Municipio Sucre, Bolivia - Polarsteps

We just realised we haven't hiked since our last camping trip in Cochamo! 🥾Our legs definitely needed some exercise. Simultaneously, we were in doubt whether we could get them to work at this altitude... So let's find out in the country side of Sucre! 🥾 This was a must visit according to a Bolivian we met in San Pedro in Chile. The adventure started before we could even start hiking: transportation! With our fingers crossed we took a taxi to a trufi-spot (small public transportation). We asked around and got different stories: "wrong place", "only private transport", "maybe later". In the end someone pointed to a bus. No, apparently not the bus. No, we were pointed to another way of transportation... An animal-transport truck! 🚛 Together with a bunch of locals, we enjoyed this bumpy ride (and our sunblock). -just later we learned that the bus we passed was also going our way and much quicker! - The truck dropped us at the start of an old Inca-trail. A path that hugs the mountain ridges, paved with flat stones. 💡Fun fact: The Spaniards, when conquering the Inca-empire, didn't understand why they would make their roads so high. The reason for doing this, is because llama's -the Inca's way of transportation- function much better at a higher and colder altitude. 🦙 The path crossed beautiful mountains and spectacular geographical sceneries. The mountains were layered in many spectacular colors and ridden by perfectly vertical intrusions. After a 800 meter descent, we continued on a slightly bigger road. From the beginning of that road, we were accompanied by a dog that kept on following us for the rest of the day!! We passed some more Inca relics, more colourful mountains and had a hard time finding our way through the labyrinth-like farm land. 🧭 Our destination for the night was a homestay in Maragua where we spend the night together with a Norwegian guy. This small village lies in the middle of a crater caused by a meteorite or the movement of tectonic plates or aliens? It's still a mystery👽. The crater is beautiful nonetheless, stretching 8km in diameter with brilliantly coloured cliffs. Walking out of the crater, we took a detour to a quite underwhelming spot (even had to pay a (probably unofficial) entrance fee) with well-preserved dinoprints!! 🦖 Well, it mainly got the the interests of the boys (we hiked together with the Norwegian guy today), but you can clearly see the footprints! 👣 After again some bit of wayfinding and struggling at this high altitude, we found the bigger road that continued to a slightly bigger village to take a bus. Just on time, we could catch a bus next to Sucre! ⏳ Fortunately, because our next night bus was on the schedule! 🚍

Country Guides:

Bolivia