La Paz and the El Choro Trek

We made it to La Paz without any problems - a truly direct bus which was nice. Our bus was freezing cold but they gave us blankets. We arrived in La Paz at 5 am (all Bolivian buses drop you off at either 2 or 5 am, not sure why) and shared a taxi with Johnny to a hotel. We crashed for a bit then toured around town. La Paz is huge and situated in a valley with all the streets either going up hill to the outskirts or down hill to the city center. It is a much cooler town than Santa Cruz!! After getting our bearings bit, we went to eat lunch at a Western restuarant - we were craving some good food after our Salt Flat tour- and caught a movie, Clash of the Titans. Just walking around the town has so much character with street vendors selling food, little stands with clothes, or just fruits and vegtables. The next day we had a huge shopping spree. Things are so cool and cheap here we splurged on a lot. Luckily we are meeting Becky and Tom at Manchu Pichu and might pawn some stuff off on them - thanks Mom and Dad!
Our plan was to take a bus the next morning to Rurrenbaque where most jungle and pampas tours leave from. So we checked out of our hotel and caught a cab to the bus station only to find out that there is a strike south of Rurrenbaque which has blocked the road...no car can get there from La Paz until the strike is over. Back to the hotel to re-visit our plan. It was apparent we can not do much in this country on our own so we decided to sign up for a tour that included a flight to Rurrenbaque and eneded up spending more money on it than anything else we have this entire trip. Oh well, atleast we know that we have something planned for 6 days. Since our tour didn´t start until Wedneday we decided to go do the El Choro trek which you can do on your own.

We left to do the trek at about 9 am, after a long day of celebrating with our buddy Johnny, whose soccer team is suppose to be the Gamecocks of the English premier league(read:they never quite make it)...not the best idea before starting a trek at 4900 m or 16,000 ft. It was sleeting when we began the hike and neither of us felt very good after the night before. We walked for about 4 or 5 hours before we decided to camp at the first site and see if tomorrow the weather, and our stomachs, would be better. When we woke up the sun was out which was a good sign. So we packed up and headed out enjoying the mountain scenery with cows, sheep, and tons of llama grazing around the trail. After about two hours of walking my feet began to kill me and I noticed that the inner sole of my boot was pretty much gone. Thank you Keens!! As we continued to hike the weather just gets hotter and hotter as we move lower in altitude and the scereny becomes more tropical. Both of us were fairly sore by the time we stopped at 5, a good 7 hour day of hiking. We realized we screwed ourselves over by stopping early the first day since when we looked at the map that night we had about 8 hours to do the next day. At our site there was a little girl that was really cute. She kept talking to us - no clue what she was saying - and we gave her some Oreos we brought with us. Might have been a mistake because after the third she was so hyper and chasing her cats around. Eventually her mom called her in but I think the mom was secretly cursing us. That night we slept with horses grazing, pooping, and peeing all around our tent - a great way to fall asleep!! In the morning we both could hardly move we were so sore. We gave the woman a bottle of wine, more oreos and some chips we brought with us to lessen the weight even a little. Then we pushed on. The landscape is gorgeous but it was hard to appreciate all the green mountains, colorful butterflies, plumeting waterfalls, and wild flowers all around us...we were in pain. After 5 hours we stoppped for lunch at a place that is 2 and half hours from the bottom of the trek. The guy that ran the site kinda laughed at us because we just looked wiped out and struggles. After lunch we gave him the rest of our gas and rice just to purge more. He was really happy about the gas so I think we made his day. 3 more hours, 2 popped blisters, lots of music and we were finally at the bottom. There was a minibus driver there that we gladly paid 400 Bolivians, about $50, to take us back to La Paz without stopping. It was a nice drive and even nicer to be off our feet.
They say you can do the El Choro in 2 days, but that is if you are not carrying anything and hauling ass. If you do it in 3 days, don´t skimp on the first day! It is a beautiful trek that is 70 kms long and would be enjoyable by doing 6 - 7 hour days. Even more if you have 4 days!