Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
wait for another, probably packed, bus. Similarly, for Charazani you should change at
Achacachi, but you'll need to start out from Sorata very early.
Sindicato de Transportes Unificada Sorata also services the towns on the rough 4WD
track to the gold mining settlement of Mapiri, including Quiabaya (10:30am and noon,
B$15), Tacacoma (10:30am, B$15) and Constata (9am, B$70), with no continuing service
to Mapiri. The biggest drawbacks are the horrendous mud, the road construction and some
river crossings that are passable only with a 4WD.
Camionetas
(pickup trucks) leave Sorata sporadically for the grueling journey to Con-
sata (seven hours) and on to the Sorata Limitada mine (10 hours). From Sorata Limitada
you'll find
camionetas
to Mapiri, which is another hour away.
El Camino del Oro (Gold Digger's Trail)
For nearly 1000 years this Inca road has been used as a commerce and trade link between
the Altiplano and the lowland goldfields. Indeed, the Tipuani and Mapiri valleys were ma-
jor sources of the gold that once adorned the Inca capital, Cuzco.
Today, however, the fields are worked primarily by bulldozers and dredgers owned by
mining cooperatives. They scour and scrape the landscape and dump the detritus, which is
picked over by out-of-work Aymará refugees from the highlands. Fortunately, the upper
part of the route remains magnificent, and almost everything between Ancoma and Chusi
has been left alone, including some wonderfully exhausting Inca staircases and dilapid-
ated ancient highway engineering.
This trek is more challenging than the Takesi and El Choro routes; if you want to get
the most from it, plan on six or seven days to walk between Sorata and Llipi, less if you
opt for a 4WD to Ancoma. At Llipi, find transportation to Tipuani or Guanay to avoid a
walking-pace tour through the worst of the destruction.
Word of warning: this is a rough part of Bolivia, and not many people are taking this
trek at the moment. With wildcat (illegal) miners in the area, it can be quite dangerous.
Also, now that there is less regular traffic on the trail, you'll need to clear parts of it with
machetes. If you decide to go, it's highly recommended that you travel with a local guide.
Access
Nearly everyone does the route from Sorata down the valley to Tipuani and Guanay,
simply because it's generally downhill. If you don't mind a climb, however, you might
