The Road to Coroico

View from the early part of the route from La Paz to Coroico--prior to descending.

The road to Coroico taught me to take the highs with the lows.

After three busy days in La Paz, we traveled to Coroico--a small village in a subtropical climate with spectacular views.  Coroico originally became famous, or rather infamous, for the ¨Death Road¨--a steep, winding dirt road off which many drivers have plummeted. This road now only serves as a bike path and tourist destination, though bikers still die zooming around its bends.

The new road, we were told, is much better than the Death Road, though it still managed to terrify me. 
On the way out to Coroico, we took a trufi--a shared taxi van that will cost you approximately $3.50 per person.  Our driver, who works for Turbus Toti, was serious and professional, passing safely and maintaining a reasonable pace.

However, our driver on the return trip, who works for Vive Coroico Tours, just barely kept us alive. Although most of the road from La Paz to Coroico is paved, there are some rough patches.  The last section toward Coroico is all stone and dirt and there are numerous dusty patches throughout the drive as well as quite a few potholes.

These dirt patches are not a problem, however.  By the end of our return drive, I realized that it is much better to be driving on a dirt road, as it forces the driver to slowly maneuver around holes, leaving ample potential to live given a car crash.  Our driver treated asphault like it made him immortal, speeding around corners and zipping past other vehicles like they were llamas. He also followed a policy of leaving about three feet of wiggle room when behind another vehicle.

This was moderately acceptable as long as there were guard rails.  About a half hour into the trip, however, the guard rails disappear just as you enter the clouds. Indeed, a good forty-five minutes to an hour of the drive is literally through clouds at the top of a mountain.  The mist would have been magical with just a few more railings.

Cloudy part of the drive.

Fortunately, our driver slowed down quite a bit during the latter part of the drive, distracted by text messages and the briefest snooze. I took to coughing to wake him up and was grateful for a seatbelt--the first I´ve had in any vehicle here.

Regardless, the views on this drive are spectacular throughout.  Leaving La Paz, you find steep, jagged hills dotted with llamas.  As you begin the descent to Coroico, you feel like you´re in a slow-moving airplane as you literally drop through the clouds. The best part of the drive is last, when you emerge from the clouds into the increasingly subtropical climate surrounding Coroico.  The views here are stunning--enormous mountains completely covered in lush foliage.  If you´re afraid of heights like I am, ask for a safe, slow driver so you can enjoy such spectacular views.

It´s worth it for this--view from the deck of our hostel.

Highlight: On the descent into the valley outside of Coroico, Ryan and I spotted an enormous butterfly flapping ahead.  It was about three times larger than any butterfly I´ve ever seen and sported an unbelievable irridescent blue.  Just as we noticed it, however, we smacked right into it, ending its little life. I´m glad we saw it when we could.