Hike La Cumbre - Apacheta Chucura

Once the bus drops you off in the pass La Cumbre , you can immediately enjoy local barren only with yellow grass-covered landscape with nice and quite large lagoon Estrellani (600×400 meters) just below the pass. You will probably set off for the hike alone, but just a short distance from you will be very busy – maybe even tens of cyclists start here every morning for the descent on the death road, which is also a very nice experience.

At the shore of the lagoon is a small house of guardians of park Cotapata. You need to sign here to the guestbook.

From the house of the park guardians it is about a kilometer and a half along jeep gravel road to the other two lagoons. In fine weather is the path very easy, because Chucura pass is almost always visible. But there are quite often thick clouds of fog and it's then worse.

There is also a direction indicator not to continue along the „main“ gravel road, which is according to map the official Highway 41 leading to La Paz – but probably not used by anyone if nice asphalt road is right next to it.

After an hourly ascent you will finally reach the pass Chucura. In the south direction there is a nice view of your previous path along the upland plain. The path is passable even for minibuses up to the pass, so organized groups are taken up here.

Giga T!P: Rather than quickly dash like almost everyone from the pass to the other side to the valley Challapampa, it is better to make a short trip along the flat ridge to the east. In a while will open great view of both the pass and the long part of the descent path, but mainly of the glaciated peak of Huayna Potosi (6,088 m asl), which is not visible from the pass Chucura. This outlook mountain is only by a few meters lower than 5000 meters above sea level.

Huayna Potosi is a beautiful peak.