Travel, Photography, Life.
Taquesi Trail
A three-day solo trek from the mountains to the yungas.
A Confusing Return to La Paz
Jul 8th
June 22, 2007
Day 574
Today was highlighted by confusing and bad advice. I wanted to go back to La Paz, and everyone I talked to told me a different story about the bus situation. The lady at my hotel told me that there was a bus at noon, and to take it I had to walk to the edge of town and wait. I did just that, but when I got to a suitable waiting point, a guy told me there was no bus today and I’d have to walk an hour to the next town and hitch a ride back to La Paz. I started walking in the direction he told me, but a third guy told me that there was a bus at 2:00, and it was going to Chojlla first. I didn’t feel like walking much, so I decided to wait and see if this mysterious bus would ever show up.
The bus did eventually come, and it was going in the direction of Chojlla. I figured being on some sort of vehicle was better than sitting around and waiting, so I got on. When we got to Chojlla I put my backpack on top of the bus thinking it would be safe there. We had lunch and were about to leave when the driver informed me that all of the seats were already sold, so I’d have to sit on some blankets in the aisle next to him. That was no problem; all I cared about was getting back to La Paz.
When we left Chojlla, we stopped at a government checkpoint and were all told to exit the bus. That’s when I noticed that there were actually several people riding on top of the bus, and some kid was sitting on my backpack. The driver suggested that I could instead ride back to La Paz on the conveniently empty minibus behind us and I wouldn’t have to pay the fare again. I figured there was a high chance of something of mine getting broken or stolen with the kid sitting on my backpack for the entire trip, so switching buses was an easy decision. As soon as I got on board the minibus, the driver explained that I’d still have to pay for the ride, so the other driver had lied to me. It was quite upsetting that so many people had lied to me or given me bad info today, but the prices here are so cheap, I could deal with paying the extra $1.50 it would take to get me back. The thing that really got me mad was that after the checkpoint, we went right back through Yanacachi in front of my hotel room. If only someone were capable of telling me the truth, I could have relaxed in my hotel room for an extra three hours instead of running around and trying to find the bus.
The bus later went up one of the Yungas Roads, which along with the World’s Most Dangerous Road, is one of the most striking roads on the entire continent. We went all the way from 2500 meters to La Cumbre at 4700 meters, then back through El Alto and down into La Paz. It took almost all day, but I was finally back in the city and able to relax.
An Ugly Dredge Mine
Jul 8th
June 21, 2007
Day 573
Taquesi Trek Day 3
For once I wasn’t freezing all night. I actually found it easy to leave my sleeping bag when dawn finally broke. I started the day by walking about an hour uphill to the horribly ugly town of Chojlla, which was built to house the people working on the nearby dredge mine and their families. The water running downhill was polluted from the dredging process, much like what I witnessed at the mines in Guyana. Not wanting to see the horrible living conditions and environmental damage, I bypassed the village and continued toward Yanacachi.
It only took another hour to reach Yanacachi, which was quite pleasant compared to Chollja. Like just about everywhere else on the trail, the town seemed deserted, but eventually I found a hotel to stay in. My trek ended by noon, but that was a good thing. I was able to spend the afternoon washing all of my camping equipment and drying it in the hot sun. The emerald hills surrounding the town provided a nice backdrop for the rest of my day. The Taquesi trail turned out to be a difficult trek because of the long downhill section, but I managed to make it in one piece.
The photo album for this entry is here.
From the Mountains to the Yungas
Jul 8th
June 20, 2007
Day 572
Taquesi Trek Day 2
Last night was bitterly cold. I slept in all of my clothes in my sleeping bag, but I was still cold. I emptied my backpack and put my legs inside, but it didn’t help much. This being the tropics, the nights are always about twelve hours long, so finding enough time to sleep wasn’t an issue, however, the quality of my sleep was very bad.
As soon as dawn broke, I was fully awake and trying to get warm. That wasn’t a problem because I still had to get over the 4650-meter pass that I had been staring at since yesterday afternoon. The walk wasn’t too difficult, and soon I was warm, in the rhythm of walking, and far above the mining camp that I had seen yesterday.
I reached the pass after about an hour. As can be expected anywhere in South America, there was a big cross at the top. The unexpected thing was the explosion that shook me out of the trance I had been in from listening to music and enjoying the view. The miners were at work nearby. I looked in the direction of the noise just in time to see smoke begin to rise from the mountain, and one second later the noise from the second batch of dynamite reached my eardrums. I didn’t stick around very long after that.
Shortly after the pass, there were ruins left over from Pre-Colombian times scattered amongst the sparse vegetation. The path turned into a well-designed road of flat, although uneven, rocks. I dropped down a bit further to see a small lagoon, some grazing alpacas, and a few horses.
After some more walking downhill, I reached the bustling community of Taquesi, which boasted a population of twenty women and twenty-two men. The town is so isolated, it’s a guarantee that the people living there today could trace their ancestry directly back to those who built the road I was walking on over five centuries ago. Most of the people of Taquesi were busy working on their crops, but one distraught lady was desperate to know if I had seen a baby sheep she had lost near the pass. Unfortunately, I had not.
