Tuesday, September 27, 2005
...El Choro...
So...after the Amazon we were all toured out and needed some independent travel. After much careful thought (Em´s achilles tendon was hurting) we decided to do the Choro trek - a 45km Inca trail which starts at 4600m, heads over a pass in the Cordillera Real and then descends (lots) to 1300m. The adventure began with a cab ride up to the starting point, our cabbie asked us to get out and walk past a policia militar checkpoint to avoid paying a "tourist tax" - you´ve gotta love South America. We started up the 200m ascent to the pass...it was windy, cold and hard work at altitude with big packs on. To make things worse, fat German tourists were getting a lift up in a 4wd...grrrr. Anyway, we made it to the high point (4868m) and the views over the Cordillera Real were stunning.
Now to go down...down...down...down. The path is incredible, almost completely preserved stone Inca trail at this point. The day was long (17km with 1800m of descent),
the scenery gradually changed as the climate got warmer. We passed through some tiny villages, Inca ruins, saw some llama´s and had to pay a 10 Boliviano trail fee (about AUD $1.50 or 60p). The guy filling out the tickets wrote so carefully the numbers, really taking pride in it. We reached eventually our campsite at Challapampa - a tiny village with a patch of grass to camp on. Here we met a 10 year old boy (Broder) who tended the campsite all on his own, his family were in the next village 2 hours walk away. We also chatted to some other trekkers and their guide - a really helpful and friendly guy from one of the local villages. Lots of Spanglish was used as neither of us could speak the others language. 
So, day 2 - the bitch! We were already aching and this was an 18km, 9hr shocker. Another 1000m descent meant it was hot, and slippery, and jungle on either side of the path. There was also lots of uphill much to our horror. Em´s many injuries started to get worse (I called her injury girl), but she did a great job to keep going. At 5.30 she lost the plot, starting shaking and almost vomitting from exhaustion. I offered to carry her pack. When she declined, I uttered the immortal words "it´s no time to be a hero Emma" (I should become a Hollywood actor) and strode off with both packs. Luckily, we were only 1km from the campsite. Ah joy...
The campsite was in the garden of an old Japanese man who had moved here in the 1940´s and hacked a home out of the jungle. It really was incredible - levelled terraces on 
steep hillsides, a beautiful garden and house. As we signed the visitors book, he gave us his life story, showing on a map how he had travelled from Japan to Singapore, across Africa, over the Atlantic to Rio, and ended up somehow in the jungle on the Choro trail (our Spanlgish wasn´t good enough to understand exactly how or why). When we said we were from Melbourne, he kept saying "Olympico, Olympico!" presumably talking about the 1950 Olympics. He was very old and possibly a bit senile, but really interesting.Anyway, at 5.30am the next morning we got up in the rain and the dark, packed up and walked the 8km down to the trailhead to share transport out. This turned out to be run by the dodgy brothers who charge 180 Bolivianos as they have a monopoly, oh and the transport was a pickup where I had to stand up holding the roll bars. This was just the start of a
typical Bolivian transport adventure as we tried to get back to La Paz. In Coroico, the minibus we took had borken suspension and we had to switch, this thing had
15 people packed in like sardines. Then, heading up the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" in the fog and the rain, we ran into a road rage incident - the downhill bus was supposed to give way to the uphill lorry but neither would budge (the road is single carriageway for most of the way with passing spots, and it hugs the cliffside, there are no barriers, lots of deaths each year, you get the idea). They just sat there. Eventually the lorry backed down. Then, 5 minutes later we saw a guy legging it down the road, closely followed by another guy looking intent on violence. This road is something else...After getting back, we headed out for a major binge - cocktails, 3 course meal. Top drawer...
Anyway, this is the end of Bolivia, and S.America. Next post from the Big Apple!
# posted by Pete @ 9:03 AM 
