bolivia: exploring the cordillera de los frailes

Bolivia is never really high on the must go places for the backpackers circuit. And if you’re headed to Bolivia, there is a good chance you’re beelining to Salar de Uyuni. Don’t get me wrong, the salt flats are beyond amazing, but there is really so much more to Bolivia (like this mountain!)

Sucre, the capital (yup, it’s not La Paz!), alone is worth a visit. But really, a hidden outdoor gem is just right outside Sucre – the Cordillera de los Frailes.

For someone who normally likes to plan a lot, I am not doing too much advanced planning on my travels. After arriving in Sucre, I googled “vegetarian Sucre” for a meal and Condor Cafe came up. Lucky for me, located inside of Condor Cafe is Condor Trekkers.

Condor Trekkers is modeled on the Quetzaltrekkers organization (supporting children at risk in Guatemala since 1995 and in Nicaragua since 2004). 100% of the profits are invested in the communities which are hiked through and areas around Sucre. Their mission statement is:

To break the circle of poverty by offering an alternative to relying on welfare by using market forces to create and share wealth within the community; the project sustains itself by giving community members the knowledge and skills to maintain their income source through tourism.

So after my menu del dia and coffee, I inquired on what hikes were offered. Yet again, I was in Sucre for the off season sooooo had to wait a couple days for a trek to start. I settled on the 3 day hike which includes the Inca Trail, Maragua Crater, and Dinosaur footprints.

Day 1

I showed up at Condor Cafe at 6:30 for a micro (which is an old Japanese school bus? To be taken just outside of Sucre and arrive at Chataquila, where there is a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin. This is where we enjoyed breakfast – and also, where I found out the tour was entirely in Spanish! Luckily, I can understand Spanish much better than I can speak it! And Bolivians normally speak relatively slow and clear!

After breakfast, we headed down the famous Inca Trail. After about maybe ten minutes of hiking, the rain started… and didn’t stop for a good two hours. Somehow, no one seemed bothered, and we just covered our backpacks in trash bags.

Soon enough, the rain stopped, the trail leveled out, and the views of the Maragua crater came into view. We walked along the Ravelo River with pretty insane rock strata and stopped for a picnic lunch near a suspension bridge. The lunch break was the end point of the downhill and level ground, as the rest was all uphill. Luckily… it’s gorgeous with more cool rock strata and waterfall views (and makes you forget you’re walking up inclines on basically sand… kind of…). As we got closer to the top, the rain started yet again. In better weather, there is the option of camping, but we stayed in a small basic house in Maragua (after about 18km/11mi of walking).

Until it was time to eat, we played cards and drank tea. One of the best parts of this trek for me? All the food is vegetarian (don’t worry meat eaters, there is a lot of it and it is filling)! After dinner, we took a short walk to La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat), a set of numerous waterfalls. Then, even more card games (not sure I’ve ever played as many card games as I do traveling) and beer drinking!

Day 2

After eating breakfast, we climbed out of the crater which leads to great views the entire way. We passed a lot of locals along the way, where my guide stopped to give coca leaves to every single time (some sort of addiction here!).

After a few hours of hiking, we arrived at Ninu Mayu aka dinosaur footprints. I don’t know if my group and I were delusional from the sun or what (unlike the first day, we had completely clear skies), but when we got there our guide was just looking at us expectantly for a few minutes before we saw where we were standing… pretty impressive!

Not wanting to spot for a break quite yet at Ninu Mayu, we continued on for about another hour where we stopped to eat lunch at a shady spot near a local village. We asked our guide how many people lived there… fifteen. FIFTEEN. Crazy. We then continued on our way past some more small villages until we finally reach Potolo (after a 20km/12mi day).

After showers and eating (and comparing weird tan lines), we spent the entire night playing cards and drinking beer again.

Day 3

Our last day in the Cordillera de los Frailes was really just a laid back day getting back to Sucre. After breakfast, we headed to Potolo’s local museum, “Museo Jalq’a” for about an hour, then caught a bus back to Sucre. Once there, we had the menu del dia at Condor Cafe and chatted for hours.

things to know:

getting there: with your tour, you’ll ride in a minibus to the outskirts of Sucre, on your own, best bet would be to take a taxi (not sure on the cost)

cost: 650 Bolivianos ($95)

when to visit: the prime season is winter aka May-September. Granted it rained the first day, but the views were still gorgeous and the other two days were perfect!

what to bring: