El Choro Trek, In 3 days from La Cumbre (4885m) to Chairo (1350m)
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 33.17 mi
- Elevation gain
- 5,935 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 16,365 ft
- Max elevation
- 16,037 ft
- TrailRank
-
50
4.2
- Min elevation
- 4,446 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 2 days 3 hours
- Coordinates
- 6117
- Uploaded
- May 27, 2011
- Recorded
- May 2011
near Rinconada, La Paz (Bolivia)
Viewed 34305 times, downloaded 760 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
You hike along an old really beautiful Inca way through different types of vegetation. The trek can easily be done by yourself without any guide or mules / horses that carry your equipment. The first night you can not sleep in a lodge, you therefore have to carry your own tent. Along the way you will find a couple of small stores selling snacks and food. It's best to bring your own food from 'La Paz'. Some guidebooks write, that the locals are unfriendly or even worse, that you get robbed. We did not experience anything like it, everyone was really friendly and helpful.
Day 1:
There are three options to reach the starting point of the trek. 1) take any bus that goes from 'La Paz' ('Villa Fatima' district) to 'Coroico' and tell the driver to let you off at 'La Cumbre' 2) same as 1 but with minibuses, they leave when there are full and they also depart from 'Villa Fatima' 3) take a taxi (we paid 80 Bolivianos). Of course you can also hitch hike, there are many cars passing. 'La Cumbre' is also the starting point for the famous 'Death Road'. You need to register at the small house next to the lagoon. After that you follow the dirt-road up to the pass. From here it all goes down... down .. down. You will pass a small village (Samaña Pampa) where you have to sign again. Further down the path you reach the village 'Chucura' where you have to pay the trail fee of 10 Bolivianos. The money is collected to keep the way clean and for the maintenance for all the bridges. We spent the first night in 'Challapampa' (2820m), you have to bring your own tent. They charge 10 Bolivianos per person. You can also buy snacks and drinks here.
Day 2:
The second day is really long and tiring so better get up early. First you go down on the true left side of the river until 'Choro' where you cross the river. On the other side you have to go up again. Now there are several possibilities to camp along the way. We walked until 'Sandillani' where you can also stay in a nice lodge, run by an old lady. If you want to camp it's 5 Bolivianos per person. There is no hot water and the toilets costs extra (1 Boliviano). The lady does also sell beers and snacks, it's also possible to eat breakfast there. On this second day we walked almost 9 hours and the way is going up and down.
Day 3:
From 'Sandillani' it only goes down to 'Chairo', it takes roughly 2 - 3 hours until you arrive in 'Chairo'. From here you can get a (really) expensive taxi to either the junction of the 'La Paz - Coroico' route or directly to 'Coroico'. I guess they charge about 100 Bolivianos. Another option is to walk or hitch hike, there are quite some cars passing by. At the junction you can take a taxi/minibus back to 'Villa Fatima' (25 Bolivianos per person)
Don't forget to bring sunscreen, repellent and some small bills to buy snacks/water along the way.
Helpful maps:
- http://www.azimutexplorer.com/img/content/photos_big/trek_choro_4dias/mapa_choro.jpg
- http://www.trekkingchile.com/Images/choro-trail-map.jpg
- http://www.turismoboliviaperu.com/imgs/mapa-choro.gif
- http://coroico-info.com/webs/incatrail/sitebuilder/images/mappage-572x557.jpg
Day 1:
There are three options to reach the starting point of the trek. 1) take any bus that goes from 'La Paz' ('Villa Fatima' district) to 'Coroico' and tell the driver to let you off at 'La Cumbre' 2) same as 1 but with minibuses, they leave when there are full and they also depart from 'Villa Fatima' 3) take a taxi (we paid 80 Bolivianos). Of course you can also hitch hike, there are many cars passing. 'La Cumbre' is also the starting point for the famous 'Death Road'. You need to register at the small house next to the lagoon. After that you follow the dirt-road up to the pass. From here it all goes down... down .. down. You will pass a small village (Samaña Pampa) where you have to sign again. Further down the path you reach the village 'Chucura' where you have to pay the trail fee of 10 Bolivianos. The money is collected to keep the way clean and for the maintenance for all the bridges. We spent the first night in 'Challapampa' (2820m), you have to bring your own tent. They charge 10 Bolivianos per person. You can also buy snacks and drinks here.
Day 2:
The second day is really long and tiring so better get up early. First you go down on the true left side of the river until 'Choro' where you cross the river. On the other side you have to go up again. Now there are several possibilities to camp along the way. We walked until 'Sandillani' where you can also stay in a nice lodge, run by an old lady. If you want to camp it's 5 Bolivianos per person. There is no hot water and the toilets costs extra (1 Boliviano). The lady does also sell beers and snacks, it's also possible to eat breakfast there. On this second day we walked almost 9 hours and the way is going up and down.
Day 3:
From 'Sandillani' it only goes down to 'Chairo', it takes roughly 2 - 3 hours until you arrive in 'Chairo'. From here you can get a (really) expensive taxi to either the junction of the 'La Paz - Coroico' route or directly to 'Coroico'. I guess they charge about 100 Bolivianos. Another option is to walk or hitch hike, there are quite some cars passing by. At the junction you can take a taxi/minibus back to 'Villa Fatima' (25 Bolivianos per person)
Don't forget to bring sunscreen, repellent and some small bills to buy snacks/water along the way.
