Climbing Cerro Tunari without a guide.

Cerro Tunari is the highest peak in central Bolivia standing at 5035m. It’s situated in the Bolivian Andes in the Cochabamba department. The hike starts at 4500 m, passing through glacier lakes and giving majestic views of the Cordillera Tunari mountain range. It’s possible to hike on your own but tricky to get to and in the middle of nowhere so for safety sake, I would make sure you go with someone.

When I was visiting Cochabamba, I googled ‘things to do in Cochabamba’ as you do and Tunari National Park and Cerro Tunari came up. If I’m in an area with a mountain within driving distance, I’m gona climb it. I think it’s the best way to see the area, you get a full view of the surrounding place from 5000 plus meters high. However my Google search wasn’t coming up with too much apart from some vague TripAdvisor reviews saying it could be done yourself by getting buses, but it wasn’t advisable. Other things coming up on my search were tour companies charging $100 for the day with a group. I wasn’t interested in a tour and asked the hostal for some help with directions or how to get there. They said I should go with other people and hire a driver for the day.

Nope, not an option as I’m on my own and want to do it tomorrow. The hostal was quiet enough and I didn’t see many others who seemed up for hiking. The receptionist told me the buses to get and said I shouldn’t go on my own but she knows I’m going to so here’s the info. Smart woman, I only just met her but she seemed to have me sussed in about 37 seconds. I asked when do I know where to get out.

“When you see the mountain, just get off the bus wherever you think you’re nearest to the peak and start walking”.

Perfect, it must be fairly clear I thought. I’d read online on some short reviews it’s best to go with a guide as the oath isn’t clear and some people said they got lost. I downloaded maps.me for the area which for hiking hasn’t failed me yet. Happy with the names of the buses and maps me, I left the hostal at 9 am in search of the corner to flag down any buses to Quillacolo.

I didn’t have to wait long, I waited on two street corners and then saw a minivan with Quillacolo on the dashboard of it and waved it down. It cost 2.50 bolivians (€0.30) and took 40 mins to get to Quillacolo. Now here is where the fun started. I need to get a bus headed for Morochata but there didn’t seem to be one and I got about 4 different locations of where the bus would be. In Boliva apart from the main bus terminals in the cities, they’re aren’t bus stops or buses. Its minivans that cram as many people as physically possible into them and they leave from street corners or wherever really you put your hand out. The trouble is knowing what street corner they’re going to pass.

Eventually I found the place where the bus to Morochata leaves from. I was told there is one bus a day that goes to there, at 5 am. The guys at the little office beside some minivans parked up told me that they’re would be a collectivo going to Morochata, we just needed 4 more people. Basically someone’s van and we’d leave once it was full or worthwhile for the driver. I waited in the office with 3 of the guys who seemed to be in charge of the van to Morochata and checking people in.

Getting information about the way back proved to be very difficult but they seemed confident I’d pick up the same kind of service if there were no buses, I just might have to wait a while. I decided to chance it and wait in the office until we had four others for the bus. This took an hour.

Within the first 5 minutes, I had a new Facebook friend and a very curious admirer. He wanted to go through the photos on my phone after seeing my Facebook and took several selfies. So now I’m on some Bolivian man’s Facebook.

They guys in the office didn’t know where Ireland is and asked to see photos of my family and of my country. Whilst scrolling through my phone I realised I’d hardly any photos of Ireland and that I must rectify that next time I’m home. The first mistake I made was saying I didn’t have a boyfriend and had no kids. Should have said I left my husband and kids at home while I galavant around Bolivia. Love must be very simple matter in Bolivia. Firstly because I don’t have a boyfriend or children- did I like women, was I barren or both? Seems fairly simple to pick up a husband in Bolivia. I was asked would I like to marry a Bolivian. He promised to marry me and teach me Spanish. I politely turned him down.

We eventually had four others waiting in the van which meant we were good to go and I bid my new mates farewell with the promise to send him photos of my country and he told me he’d call me. Good luck to him cause I don’t have a sim.

I love encounters like this just chatting to the locals. They’re so curious and genuinely interested in hearing about my reasons to visit their country and what my country is like. We wouldn’t have the time nor patience to sit with a stranger with extremely basic English and communicate through Google translate and chat for fun at home. It’s days like this I’ll remember, not when I sat on a nice bus and had an easy journey. I stuck out like a sore thumb and looked completely lost in this busy Bolivian city. I haven’t seen a gringo all day actually and I’m sure from the curious looks I was getting that I am the first gringo these people have come across in quite some time.

The journey to Cerro Tunari took about 90 minutes from Quillacolo in the mini van. Maps. Me was bang on with the route and I could see where the walking path started and I needed to hop out of the van. The hike to Tunari Peak isn’t too long, it would take about 2 hours if you didn’t get lost along the way and 2 and a half with a few doubling back on yourself like me. The hike is lovely, mainly along a dirt road until the last 1 km, where you take a trail that’s not clear at all around the last lake.

Its about 5 km up and the same back if you stick to maps me. It vets very steep the last 800 m but otherwise its a fairly easy hike considering its to 5033 m. I might have felt the altitude if I hadn’t spend the last 2 months at altitude and summited HP last week so I didn’t notice overly the altitude. It’s much colder up here though and there was snow on the ground. There are two lovely lakes along the way, the last being the bigger and most beautiful with the snowy mountains in the background.

I had read not to do this hike alone due to the path not being well marked and it being quiet. I didn’t see even one other person or farmer for the 4 hour I was hiking here. I made a bit of a messy and couldn’t make out a clear trail for the last 1.5 km once I reached the last lake but managed to figure it out. The last bit is climbing over rocks and the group is very uneven. I can see now why I was advised against going alone. I slipped twice, just the usual banana skin style slip but if I’d injured myself or had a bad fall, I woudlnt like to think how long I’d be up there before anyone would find me.

Terrified I’d be left with the llamas if I missed the last passerby or bus, I ran down most of the way making it down in a little over an hour.

Thankfully a bus was coming down the hill and I was approaching the road. The bus dropped me into Quillacolo and then I got one of the many minivans going to Cochabamba.

In total the day cost me €3.20 for all the transport and I made it back to Cochabamba for 18.30. A much easier but probably less memorable day would be hiring a car or getting a group together in a van to head direct from cochabamba to Cerro Tunari but it can be done with public transport and without a guide!