Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Route
About 150m beyond Ventilla, turn left and take the road uphill, following the Río Palca.
After climbing for 60 to 90 minutes, you'll reach the village of
Choquekhota
. You'll
come to the access road to the
San Francisco mine
after a further hour or two of uphill
hiking; after crossing a stream, you'll see the signpost indicating the trailhead. The mine
route veers left here, but hikers should continue along the signposted track where the ori-
ginal pre-Columbian trail begins.
After an hour of climbing you'll begin switchbacking for 30 minutes for the final as-
cent, partly on superb precolonial paving, to the 4700m
Apacheta
(Abra Takesi) pass.
There, you'll find the
apacheta
(shrine of stones) and a spectacular view of Nevado Mur-
urata (5868m) to the right and the plunging valleys of the Yungas far below. Just beyond
the pass you'll see an abandoned
Mina David tunnel
; wolfram and tin are mined around
here. Entry is not advisable.
From the pass the trail begins to descend sharply into the valley, passing a series of
abandoned mining camps and high glacial lakes. If daylight is on your side, look for an-
other lake,
Laguna Jiskha Huara Huarani
, to the left of the trail midway between the
pass and Takesi. The trail from here contains some of Bolivia's finest examples of Inca
paving. A little later the trail widens to between 6m and 8m and you will reach
Inka
Tambo
. With five rooms, it's a good place to spend the night. If you prefer to push on,
you'll next reach the ancient-looking thatched village of
Takesi
where there's a hut and
campsite; you may also find villagers who can prepare simple meals of potatoes and local
trout. It is at this point that you will begin to experience the sudden change to Yungas'
cloud forest vegetation.
Beyond Takesi the increasingly muddy trail winds downhill until it crosses a bridge
over the
Río Takesi
then follows the beautifully churning river before it moves upwards
and makes a long traverse around the
Loma Palli Palli
, where you're protected from
steep drop-offs by a pre-Columbian wall. Shortly after passing a particularly impressive
mirador
(lookout), you'll enter the village of
Kacapi
, the heart of the former colonial
est-
ancia
(ranch) that once controlled the entire Takesi valley. Most of the overseers' dwell-
ings have been reclaimed by vegetation, but you can still see the ruins of the chapel,
Capilla de las Nieves
. Kacapi's 10-bed
Albergue Turístico
(dm B$30)
and campsite are
equipped with solar-powered showers. Basic meals are also available.
After Kacapi the track drops sharply to a bridge over the
Río Quimsa Chata
(which
suffers varying degrees of damage each rainy season), then climbs past a soccer field on
the left to a pass at the hamlet of
Chojlla
. From there the route descends to the final cross-
ing of the Río Takesi via a concrete bridge, marking the end of the pre-Columbian trail.
It's then a 1½-hour trudge along an
aqueduct
to the ramshackle mining settlement of
