{"id":2894,"date":"2012-11-12T21:30:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T15:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2012-11-18T19:16:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-18T13:16:22","slug":"the-old-road-back-to-la-paz-sajama-pt-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/the-old-road-back-to-la-paz-sajama-pt-6\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Old Road” Back to La Paz; Sajama, pt. 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Old Road, From the Capilla de Tomarapi<\/p><\/div>\n

There are other ways to make a trip to the Sajama National Park into an interesting, and much longer, loop trip. \u00a0Probably the best is via the Ciudad de Piedra, which is to the north west of the park. \u00a0However, even if you take a different route, you should make time to drive the<\/p>\n

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Small Village Along the Way<\/p><\/div>\n

old road, as well. \u00a0This route, only some 20 miles of dirt road before you get back to the blacktop of the new road, was the main route to Chile until the new road was completed some 15 years ago. \u00a0It passes through some fascinating, stark scenery, gets you within a short few miles of three old colonial churches, and, close to the junction with the new road, passes through some beautiful and interesting “badlands.” \u00a0One warning: \u00a0I got my jeep stuck in the mud driving this road 25 years ago. \u00a0That was not a problem at the time, since the road was heavily traveled and it was only a few minutes before a truck driver stopped and pulled me out. \u00a0Now, though, you might wait hours before someone came along.<\/p>\n

Three Colonial Chapels<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kellua Kota Chapel<\/p><\/div>\n

Just a couple of miles from Tomarapi you should be able to see in the distance to the right the Cotasaya church. \u00a0We are funding the restoration of this chapel this year. \u00a0The road to the chapel doesn’t turn off the main road for about three more miles, so you will have to backtrack some to get there. \u00a0I haven’t visited this chapel, yet, but will update this post when I actually get there. \u00a0For now, I am showing two estimates of its location on the .gdb file.<\/p>\n

At 8 miles you can turn off to the north to the tiny town of Kellua Kota and its even smaller church. \u00a0The town is only 2 miles off the main road. \u00a0The locals have the keys, but it is not really worth going inside. \u00a0This mini-chapel is no longer in use and the inside is a bit of a mess. \u00a0The outside, though, and especially the view in its incredible setting make it a worthwhile side trip.<\/p>\n

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Ojsani Chapel<\/p><\/div>\n

Another 4 miles from that last turnoff gets you to Ojsani Capilla. \u00a0The chapel here sits right off the road and it is a beautiful example of colonial architecture. \u00a0I didn’t get a chance to get inside, but shooting through a crack in the door gave an idea of the inside. \u00a0This is another of the chapels we are restoring this year.<\/p>\n

Badlands<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Aliciya Is a Dedicated Climber of Rocks<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hoodoo Rocks<\/p><\/div>\n

There are a lot of badlands in Bolivia. \u00a0Near the junction of the new and old roads is one such area — a cute set of hoodoos and (mostly) hoodoo rocks. \u00a0Definitely worth getting out and stretching your legs. \u00a0Since it is very close to the junction with the new road, this also works as a very short side-trip off of that road if, for example, you are on the way to Arica.<\/p>\n

Getting There<\/strong><\/p>\n

As always, there is a .gdb file<\/a>\u00a0you can use in your GPS or in Google Earth to get a better idea of routes and locations.<\/p>\n

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(click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the final installment of my Guide to Sajama National Park. \u00a0For the other installments, go to my Bolivia Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more photos of this area, see my photo site<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are other ways to make a trip to the Sajama National Park into an interesting, and much longer, loop trip. \u00a0Probably the best is via the Ciudad de Piedra, which is to the north west of the park. \u00a0However, even if you take a different route, you should make time to drive the old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,92,57,103,91,59],"tags":[15,187,106,171,169,168,55,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3109,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions\/3109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memmott.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}