Four Indigenous Bolivian women who have climbed some of Latin America’s tallest peaks have their sights set on the world's highest, Mount Everest. - REUTERS
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00:00 These indigenous women in Bolivia have their sights set on the world's highest peak.
00:07 They say they've already conquered some of Latin America's toughest mountains
00:12 and hope Everest is next.
00:15 They could become the first Bolivian women to accomplish the feat.
00:20 Elena Kisme Tincuta imagines arriving there donning her traditional skirt or pollera.
00:27 I want to be the first pollera woman to arrive at the Everest summit
00:31 because I want to wave our pollera and the Bolivian flag.
00:35 Tincuta's home is in Bolivia's high altitude city of El Alto.
00:45 She weaves her own alpaca blankets for climbing
00:50 and says she's long been drawn to the challenge of it.
00:53 I liked the mountain.
00:55 I had the curiosity to climb a summit and now I know how it was and how it felt
00:59 and I liked it.
01:00 From then on I have been driven to do so.
01:03 Tincuta is an Aymara indigenous woman.
01:06 She and her sisters work as mountain guides.
01:08 They climb in their iconic layered skirts while also using helmets and crampons for safety.
01:15 Tincuta's sister Julia says there's something otherworldly
01:19 about reaching the top of local mountain Huayna Potosi.
01:24 When I arrived at the summit I feel like I was in the air,
01:27 like being in heaven.
01:29 I saw a plane flying near me.
01:32 From the mountain I saw the lights of the city of La Paz shining like stars.
01:40 I thought at that moment that I am never going to stop climbing.
01:44 The women say they've already conquered Argentina's Aconcagua.
01:50 It's the highest peak in the Americas, clocking in at nearly 23,000 feet.
01:55 Also checked off their list, the world's highest volcano,
02:01 Ojos del Salado, on the Chile-Argentina border.
02:05 But Everest is over 29,000 feet tall on the other side of the globe.
02:12 And the group thinks they'll need half a million dollars to accomplish their goal.
02:18 They're seeking donations from companies and tourists they work with as guides.
02:23 The Himalayan Sherpas have also long guided foreign climbers.
02:26 And Tincuta says she feels an affinity with them.
02:30 I would like to see the Sherpas and tell our stories and anecdotes in the mountain.
02:39 I always say I would like to be there to meet their animals, the yaks.
02:44 The Sherpas are almost the same as us.
02:46 [speaking in Spanish]
02:48 [speaking in Spanish]
02:50 The Sherpas are almost the same as us.
02:54 [speaking in Spanish]
02:57 The Sherpas are almost the same as us.
02:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]