Choro Trail

After arriving back in La Paz, we decided to head out on a nearby

three-day hike. The trail, which was originally constructed by the

Tiwanaku culture sometime between 1000 BCE and 1200AD, stretches 72km

and descends over 3000m.

 

The first day, we headed out of La Paz on a minibus and got off in La

Cumbre (the summit). From there we hiked to our highest altitude of 4860

meters above sea level where there's a pile of stones that are offerings

to the mountain gods. Then, we started to descend, passing some ancient

ruins on the way. We spent the night in Challapampa, a small community

at 2825m. We had a fun evening chatting with a couple of Argentinians

our age and a couple of retirees from Kamloops.

 

The second day we were the second group to hit the trail. We spent most

of the day hiking through the cloud forest and going up and down through

the Andean foothills. We reached our camping spot at San Francisco

around 2 and spent a lovely afternoon chatting with the mum and youngish

daughter who were running the place and having much needed showers with

a stunning view of the Andes.

 

Our last day dawned wet. It had been raining all night and we could see

that it was going to be a soggy hike. While the other hikers

contemplated how to stay dry, we threw on our quick-dry clothes and set

off. We finished the hike in record time and were thoroughly soaked to

the bone by the end. We arrive in El Chairo, the town at the end of the

trail and met two lovely local women who informed us that there was a

truck waiting for them close by that could take us to the main road.

While there was other transport options, they were aimed at tourists and

were extremely expensive. We followed the two locals, only to discover

that the truck had decided to leave without them. We continued walking

with them until the next town about an hour or two away, where they

helped us get a ride to where we wanted to be and insured that we

weren't charged the tourist price!

Done