060724 - The "El Chorro"-Trail: On the Inca-Tracks

The tour starts early in the morning. Well, at least we thought so. The day before one of the guides at the agency tells us to show up at 8:30am. As we get there in time Adolfo, the friendly owner of the agency, tells us to come back in 30min since we have to wait for another person. Well, at least this gives us some time to get breakfast and wake up with a strong coffee. As we come back the guy still isn't there and we have to wait another half hour to 45mins before we can hop in the van who brings us to the starting point of the tour. On the way there we pass through El Alto, the used-to-be-suburb which grew into a big city itself and symbols the hopes for a better life for many bolivians who arrive here from the plains or somewhere else from the Altiplano. We also pick up lunch and get all the groceries for the trip.
Around 1:30pm we are finally on the trail and make our way over the mountain. 5,000 meters. First time anyone of us (Hamster and I) has been on this altitude. My heart is pumping fast and I can feel my legs getting tired. Slowly we make it to the top and enjoy the amazing scenery before we descend. We pretty much fly down the mountain because we left so late. Around 5:30pm we set up the camp... in the freezing cold. Roberto (our guide) and Lorenzo (the carrier) prepare hot coffee and tea, but it takes around 2hours to do dinner because the little burner is somehow operating wrongly. The night is even colder than expected cause we are still somewhere around 4,000 meters. Not Hamster nor I sleep very well and are eagerly looking forward to hot coffee first thing in the morning. As we crowl out of our tent Roberto and Lorenzo have already set up the "breakfast table" and give us a good start into the day. The sun rises slowly, but with every inch it climbs more over the mountains we are warming up. Within 3hours we are in the jungle and spend the night at a campsite. The Hamster and I decided to take a swim in the nearby river. And what wonder: the water is ice-cold. I'd say about one inch. ;o) After freezing to death last night this time we cannot sleep because it is too hot. ;o) In the morning we leave early. Hamster and I decided to shorten the track a little. It is actually a 4-days-tour but we want to make it in 3 days. Me, because I want to do a MTB-ride the next day and Hamster basically wants to sleep in a good bed and enjoy the great 'desayuno al ranchero' at the Kory Hostal. But our poor guides are just not on the same page with us. We arrive around 4pm at the small town where we are supposed to spend the night at. We ask around for a driver who can bring us to Coroico for a reasonable price. We get a good offer: 60 pesos. The woman runs to get her husband, the driver. He comes, confirms the offer and walks over to his pick-up to fill it up with gas. He comes back and what-o-wonder start complaining about the price: "You know, gasolina is so expensive. I cannot drive you for 60, but for 80 I'll do." We get angry and get into a arguing conversation. Bottom line of which we basically start walking. We actually hope that the guy will catch up with us in his car to come back to his inical offer. But he doesn't. So we walk. And our poor guides as well. In the next village we wait for them, totally soaked in sweat with the big backpacks on their shoulders. First thing Roberto does is asking a local guy to give us a lift to bridge where busses leave frequently to Coroico. The guy brings us there -- and all of the sudden starts arguing about giving us a ride straight to Coroico since there are supposedly almost no more buses. We don't care. And around 6:30pm we finally enter into Coroico checking into our favorite hostal. Later we meet up again with our guides and throw a few beers and dinner as a thank you for the past days.