Coroico: Bolivia´s Paradise
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2008
1
16
28
Trip End
Nov 20, 2008
Coroico,
Bolivia
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The road itself wasnīt as bad as some of the roads we have been on but the fact that you know you are on a dangerous road makes you slightly uneasy. We probably didnīt help ourselves by deciding that Nirvana would be the best thing to listen to! We were crammed into a minibus with all our stuff on top and off we went. The journey was beautiful, mountains to begin with and then you descend into cloud forest which goes on for miles and miles. There is now a second, mostly paved, road which we went on for the most part of the trip. There are good crash barriers in the dangerous bits and there is even an IMF funded tunnel which is so good you think youīre in one of those tunnels in the Alps. It was only at the end where we had to go on the "old" road and that was pretty hairy, an uphill, narrow, dirt track with hairpin corners with sheer drops on the end and no crash barrier.
We made our way up to Hotel Esmeralda which is a steep climb up from the town centre. But it is well worth it. The views from our room were spectacular.
View from our room
See www.hotelesmeralda.com if youīre interested. There was even a pool and a sauna...it was luxury compared to what we have been in! I have to say the hotel wasnīt totally perfect though, there was no promised cable (we were looking forward to films in the evening, but had to settle for cards...again!) and the staff were pretty moody. The first night we decided to eat in the restaurant because it was fondue night and we couldnīt really be bothered to walk down into town. However when we got there we were told that there was only spaghetti on the menu which was disappointing, but the wine was cheap and there was chocolate pancakes for pudding!We spent a day and a half totally relaxing. We wandered down to the pretty plaza in the town, sampled the restaurants, swam, read, played pool....it was great and we had super weather as well. It is probably the last place we are going to go to thatīs hot, humid and sunny so we took advantage.
After relaxing we went for a nice long walk in the hills up behind the hotel. We walked in the sunshine round the side of the hills and through little bits of forest. We were supposed to see 3 waterfalls but because itīs the dry season I think only 1 was in action because we couldnīt find the 2 smaller ones. But the one we did see was nice and there were tropical birds flying about and condors gliding on the thermal currents. It was almost magical! We also walked through coca farms and saw the local indigenous ladies picking them. We remarked on how such a lovely little plant can cause so many problems in the world.
After the walk we of course had to relax by the pool for the whole afternoon. We then enjoyed a beer on our balcony and watched the sun go down. We could have stayed in Coroico a lot longer but we had to leave if weīre going to be able to see and do everything we want to.
During our last night it absolutely poured and I lay in bed and wondered what the rain was doing to that dirt track we had to go down the next day. The next morning we woke up and realised that we were well and truly in a cloud forest. There was cloud everywhere and you couldnīt see much at all. The rain had turned the town into a slippery mudbath so we had to tread carefully as we walked back to the bus station. The journey back was much scarier that then the journey to Coroico. The dirt track at the beginning was pretty muddy and I began to realise why travelling in Bolivia in the wet season is such a nightmare. Even when we were on the safer road visibility was awful and at one point we couldnīt see more than 5 metres in front of us! Our driver didnīt seem to mind though, he carried on regardless, swerving to avoid landslides and, to my utter horror, even overtook a lorry! It was a relief to get back to sunny La Paz and back to our creaky old hostel!
