I got into La Paz early, maybe 5:30 am and went straight to the Hostel Republica to start a busy day! On the way to the hotel we stopped at an over look where you can see almost all of La Paz and El Alto. The city (as Coroico is) is situated on one massive hillside. There are a few high rise buildings but most are much more simply made out of brick and morter. For the first day we needed to prepare for our backpacking trip on the Choro trail by getting food and gear. First, in the morning we relaxed and had some sentanas (a fried bread dumpling with a meat broth inside). In the afternoon we went to a grocery store called Kolata. It was certainly not like an American grocery store. It took some patients to find everything as there were no signs for the isles, and there was only a little bit of organization to the store. None the less we found everything and returned to the hotel to go get gear! To get gear we walked to sagarnaga street where many of the markets with textiles are. It is amazing how beautiful and well made everything is- it took us a while to move down the street. Finally we got to the gear shop where they certainly did not have the sense of urgency many rental shops do in the states, which was perfectly fine. While some were getting gear Sabina and I went around looking for Nalegenes (a popular water bottle) that was no where to be found! We looked through maybe ten outdoor shops that had basically everything else. Anyway that was basically the whole day. After getting a tent, sleeping bags, and poles we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
The next morning we got picked up by Oscar in his awesome 94´ toyota and drove to the trailhead of the Choro trail at just below 16,000 ft. The trail follows a nearly 1000 year old inca trail down a few valleys for around 35 miles. The trail is beautifully built with terraces that switch back down STEEP slopes with perfect steps and inlaid stones. The first day we hiked mostly though an alpine environment that had very small short plants. The first town we passed through had quite a few buildings with walls made of stacked stones and roofs of either sheet metal or some type of grass/fern. Everywhere were stone walls stacked about four feet high; I couldnt imagine how long it took to make all of them! The first night we slept just off to the side of the trail and had a delicious dinner that was similar to chili. The next morning we woke up and continued to hike into the cloud forest. Plants started out pretty short and got taller as we kept on going down in altitude. Along the way there were more towns made almost entirely from stones, and a few had buildings more catered towards tourists. The tourist building had maybe a bathroom, some water, coca-cola, a few snacks, and probably a beer or two. Certainly not a full selection- there were only a few items of each! After all they carried everything on their back to these stores. The second night we camped in basically someone´s backyard called buena vista (good view). It was so beautiful. Everywhere you looked there was massive mountains that had extremely steep vegetated hillsides. When looking close one can even notice vertical cliffs that are green with vegetation. The start at night were some of the best I have ever seen. The milky way galaxy was clearly visible. On the last day we hiked more downhill for what seemed like forever. One of my favorite parts of the trail was after we went on a suspension bridge over a gorge, and then up a STEEP mountain side. The trail was just terraces on top of eachother that were basically cut into this steep, if not a cliff at times, hillside. There were perfect steps the entire way- I could not imagine the man hours that it took to create something like this. In all my years of hiking in the United States I have never seen a trail that even comes close to the Choro trail. In the end most of us were a little beat up, and we grabbed taxi bus to Coroico. While driving into Coroico, it was the first time that it really hit me how poor Bolivia is. We drove on a paved road for maybe 5 minutes on a 40 minute ride. I bet that would put a little wear and tear on the car driving that everyday! Anyway, Coroico is beautiful. I woke up around 630 to more huge vegetated mountains, with more mountains with glaciers in the background, and a cloud hovering in the valley thousands of feet below. It was a lot of fun hiking from La Paz to Coroico and many feel that we earned out stay just a little bit more. Time for morning meeting!- sorry if some of the sentences did not make sense I dont have time to read my post over.
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