There and Back, a story about Sorata

We had a comfortable trip to Sorata in a small bus with hardly no place for long legs, but we finally arrived after a 3 hour journey. As it is normal here, there is people buying things in La Paz and bringing it back to the place where they live to sell it there. So we met an elderly lady which just bought a bag with sugar (46 kg) and she asked us to help here to lift it up to the bus roof :-) what a weight! And have a look at those pumpkins!

Once we arrived in Sorata at the main square, we helped to unload the bus (again 46 kg to lift down) and we noticed a statue in the middle of the square... we don't exactly know this person, but he does look somehow familiar.... Any ideas??

...

We stayed in a little hostal (las piedras) and the friendly owner (Petra from Heidenheim) helped us to call a guide to organize our trekking in the mountains around (Sorata calls itself "trekking capital of Bolivia"). Eduardo seemed to be nice and friendly, so we decided to hire him, we'd leave on Friday, so we had 1 day in Sorata.
We actually didn't do a lot this extra day, sitting around, reading emails and newspaper and visiting a hostal (Oasis) for coffee and lunch and at 6 we expected Eduardo to pick us up to go shopping for the next days... but he called and postponed it to the next morning.
So next morning we were ready at 08.00 to buy food and hike up the mountain... but no Eduardo. At 08.30 another guy shows up, telling us that Eduardo is sick and that he will guide us... and after the shopping he had another change in plan: since the mula (donkey) was not ready we would not hike up but he would drive us up to the mountain :-( well, since the weather was not great, we thought this was ok since he said, we gonna walk around in the mountain. This actually containd of a 20 min ascend, a pick nick and the descend back to the tent where he said "You can relax now, I'll wash my car" and at what time do you want to have dinner? Relaxing from what??? so we spent 4 hours in the tent since it was raining...
At 18.00 dinner was eaten and he announced: "I'm leaving now, I'll be back at 08.00 with the mula. Bye" ... (no comment)

View to Sorata

Illampu (just seen quickly)

We had some time now to rethink our plan and decided to head back next morning to Sorata because the weather was not great and the organization and the guide (and his cooking) was "not great either".
So we haven't seen the lagunas in Sorata but we took a bus to La Paz (no sugar this time, but 17 people in and on the bus) and further to Coroico, a town in the Yungas (hot and humid).
In Coroico, we had a pleasant evening and next day was sunny in the moring and a bit of rain in the afternoon, so we relaxed an enjoyed the time in shorts (only the sandflies were a bit anoying). In the evening, we met 2 other swiss people who traveled from the Caribean Sea to south america and we had dinner together (yummy dinner).

View to the "death road" from Coroico

Our Hostal

Next morning it was raining, so we dropped our hiking plans and changed to getting breakfast and spending the day reading the guidebooks we have. In the evening, we checked out a place that offers "fondue" and really, they mean cheese fondue... together with the others, we decided to try the Raclette that was on the menue as well and it was good! (4 swiss eating Raclette cheese from Argentina in Bolivia).
Since we had booked a local flight to Sucre, we headed back to La Paz next morning and stayed the night there to make sure that we get the flight. It's now about the 4th time that we have encountered road blockades in La Paz or somewhere else, therefore an extra day is good to have. Our swiss friends wanted to head to Potosi this day, but the road was blocked, so we had some more meat in La Paz (yummy and plenty!) and we had breakfast in this cafe.

The owner is the friend of Petra from Sorata :-)

Just a normal market place in La Paz

Well, International Airport of La Paz is great (tiny) and La Paz is great for shopping outdoor equipement, so if you go there, choose is as first or last destination since you get everything (North Face, Mammut, ...) with a huge discount (e.g. 420 Bolivianos price = 200 paying... )
Our flight was on time, that means 1 h delayed, and we arrived in beautiful Sucre where we stay in a nice hostal (casa verde).

Flight view to Sucre

As far as we can tell it, Sucre is nice, white, clean, european and the post office is kind of complicated, but this is a story for the next blog!
p.s. we have sent postcards from 2 places (Cusco and Arequipa) but aparently, the Cusco ones are still somewhere :-( though sent 2 weeks earlier...