Slightly below Taquesi was one of the best campsites I’ve ever seen. There were completely flat areas for tents, rock walls for protection from the wind, thatched roof shelters, and it was right next to the river with a great view of the surrounding valley. I had a long lunch there and reviewed my notes for the trek. It looked like it was only a couple more hours until the next campsite so I took my time before leaving.
The scenery changed abruptly as I continued walking downhill from mountainous to subtropical. Suddenly there were trees lining the path and even a few bugs in the hot sun. My focus soon changed to the difficulty of the path, however. It was a seemingly endless steep downhill walk on uneven stones, and before long my feet were aching under the weight of my forty-five pound backpack. I had to use all of my concentration to avoid spraining an ankle.
It was several hours before I came to the settlement of Kakapi. The mud brick houses of above had been replaced with stone ones, the thatched roofs with tin ones, and the spiky grasses with flowery gardens. The town seemed strangely deserted, so I continued on my way.
The trail next went down a huge hill to the Rio Quimsa Chata, then straight back uphill. The next downhill section to Chojlla was supposed to be short, but it turned out that there were two towns near each other with the same name again, an all-too-common occurrence in Bolivia. As I went down the steep hill, I could see the Rio Taquesi close below. I knew that as soon as I crossed it, there would be a campsite, but the path kept going parallel to it, in the same direction as the water’s flow. I kept walking and walking, but never got closer. It was so difficult psychologically to be right next to my destination, yet not be able to reach it after such a long day. The notes I read at lunch were way off when they said the next campsite was just a few hours away.
Finally the path descended low enough to cross the river and I found a decent place to camp near an aqueduct. In all I had dropped down 2500 meters today all the way to the yungas. I was aching everywhere, but at least the night was warm in the lower altitude, and tomorrow promised to be much easier.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Walking to an Old Mine
Jul 1st
June 19, 2007
Day 571
Taquesi Trek Day 1
I got up early today and walked to my supposed departure point as soon as it was light enough to do so. To my delight, there were actually several buses at the intersection, and one of them was even going to Ventilla. The bus was an old Blue Bird school bus with bags of grain, corn, and potatoes taking up the whole isle. Farmers wanting to go to their villages in the area filled the bus, and we left by 8:00.
The bus first crossed the city to the Zona Sul, which could be a wealthy suburb of any big American city. Next, we rode through the colorful canyon where the population thins out, and finally into the mountains. We rode over one high pass, then dropped down to Ventilla, which was a collection of about ten houses.
The first part of the Taquesi trail went to Choquekota, a bigger community than Ventilla, but far more remote. The town just got electricity a few years ago, but no public transportation goes there, and its culture is still very traditional. It was harvest time, and women were collecting and beating big stacks of wheat as I walked by.
I continued walking uphill until I got to a point at about 4200 meters where there was a decent campsite in a flat place kind of near the river with grazing llamas nearby. The trek’s only high pass was visible from this point, but it was going to take two hours to get to the top and another three hours before the next campsite. It was only 3:00, but I wouldn’t be able to make it to the next campsite before dark, so I decided to call it a day.
The path branched off near my campsite (next to the first sign for the trail) and went to an old mine. To my surprise, I found out that the miners still worked there when one of them stopped by for a chat on his way home from work. He told me that he knew the trail well, I could expect to walk another day and a half, and that it would be a nice walk. I guess that answers the question of why I didn’t see any men in the fields of Choquekota.
I was going to relax a bit before putting up my tent, but then snow started coming off the surrounding mountains as a reminder of how cold it was about to get. I put my tent up and made sure to have dinner done before dark so I could retreat to my sleeping bag once the coldness set in.
The photo entry for this album is here.
Preparations for the Next Trek
Jul 1st
June 17-18, 2007
Day 569-570
I decided that my next trek would be the Taquesi Trail, a three-day trek that goes from the mountains to the yungas. I still couldn’t find anyone interested in going with me, so I’m going to go alone. I bought food, fuel, a topographical map of the region, and other supplies for the trek, and took care of other maintenance issues in preparation.
The logistics of getting to the trailhead proved quite difficult. I had to find a bus to take me to Ventilla, which is probably just a little community in the middle of nowhere. However, buses that go from La Paz to anywhere other than another big city don’t leave from the bus station. Instead, they just show up at some random intersection and take off whenever they get full. I got an idea of where the buses for Ventilla left from in a guidebook, but just finding that place was tough. The city is a maze with no discernible grid of roads. Once in the area, nobody would tell me “no” when I asked if they knew where the buses were. Instead, everyone sent me on wild goose chases that left me more confused than when I began. (The inability to say “no,” or “I’m sorry” is typical of Latin American culture, by the way.) After hours of searching and asking, I found a hardware store owner who seemed confident that the buses showed up at his intersection at 6:30 AM and usually left by 7:45. I’ll go there early tomorrow, hope the buses are there, and hope even more that they aren’t all full.