Helpful maps:
- http://www.azimutexplorer.com/img/content/photos_big/trek_choro_4dias/mapa_choro.jpg
- http://www.trekkingchile.com/Images/choro-trail-map.jpg
- http://www.turismoboliviaperu.com/imgs/mapa-choro.gif
- http://coroico-info.com/webs/incatrail/sitebuilder/images/mappage-572x557.jpg
Waypoints
Waypoint
-0 ft
Chairo
From here you can go on by tax
Car park
-0 ft
La Cumbre
Cumbre - Cumbre
Campsite
0 ft
Sandillani
Here you can camp down with th
Car
0 ft
Villa Fatima
From here you can catch a bus / minibus / taxi to 'La Cumbre'
Comments (17)
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very beautiful https://www.wikiloc.com/outdoor-trails/el-choro-trek-in-3-days-from-la-cumbre-4885m-to-chairo-1350m-1725570#wp-1725572/photo-604127
I have followed this trail View more
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I did choro trek without agencies/donkeys on April 2014 in 2 days.
I slept in la cumbre.
There is no problem to follow the path, it is a path used right now only problem is a little bit slippery.
I think everyone can do it, maybe not in 2 days but yes in 3.
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/faltimiras/sets/72157644249007511/
There is a little cave beside the path on the pass of La Cumbre (the highest point, where you can see the snow peak beside you). I slept in that cave for the first night. It was quite safe ( no big beast at this altitude), only a little cold (I did not carry my sleep bag that time)
Did you guys use any maps? The only hiking maps of the region that I could find online (available for order) are the two German Alpine Club maps, which do not cover the Choro Track.
I am wondering if the Instituto Gegrafico Militar maps (or others) are still available in La Paz.
I didn't use any map at all, it is a path used for people and it is totally clear.
You across to small towns going down.
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one of the nicest landscape I've seen !
Hard on your knees tho !
You can easily find cheaps guides especially in the winter time, when I did it, it was the beginning of the rain season (dec-Jan) so there was almost no guides doing it because of the rain and the porr condition of the trail!
Great Wal-d Thanks a lot for this clear and complete explanation!
Thanks for the track, nice trekking.
little tip : If you don't want to pay the very expensive taxi from Chairo, you can walk 1h/1h30 until Pacallo where you can take a combi collectivo to Coroico for 10 bolivianos !
Excellent tip!!! graciasssssssss!!!!
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Done in two days at a really good speed. Three days can be done normally. Take care of your knees as there are too many ascents and descents. But it is worth as the landscape is beautiful.
Great guide! Was a bit baffled at the start as when we did it (June 2018) it was covered in waist deep snow!
Update for November 2018:
The bridge at choro villa loa at 26.7km has been destroyed.
There is a guy in the campsite before choro villa (before you decend to the river) who has setup a cable across the river. He charges 15 bs per person to ferry you and your bags over the river.
The guy isn’t there all the time either, some French girls had waited nearly a whole day before he returned to get them across.
We checked up and down the river 100m and couldnt see a safe place to Ford the river and couldn’t go any further.
Of course, no one mentions this part to you when you pay for the pass...
We did this trek in three days. The hike is really great, especially the first part and the transition to the jungle. We could have used an extra day though; the rain made the paved path very very slippery, especially when descending.
Some bridges are destroyed, but there are alternatives to cross the river.
The locals have placed two wooden branches next to each other and another branch to hold on to. My girlfriend and I are not very experienced hikers, and we managed to cross safely twice.
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Great hike. Lovely to see the scenery changing so much over just a few days.
We also camped at Challapampa and Sandillani. The second day was quite long with a lot of climbing at the the end of the day (more than we were expecting for this only downhill hike). The third day is really short. It might be nicer to camp a bit before Sandillani (we passed a few camping spots) to make the days more even. Although the spot at Sandillani has great views and the lady made us a lovely dinner and breakfast. Plus beer and a cold shower.
Many of the bridges are collapsed, but the locals have made alternative crossings and we didn't have any trouble crossing the rivers.
Be prepared for many slippery rocks!
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Very few information about the camp sites and bridges.
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I am Bart (73) and together with my friend René (66) we walked the El Choro trail 20-24 sep 2023 (4,5 day). We used the GPX track found here on Wikiloc and found it very helpful and reliable. The trail was doable, but most campings and shops were not open. We therefore strongly suggest to take provisions for the whole trip. Only at the end was it possible to buy food (at Sandillani). The scenery was beautiful, but the trail was a mess with plastic and empty bottles scattered everywhere.
We took a minibus from Minasa bus station in La Paz to La Cumbre. The road from La Cumbre to the pass has been extended into the valley until Illampu/Samanapampa. We met very few cars though.
Our first camp was at -16.293, -68.058 along the trail in a nice spot near a stream. Second camp at Challapampa where nobody was around. At -16.217, --67.953 (near 'El Choro') the trail has been moved to the east bank of the stream and an improvised bridge has been made. El Choro itself was abandoned. We have been looking for the trail there but found nothing, everything was overgrown. Finally we decided to cross the improvised bridge and this turned out to be the right decision.
Near Buena Vista we encountered forest fires and the air was smoky. We decided therefore not to camp at Buena Vista but to push on. Before we reached the next camping however it got dark and a local ranger advised us not to push on but to camp on the side of the trail, which we did.
The fourth day we camped at Sandillani and enjoyed a decent meal and a cold beer there. Next day around noon we arrived in Chairo and were directly offered a taxi ride to Choroico for BOB170 (€23) which we happily accepted. From Choroico to La Paz by mini bus, where we arrived ca 18:00.
All in all we found the trail beautiful and nice to do, but ill kept, with garbage everywhere and an abandoned feel to it. We won't be coming back here and advise anyone looking at this trail to consider Nepal first.