Very Late Post of Choro Trail
February 10, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Well, we are actually back in Australia (got in last night to Sydney), but I had these photos in my phone camera that I never got around to downloading until now, so am finally telling the story of teh Choro Trail about a month and a half late. So, let me take you back to a time, not in the too distant past (around 10 January 2010), when Anna went to a little place called Oruro (which she told you all about in a blog, I think) and I went back to La Paz in yet another attempt to try to do a walk, and at which time I succeeded (yay), and went on a three day trek from a little town just outside of La Paz, down the mostly pre-columbian (I think meaning before Cristopher Columbus) trail.
First camp
I went with one guide, who, I am sorry to say, stank. He had been on a five day trek, come back to La Paz, and immediately took me on my trek, so I am sure he did not bathe (pretty cold, anyway, so durign the trek, I didn’t either – but there is a certain stench that someone can get from at least 10 days not bathing, which I am glad to say I have never gotten, but this guy had). I was kind of happy that he also seamed to be a guide that liked to stay out in front most of the time, and anytime he came close, I created space between us again.
Guide out in front on Choro Trail
Other than the stench, he was a lovely guy and we chatted a bit, but he mostly stayed out in front and I had plenty of time to just wander along the trail, thinking lots of things (none of which I remember anymore of course, but I’m sure they were profound at the time). It was a bit hard of a walk, but not too difficult, just constant walking every day, starting out at 8am every day and finishing about 4pm every day.
The top of the mountain in the Choro Trail
The trail was pretty, though, from beginning to end, with picturesque camping sites both nights. We caught up with two other walkers and their guide from the same company that afternoon at the first camp site. The couple were from Denmark and had just started on their 1 year travels around south and central america. They were nice, and we were all the type of people that like to walk and walk and walk without really talking much, which was good. The trek was wonderful, except for the last day, in which it started to rain and continued to rain hard for the entire morning until we got to the bus stop to go back to La Paz at about 2pm that day. I got back to La Paz at about 5pm, to freezing cold and rain and wet everything all throughout my bag as well : ( I had a hot shower at the hostel, met up with Anna and other friends we had met in Sucre who were also in La Paz that night, and had no time to dry my clothes, becasue we were off to Argentina the next morning, so you can imagine what my bag and clothes stunk like when we got to Buenos Aires. The guy at the security section of the airport was not very impressed with me, as he had to check my bag and I only had my dirty, smelly, wet clothes in it : )
Anyway, now you can go back to all the previous blogs about Anna and I in Argentina for the rest of the trip : )
