them against the morning chill, but Rosa’s feet looked chapped and cold in a pair of plastic sandals.

Our group of three hikers was walking with Ricardo Laso, an indigenous Bolivian guide with more than 20 years of experience in the Bolivian Andes, and he translated our Spanish into Aymara as we passed around black tea and oat cookies.

One of dozens of ethnic groups in Bolivia, the Aymara people and language pre-date the arrival of both the Inca and Spanish empires, and still have strong cultural ties to the peaks and high plains of the Andes mountains.

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