Costs pp: collectivo van to Villa Fatima 1.5Bs, microvan to Coroico 15Bs. Matrimonial room at the Residencial de la Torre 40Bs (2ppl - just off the plaza) very nice place, very clean and the owner Gloria is very nice.
We had a kitchen in the hostal in La Paz so each morning cooked ourselves porridge and coffee/hot chocolate. We caught a van on Murillo calle to Villa Fatima and expected to have to pay for the space our packs take as well but he only charged us for ourselves. At the disused petrol station in Villa Fatima we found the vans going to Coroico and jumped in and waited for it to fill up. The market and ordinary day life going on around is always entertaining, a man on a pedal bike with its front full of colourful brushes, the man pushing a barrow with a huge round plastic bag full of puffed wheat for sale.
We headed off up the hill and over the top and on up into the clouds. We had talked to a kiwi guy who had done the 'Death Road' on a bike and said he didn't even know there were 300mtr drops beside the road because of the cloud. It continued about 3/4 of our journey and we only came out of it on the last hill down toward Yolosi where we could see Coroico, our destination, on the next hill. We wound down to the bottom then climbed again for about 10km up to Coroico.
As you will see from the pics it has quite a view over the valley, that is the road in that you can see here. The climb from the bus station to the plaza was a stiff one, especially loaded as we are.
Kent found us a great room at Glorias residencia and we were on the top floor overlooking a big courtyard. We wandered around the small pueblo but retired early to our room as the cloud descended just before dark and it got f***g cold. We spent so long reading our books that Gloria came to see if we were still awake in the night, she thought we had fallen asleep with the light on.
Next stop Caranavi.
