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Published: March 16th 2007
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Well another weekend and another trip away from La Paz. Due to my lack of traveling before Christmas, I am trying to get it all in now. So this weekend, I was off to Sorata, a small mountain town about three and half hours northwest of La Paz. In the guidebook, Sorata is described as a crumbling, colonial gem, that was enough to interest me in going there. Kevin's Bolivian friend (whom him met in Brandon, Manitoba), Antonio, is from Sorata and offered to drive us there for the weekend. Kevin's friend Claire, from Calgary, came with us as well as she was nearing the end of her trip to Bolivia and still hadn't been to Sorata.
So Saturday morning, Antonio picked Kevin and I up at Kevin's place (he lives about three blocks from me, but one of those blocks is an ugly hill) and then we swung by where Claire was staying and started out on our journey. When we reached the rim of La Paz, crossing into El Alto, we stopped at a lookout point (mirador) to look at the city below. It is amazing how a few hundred metres higher can make such a difference in
temperature... it was freezing up there! We piled back into the jeep after taking some pictures and started driving through El Alto, finally stopping in the middle of it to buy some food and drinks for the drive.
The road to Sorata starts off on the same highway to Copacabana meaning that is it paved and that I have been along it before so I won't bore anyone with the details of the road. Our first stop was in the town of Achacachi, a town where Antonio worked for three years. The first thing we did was walk around the plaza and into the market and by the looks we were getting, I was pretty sure that this town does not see too many tourists. We stopped by the office where Antonio used to work to say hi and they invited us into their meeting room for Pepsi and gave us some calendars with some advertising for their organization on it. They didn't know, but the calendar that they gave me had a picture of the parliament buildings in Canada on it and I just laughed because I thought that had given it to me intentionally. They had no
idea what it was until I told them. Funny that I come all the way to Bolivia to be given a calendar with Ottawa, the city where I used to live, on it. After our short visitation in the office, we waited outside Antonio's jeep while he was running a quick errand. By the time that he got back, we were surrounded by about 20 kids, all staring at us and too shy to same anything back to us. Even when we got back in the jeep, they kept staring through the windows. It was even more obvious to me know that this town does not see tourists (ie. white people) very often.
We were now of the main highway that goes to Copacabana and on the road towards Sorata. We were driving on the Altiplano (high plains) so the road was pretty flat for quite some time and we had a spectacular view of the Andes running parallel to the road. Finally, we started descending, as Sorata is about 1100m below where we were driving. The road was surprising paved most of the way and to a big surprise, they had guardrails. This I think was my first
sighting of guardrails in this country. Descending and descending, we could see Sorata for almost an hour before actually making it to the town and the scenery around us the whole way was gorgeous. The first thing we did when we arrived in Sorata was get lunch as all of us were starving from the trip here. We ate at a nice little restaurant off the plaza and when we were finished, I ran around the plaza trying to find us a room for the night and found one at Residencial Sorata for 25Bs each, including a private bathroom. What a steal! The room must of had 15ft ceilings, 3 beds (Antonio was staying with his parents) and balcony and sitting area... it was great!
After lunch, we got back in the jeep and started heading to the caves that are outside of Sorata. Along the road, which was very narrow and on the side of the mountain (it reminded me of the World's Most Dangerous Highway between La Paz and Coroico), we stopped to visit some of his family only the way who feed us some freshly picked peaches... mmmmmm... We finally made it to the caves, paid
A church in El Alto
Most churches have this same type of architecture in El Alto and there seems to be churches everywhere. our admission, and headed in. Supposedly, these caves in Incan times went all the way to Cusco, Peru, but considering the distance to Cusco, I have my doubts about it. The caves were absolutely huge inside and thanks to lights that have been installed, it was very easy to see everything. We came across a lake in the caves and decide to go for a swim as it would thought it would be really neat. After a short swim in the cold lake (with probably lots of bat caca in it) we got out to dry off and then we could hear the man from the gate saying he would be closing the caves soon and threatened to turn the lights off on us. He definitely heard us swimming in the lake as he was yelling that it was prohibited. So we started walking back and what do you know, he turned the lights out on us. There was some panic, but finally he turned them back on again. When we finally arrived to the outside world again, the man was furious, demanding that we pay him more money for swimming in the lake, but we pretended not to know
Spanish (under the advice of Antonio) and we kind of sorted everything out. Finally, we started heading back to Sorata and stopped midway at a look out point where we could see both the town of Sorata and Illampu, the snow-capped mountain towering over the town. Continuing back into town, Antonio dropped us off at our hotel and we took a rest before going out for dinner and drinks. Antonio met back up with us around 9:30PM to make plans for the next day and then after another drink, we called it a night.
The next morning I was woken up by someone walking along the street in front of our room yelling "salteñas", those yummy meat-filled pastries. What an effective alarm clock because I was up for good after that. We ate breakfast in the hotel in their lovely garden and then headed to the main plaza to meet Antonio. We didn't have to wait too long for him and then we were off again, exploring the streets of Sorata and finally going for a short hike. Our hike led us to the top of hill spotted with crosses... know if I could only remember what it said
on the crosses about how many there was. We took a break at the top of the hill before descending back towards town. Kevin and I decided to take a dip in the river, which was pretty chilly, but because of how warm it was that day, I really didn't care. After swimming, we headed back to Antonio's parent's house to change and then we took off to the main plaza to find somewhere to eat for lunch. After lunch we packed up the jeep and started heading back to La Paz. Besides stopping here and there on the way back to get some pictures, the journey was pretty uneventful. We got to see some quinoa growing on the side of the road, which to my amazement was more of a pinkish color rather than the beigish color it has when you buy it. Antonio seemed to have taken us on a detour through El Alto so we saw much more of it than usual. I gotta say that El Alto really sparks my curiousity, but according to every Bolivian I know, it is not safe to go there. Maybe someday...
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