July 11, 2006
Day 286
I get back to my mountain roots.
Craig, Louise, and I started our trek of the Choro Trail today. The trail was an old Inca road that was largely forgotten until the 1970's when Hilary Bradtt found and popularized it. To get to the trail head, we took a bus to La Cumbre, an area about an hour from La Paz that sits at 4700 meters above sea level. From there, we followed Jesus' left arm to the pass at 4850 meters. On the way up, we saw llamas being herded over the pass, an extraordinary site considering how high we were.
After the pass, it was all downhill for the rest of the day. At first, there was only minimal grass vegetation and no wildlife at all, but by the end of the day, the tree line that marked the beginning of the cloudforest became visible. We camped in a local's yard where the temperature was cool enough that there were no mosquitoes. Sand flies did become a problem toward the end of the day, but they were gone by dusk. Overall it was an easy day full of old Inca resupplying stations and settlements that were still being lived in. The mountains weren't the most impressive I've seen, but the fact that the path was built over 500 years ago made it worth seeing.
The photo album for this entry is here.
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