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Takesi Trail

Bolivia's Inca pre-Columbian journey

By Northern Adventures

Introduction

(Sat MAY 8th - SUN MAY 9th, 2010)

Stretching from the high Altiplano to the low valleys of the Yungas region, there is a number of pre-Columbian trails, built over 500 years ago as trade links between the arid plains and the lush valleys. Many of these trails are still used today by local people, and some have also become popular hiking routes.

The Takesi Trail is probably the most well-known of these. Often called the Camino del Inca (Inca Trail), the Takesi incorporates one of the best-preserved pre-Hispanic paved tracks in the country.

The Takesi trail is a diverse 40km-long hike starting near La Paz that crosses the Cordillera Real mountains and plunges down into the steamy forested valleys of the Yungas, emerging at the village of Yanacachi, west of Chulumani on the road from La Paz.

Relatively easy to follow and not too strenuous, it's ideal for less experienced trekkers and can be easily done without a guide.

We hiked the Takesi Trail during two days, leaving from La Paz early in the morning and returning in the late evening on the following day. It was a true adventure in a beautiful unspoiled setting, though it has to be said we were rather naive during our planning and unprepared especially regarding the carried weight.

Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable journey, and one of my very first longer hikes in the wild.

The Extraordinary City of La Paz

Going to Bolivia from Europe is not much straightforward; Peru, Argentina, Brazil or Chile are easier to be visited, and flights routing to Bolivia requires more patience and luck if one aims for cheap and convenient air connection.

We were flying with Iberia via Madrid and Lima to La Paz, and returned from Santa Cruz using the same direction; needed to say I am not willing to take any Iberia transatlantic flight in the future unless absolutely necessary (the service was rather poor).

Also, arriving in 3600m+ La Paz without proper acclimatization may posses a challenge for those unused to such elevations; from our group of four, two suffered altitude sickness for two long tiring days.

Otherwise, from the very beginning, it was a proper South American adventure - we started with a bumpy bus ride from the airport to La Paz, we were asked to pay for bus seats occupied by our mochilas, and even going to the 2nd floor of our hostel in La Paz became a small challenge given the elevation - simply, there is not enough oxygen in the air.

Otherwise, La Paz is a beautiful and exceptional city. It is located in west-central Bolivia 68 km southeast of Lake Titicaca, is set in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River. It is located in a bowl-like depression surrounded by the high mountains of the Altiplano. Overlooking the city is the towering, triple-peaked Illimani. Its peaks are always snow covered and can be seen from many parts of the city.

At an elevation of roughly 3,650 m above sea level, La Paz is the highest capital city in the world. Due to its altitude, La Paz has an unusual subtropical highland climate, with rainy summers and dry winters.

Its houses and buildings, rising up on the slopes of hills around the city towards their peaks, create a somehow surreal atmosphere of a city that tries hard to occupy a rather inhospitable terrain.

We have learned this may be the only big city on the Earth where lower elevation is something that values significantly more; commanding views do not really count here, having more oxygen is the real value.

La Paz geography, in particular the altitude, reflects the city's society: the lower you go, the more affluent. While many middle-class paceños live in high-rise condos near the centre, the really rich houses are located in the lower neighbourhoods southwest of the Prado. The reason for this division is that the lower you go in the city the milder the weather is. And looking up from the centre, the surrounding hills are plastered with makeshift brick houses of those struggling in the hope of one day reaching the bottom.

We explored the historical old town around the Plaza San Francisco with the beautiful San Francisco Cathedral - including the Sagarnaga Street, La Paz' main tourist strip. It's mainly a market street with artesano and souvenir stores, but one may also find here budget hostels, tour and travel agencies, cafes, and lots of backpackers. The famous fake here is the "trilobite-in-a-rock", a fixture on local display.

Also, the famous Witches' Market (Mercado de Hechiceria or Mercado de las Brujas) had to be visited - vendors sell llama fetuses and dried frogs for Aymara rituals, as well as soapstone figurines and aphrodisiac formulas.

Truly an interesting and unique market with weird choice of goods, I would say.

Day 1: From La Paz to Estancia Takesi

We explored the famous Titicaca lake and enjoyed an adventurous trip to the jungle around Rurrenabaque before heading out to the trail of Takesí.

We had to reach the small settlement of Ventilla, a small village set at an altitude of 3200m some 20km east of La Paz, and for this purpose we hired a taxi with a driver we considered skilled and brave enough to take us as much far on the dirty gravel track as possible.

It was a slow and bumpy though exhilarating ride to Ventilla where we turned left off the main road and followed the track that winded up the valley north-east to the village of Choquequta.

Here we tried to follow the track further uphill as much as it was possible going by taxi; the driver was not afraid of his (ordinary) car and saved us a few long kilometres of hiking by giving us a ride on the steep dirty road as far as it was possible to go by car.

