Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're lucky you'll find a
camioneta
from Chairo to Yolosa, though it's more likely you'll
either have to walk or hire a taxi to take you there (about Bs280).
TOURS
Tours
Most trekking agencies in La Paz run tours along the Choro Trail - as does the
community-run Urpuma Ecoturismo project ( 7195 1006,
ecoturismo.com.bo
)
.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
There is a shop selling soft drinks, beer and food in
Challapampa
. There's a good camping
spotbythestreamhere,thoughlocalswillexpectyoutopayasmallfee.There'salsoacamp-
site a further three hours down the valley, just before the village of
Choro
, then two hours
away where a stream crosses the path. You can also camp at
Sandillani
, in the beautifully
tended garden of a venerable Japanese man; there's also a small shop here. Finally, there's
camping and supplies in
Chairo
.
Urpuma Ecoturismo Lodge
Sandillani 7195 1006,
ecoturismo.com.bo
.
The best place
to stay on the trek is this community-run lodge, which has stone and mud cabins housing
dorms and private rooms with trad
ition
al furnish
ings a
nd hot showers. There's a restaurant,
and rates include breakfast. Dorms
Bs80
; doubles
Bs196
ACHACHILAS AND APUS
To locals, the high mountain peaks are more than just breathtaking natural phenomena.
Known as
achachilas
in Aymara and
apus
in Quechua, they're also considered living be-
ings inhabited by powerful spirits. As controllers of weather and the source of vital irrig-
ation water, these mountain gods must be appeased with constant offerings and worship,
since if angered they're liable to send hailstorms, frost or drought to destroy crops. At al-
most every high pass you'll see stone cairns known as
apachetas
. As well as marking the
pass on the horizon to make it easier for travellers to find, these
apachetas
are also shrines
to the mountain gods. Travellers carry stones up to the pass to add to the
apacheta
, thereby
securing the good will of the
achachilas
and leaving the burden of their worries behind.
Offerings of coca and alcohol are also made at these shrines, which vary in size and form
from jumbled heaps of rocks to neatly built piles topped by a cross, depending on the im-
portance of the route and the relative power and visibility of the nearby peaks.
The Takesi Trail
One of Bolivia's best and most popular treks, the
Takesi Trail
(2-3 days) is a fantastic 40km
hike starting near La Paz that crosses the Cordillera Real and plunges down into the steamy
forested valleys of the Yungas, emerging at the village of
Yanacachi
, west of Chulumani on
the road from La Paz. Also known as the Camino del Inca (the Inca Trail) the Takesi is one of
the finest remaining
pre-Columbian
paved roads in Bolivia, and passes through an amazing
