La Paz, the Choro trek, Coroico Copa Cabana

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March 27th 2009

Published: March 27th 2009

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Choro trek

Tova happy day 1

So next delated story. We are now beginning of March. After the great bus ride from Uyuni to La Paz.
La Paz has remained like 4 years ago: one big market, spreading on kilometers. We stayed in a hotel in the very center, with nothing much to tell about. After the Uyuni adventure our aim was to relax, eat well (and we did, mainly in the restaurant I frequently visited with Marco 4 years ago: Angelo Colonial. Now Tova became addicted to it), and decide whether we dare to do the Choro trek or not. Descending from 4800 to 1400 meters in 3 days seemed to my knees not very appealing. Tova had her reserves on the account of general fatigue and bad condition. But well, of course at the end we did it. Us with a private guide. This was certainly one of the highlights of my trip. What a beauty!

The trek started in La cumbra at 4800 meter, 1 hour from La Paz. The whole trek there were very few people, and we only met one little group of tourists. The first day was the hardest for us, probably not really accustomed...The plantation was quite this, due

Choro trek

Bridge on the way, one of many

to the height. Arrived at night to a very little village, with more or less 2 families. Second day Tova and me were in an attack mood, and at a given point we decided we want to enjoy the nature more, so we suggested to David, our guid, to spread the trek on 4 instead of 3 days, and of course with an extra paiment. David didnt find the idea very bad. And so it came that arriving at about 14:00 we (that is Tova and David :-)set the tent and we enjoyed the beuatiful scenery, even read a bit...
I then went down with David to the beautiful river, a km from there, and we bathed there, having a wonderfull sun to warm us up from the icy water.
The night came and later on the rain came with it. I must admit that the sound and the vision didm make me a bit worried. The tent was slowly but surely turning in a sweaming pool. At 5:00 we decided to go out to the shed, as it was drier than in the tent. In spite of the cold etc Tova and me enjoyed this storm fully. Quite an

Choro trek

Village day one

experience.
We went further, and it was amazing to see the river i bathed in a day b4. It had become a real stromy river, where i wouldnt even think of getting into. This day was a very very very long day. With a pause for lunch in yet again one family´s village. We had to reach a certain point and that meant walking till after dark, as Tova and me where really finished. David found it really scary, walking in the dark, in this jungle like setting, which ammused us very much. The place we reached was beautiful, set with an amazing view of the snowy mountains, where we
set out from 3 days b4. Next to this place was the ¨hotel/camping¨ of an old Japanes. Every traveller has to sign his book, which we did. While we doing so, this crazy (though cute) old (should be between 80 and 90) man recited for us the whole geography and history of Israel and the middle east, and actually of the whole world.
For today (4) there was a shorter peace on the menu. And indeed after 4 or 5 hours we reached Chairo, where we could have a beer

Choro Bridge 2

and be proud of ourself. It apeared we walked 87 km in these 3 1/2 days. If we had known it b4 i´m sure we would have hesitated more....

From here we had a one hour trip to Coroico, to a hotel with a most beautiful setting, from which we could practically see the whole route we did, and more. We stayed here 2 days, doing less than nothing, eating, and just hanging around.
View from Hotel Esmeralsda in Coroico

After these two days, we went back to La Paz (3 hours), and later on left to Copa Cabana (7 hours), the border city between Bolivia and Peru, on lake Titicaca, where we would leave to Peru, the day after (no pics of Copa Cabana, but no worry...nothing particularly interesting :-)

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