We started to hike and continued ascending for about ninety minutes until we reached a sign with a map of the route painted on it.

Here, we turned off the road to the right along a broad path, which winded steeply uphill with fine pre-Columbian paving soon evident along its length.

After a few hours we reached the highest point on the trail, a 4600m pass marked by a stone apacheta from where there should haven been fantastic views of the looming glacial peak of Mururata (5868m) to the east, however we got misty weather in the pass with very low visibility.

It was a tiring and brutal ascent, it has to be said - we really felt the altitude and even worse, heavy backpacks we were carrying (how silly we were!!) turned our Bolivian Inca adventure into a slow and painful exercise where each step and each meter of elevation was a challenge.

It was already coming twilight when we started to descent from the pass northeast down a broad valley, through llama pastures to the herding hamlet of Estancia Takesi. We split into two groups; whereas me and Adam reached the stone houses of Takesi during evening, Pavel and Tomáš took their time and arrived only around midnight.

We were given a sleep in a stone shack on worn blankets that smelled pretty bad, and Pavel and Tomáš were given a place on a concrete floor of one of the stone buildings in the hamlet.

Nevertheless, we slept pretty well given the fact how much tired we were - only Pavel (only one of us fluent in Spanish) was asked to have a drink of a undrinkable local alcohol with the owner, something he was unable to refuse :-).

Day 2: From Estancia Takesi to Chojila

It was one of those rare unforgettable mornings; it was just too absurd. The Indian owner was drunk already in the morning, and besides asking for some (reasonable) money, he insisted on taking pictures with each of us.

Meantime, his wide prepared morning coffee for us, and just before we left, her mum asked us for another (reasonable) sum of money stating her son-in-law will just spend everything we gave him on drinking.

Honestly speaking, I felt really pity for these people living here high up in the mountains, with no electricity, no possibilities of transport except for a footpath; it is a really hard life they are bearing here on daily basis.

Below Estancia Takesi, we crossed the Río Takesi onto its right bank, and the narrow footpath started to wind along steep slopes high above a thundering gorge. The air got warmer and more humid by the minute as the trail dropped below 3000m, and the sides of the valley were soon covered in lush vegetation.

We were really thankful that we are descending not the opposite, however still it was a challenge after the long previous day and given the altitude and our heavy backpacks.

The views very stunningly beautiful, though, and we really enjoyed hiking in favourable weather.

After a few hours we reached the scattered houses of Kakapi, where we took a rest and enjoyed our lunch break.

It was sunny and warm, and the journey became really pleasant, something we really appreciated.

After some hesitation and after proper rest, we continued hiking on the footpath, now heading east, and again crossed a river.

We continued uphill for half an hour to Chojila, a small and friendly settlement, where Pavel bought a 2-litres bottle of Coke from a friendly local. Coke... you can imagine, so much sugar and energy, a real pleasure for tired hikers with overweight backpacks!

From Chojila, we descended for another hour until we reached a small concrete bridge we had to cross. After a while, we reached an aqueduct, which led straight to a road, which we followed around the bend and took the left, uphill fork.

Soon, the road passed an unpleasant sulphur mining settlement known as the Chojlla mining camp.

Having reached the Chojlla Mine, we were seriously thinking what to do next, knowing it is another two hours to get to the tranquil village of Yanacachi, just off the La Paz–Chulumani road. Luckily enough and with Pavel's great efforts in Spanish, we got a lift from a passing jeep that took us to Yanacachi.

What a ride it was! Front seats: driver, his wife, two kids. Back seats: three tired hikers with three overweight mochilas. And jeep's trunk: another hiker with his mochila, and two other passengers!

In Yanacachi's local pub, we asked for a ride to La Paz. We rode in complete darkness in an old van on a winding road; having spent some time in Bolivia already, we were not surprised to realize that the driver's female companion is using holy water and sprinkling with it in exposed dangerous road places high above gorges' bottoms. Apparently it worked, since we reached La Paz in some time, shortly before midnight.

Afterword

One of my very first hiking adventures, in remote Bolivia, in a beautiful though demanding terrain, and in a high-altitude environment - this was the trail of Takesi.

I wouldn't hesitate to call the experience bizarre: we were unprepared, naive, with heavy backpacks instead of daypacks, and not having studied the trail in detail in advance.

Yet it was a proper adventure full of unexpected encounters - we will always remember our night spent in Estancia Takesi, morning talks with drunken owner and the photographs taken.

Nature-wise, the landscape between Takesi and Chojilla was hauntingly beautiful, and as a stark contrast to it, the industrial Chojlla Mine looked very rough, poor and unpleasant; not an easy place to live in.

Bolivia remains an archetype of a South-American country - and the Takesi trail may serve as a fine though contradictory introduction to hiking in this extraordinary land.

Footnotes

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FootNotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the authors.

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