A garden of Eden called Coroico

La Paz is a beautiful city, but if you get this far, you'd be a fool to miss the paradise next door – Coroico – and the short journey there is at least as impressive as the destination itself...

We took a minivan from Villa Fatima in northeastern part of the centre for 25Bv per person at 5pm and didn't have particularly high expectations on Coroico. But that was about to change as soon as the spectacular and exciting, even a bit scary, 2,5 hour ride got started. The Yungas road is known as the most dangerous one in the world and it drops over an incredible 3000m in the distance of mere 60 kilometres. The amazing views start long before that though: first climbing the hills surrounding the city of La Paz, then the snow covered tops at over 4500m and freezing looking mountain lakes next to them, followed by steep cliff walls on one side of the road, pretty valleys hundreds of meters below on the other.


My mouth was open and my hands searched desperately for the camera without wanting to move my eyes away from the windows even for a second. It's a shame that photos taken through the van window at the under the circumstances extremely fast speed of 80km per hour can never tell you how it really looked like.

The journey continued literally through the clouds and even our crazy driver decided to slow down when the visibility reached zero. No, I'm exaggerating, you could definitely see the first meter in front of the van quite clearly. It's just that that isn't a lot when the road turns more than 90 degrees left and right every two minutes and there are other cars facing you behind all corners.

My least favourite, but only travelguide Lonely Planet says that what makes this road so dangerous are the drivers, not the landscape, and I have to agree. Showing any respect for speed limits would help a lot, specially since unlikely most of the roads in Bolivia, this one is actually kept in excellent condition. But when the driver reluctantly only slows down to 50 km/h when the speed limit is 10 km/h at the worst curves, you really wish there were seat belts available. Especially since sliding one meter of the road would mean a fall of about 600 metres, and a few more crosses and fake flowers at the side of the road.


We got to Coroico soon after the sun set and couldn't be bothered to start searching for anything special for the night, so we settled for Hostal 1866 right next to the main square. The next morning it was time to find a REAL accommodation and to take a taxi to a recommended Sol y luna resort. Luckily all their rooms were taken and they had only cabins available – a choice that we wouldn't have made otherwise. For 200Bv per night we got our own personal paradise; a pretty little cottage with its own kitchen, balcony and garden. The other huts weren't far away but the garden, or tropical jungle actually, around our cottage provided full cover from all eyes and walking home across the yard naked after a steamy hot shower in our exotic looking, spa style outdoor bathroom was pretty cool.


We took a long bath in the special heated outdoor pool (70Bv, no time limit), and did some bird watching at the same time as different types of exotic birds dropped by on the trees above us. The views were amazing also from other pool areas spread around the resort, but the water way too cold for taking a dip. After for what felt like ages we also got to do our own cooking and buying fresh vegetables at the market was totally worth the 20 minute hike down into the town and back. Our pasta, omelette and luxurious salads were all yummy and the fresh fruit breakfasts on the balcony almost fairytale-like, watching the clouds flow by in front of the impressive line of mountains ahead.


Leaving the Sol y luna after only three days and two nights in its relaxing atmosphere didn't feel right but could not be avoided – our 30 day tourist visa was about to expire and we needed to get an extension in La Paz or pay a big fine when leaving the country. We took off early expecting to see buses and minivans going to the capital every half an hour and making it to the city in early afternoon, but at the bus terminal we were in for a surprise; due to lack of passengers the minivans weren't leaving La Paz like normally and therefore there was no transport to be found to the other direction either and all the buses leaving every two hours were sold out. Luckily we managed to find a driver who's van had a broken damper that needed to get fixed in La Paz and we shared ride with a dutch couple paying 125 Bv instead of 50 Bv to not to risk missing immigration offices opening hours and getting our extensions on the right day.


We were again in La Paz, this time waiting for Daniel, our CS friend from Stockholm to get to the city and spend our days walking on markets and nights in Loki hostel and Hotel Republica eating cakes (this one 18 Bv, any big birthday cake for 40 Bv) and fighting with bad wifi. Our last night at Adventure Brew hostel was cold and breakfast pancakes not worth mentioning but the showers were great and internet connection actually working, not just a not-joke, so it gets our recommendations. Meeting Daniel and his local friends for dinner was great even though the food was our first and hopefully only junk food burger meal on this trip.

And now, finally my blog is up to date. We took a bus from La Paz to Puno only this morning and are now trying to get used to the Peruvian “high” prices after the incredible bargains of Bolivia.



Bolivian luxury
According to the unwritten backpacker rules in Bolivia, a report of the disguistingness scale of the toilet facilities to the other travellers in the group is a must after visiting one in a new place. After over a month in Bolivia, my whole definition of what luxury is has changed: Now it's a toilet with running water, hand soap and textile or paper towel – something which is VERY difficult to come by in Bolivia. (Loki hostal in La Paz got me almost jumping of joy.) I can't believe that only a few months ago I assumed all decent toilets to contain such luxury items.