Travelogue

After few days of rest in La Paz, we decided to endure on another adventure. This time we chose the Choro Trek, a 3 dayer, starting from La Paz and ending in a small mountain top village called Corroico. We bumped into Karin, the German girl we met on the Salkantay/Machu Picchu trek and we decided to go together. It’s amazing the people you keep bumping into!

We left La Paz and drove, with our guide and his wife, for an hour and a half to La Cumbre where our trek started. This was the highest point of the trek at 4700m and it was all down hill from here. The air was thin and still and it was a beautiful, fresh day. We started our descent along a narrow mountain side path. This first part of the trek was across an extremely baron mountainous landscape which gradually eased into a bit of greenery as the descent evened out. By that stage though I was again suffering from ‘hobbly’ legs! I had twisted my knee after about 20 minutes and it got progressively worse. The path we were on had so many loose rocks, coupled with the steep descent, that it made hard work on the old knees and feet. The guide was getting a bit worried and he told of a guy on his last trek whose shoes had been too small so eventually his toes were bleeding and he couldn’t walk. He had to get a mule to carry him at a cost of 100GBP per day. Well, if anything was going to get me walking again it was that! I put some extra strapping on my knee, acquired an old boys walking stick at one of the gates within the reserve and hobbled on my way.

A full 7 hours later we arrived at the campsite. It was nestled in a valley and you had to cross a rickety old rope bridge to enter. It really was a beautiful spot. The guide gave me some ointment for my knee, similar to Tiger Balm so I covered my knees with that, along with some Deep Heat that we had ourselves. We all relaxed around the main table while the guide and his wife cooked us up some dinner.

Again we were really lucky with the group. Well to be honest it was just the three of us: myself, Sandra and Karin but another small group, a dutch couple, had joined us at the campsite and it made for an enjoyable night, swapping tales of where we’ve all traveled so far.

The next day my knee hadn’t really improved, but I covered it in more ointments, strapped it up and off we went for another 7/8 hours of trekking. The guide kept assuring me that today’s trek would be mainly flat with a ‘few’ ups and a ‘few’ downs, just like life, he said!. Now, these guides have a great sense of humour. As with the Salkantay trek it was all up and then down with rarely any flat bits! The ups for me were fine it was just the downs. We were now passing some really beautiful scenery. It had totally changed from the mountainous start. We were now in the jungle and the air was fairly humid. We were among the clouds and it created a mystical feel. This region is called The Yungas and it is the traditional region for coca crops. All along the hillsides you can see them.

After 8 hours we reached a campsite where we stopped but we were given an option to walk a further hour and stay at the next campsite, The Japanese garden, or just pitch up here. Now, I was kind of done, my knees were yelling at me that enough was enough. Sandy was pretty beat and though she probably wouldn’t admit it, Karen was nearly on the floor ;). So we set up camp and soon realised how really, really basic the site was. They didn’t even have a table! It had started to rain and it got quite muddy. So more lotion on the knees and another early night.

We awoke to a beautiful view of the jungle below. It was another gorgeous day, bright sunshine and blue skies. The light really accentuated the greens of the vegetation surrounding us. After breakie we were soon on our way again and for the first time since we started my knees felt like they were regaining their strength. The walk didn’t seem as arduous and after an hour of trekking we reached the Japanese Garden and realised what we could have had if only we had pushed ourselves a bit further. Easily said with hindsight! The campsite was set on an amazing mountain top, which included a separate eatery with tables aplenty covered by a roof. The camping area was surrounded by tropical plants and flowers, a true Japanese garden embraced in the Bolivian jungle. Rumour has it that the Japanese owner fled to the Bolivian jungle during the 2nd world war and set up the Japanese garden to make him feel at home. It now is a popular resting stop for the last night on the Choro trek. Again, if only we had gone that further hour…

It was a good mornings trek of around 4 hours and we finished up in a small village called Chairo. From here we got a mini-bus to Corroico, a small mountain top town. I felt like a new man as I was almost skipping at the end, that ointment from the guide must have done the trick! We stayed in Corroico for the night and got a bus (chapa/matatu/van!), along ‘The world most dangerous road‘ back to La Paz. Another wonderful adventure!