Coroico - Holiday within the holiday

Trip Start Jun 12, 2008
1
20
34
Trip End Nov 19, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Bolivia  ,
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

So it was time for a holiday, but to get to this holiday the 'Worlds Most Dangerous Road' would have to be travelled! To be honest this was a bit of anti climax in my opinion. The original road is no longer really used except by bikers and a new mostly paved road has been built its place. Whilst there were a few hairy moments earlier journeys had been more scary! The scenary however was mememorable. You climb 800m out of La Paz to a height of around 4600m and a desolate, cold mouantain top then you drop 2800m through the cloud forests to the nice and warm climate of Coroico at 1700m.

As some of youi will remember back in April time I was showing you pictures of a beautifiul hotel with views down the valley and orchids growing in the garden, and a pool to relax by. Well guess what we stayed there! Nice. It was a little tatty around the edges but in the main it was beautiful bags
bags
 . You can see in the pictures the views were fantastic, only the attitude of the staff was a bit disappointing.

Well needless to say there is a whole lot to say about these few days. We generally just spent them relaxing, watching the condors soar on the thermals as were sipped beer by the pool. Coroico itself is a really chilled out place with a nice atomosphere and a restaurant that bizaarly sold fondues of all types. The pace of life was slow and it was easy to get seduced by this. For a few days I suppose we did. We went for another walk to some waterfalls( I said we were getting into trekking). The walk took in a few Coca fields which we craftily took some photos of. They seemed a long way removed from the white powder that so irritates the US government. Apparently the farmers get a bit twitchy if you take photos, a relic of the DEAs rather nasty tactics of the 80s and 90s I suppose. The walk was nice lots of butterflies and flowers, with more condors circling overhead. The waterfalls were disappointing but it was dry season so I guess they werenīt in full flow.

All in all it was a nice break, I shook off my cold and got some sleep (the altitude has played havoc with my sleep!). The return leg of the journey was a little more hair-raising. In parts the fog and cloud  were really dense and visibililty was down to 5 or so metres. This didnīt seem to bother the driver though who plowed on regardless! There were only a coule of moments the my knuckles turned white!

We got back to La Paz unharmed and checked back in to Angelo Colonial Hostel. It was nice to come back to the same place. It felt a little like coming home!
Slideshow Print this entry Coroico hotels