Bolivia’s Cordillera Real: A tranquil alternative to the Inca Trail

A herdswoman approached our campsite, greeting us in her Aymara language. She limped towards us as we sat sipping hot tea, stamping our feet to ward off the morning chill.

At nearly 15,500 feet above sea level, the camp was one of the highest and coldest spots during our six-day trek through Bolivia’s Cordillera Real. The temperatures had plunged well below freezing overnight, turning our water bottles into blocks of ice.

The elderly woman, who simply introduced herself as Rosa, was caring for a herd of llamas. The llamas' thick wool kept them warm in the cold, but Rosa’s feet, clad only in plastic sandals, appeared chapped and frozen.

Accompanying us was Ricardo Laso, an indigenous Bolivian guide with over 20 years of experience in the Andes. As we shared black tea and oat cookies, he translated our Spanish into Aymara, bridging the gap as we trekked through the rugged landscape.

The Aymara people, one of Bolivia’s many indigenous groups, have a history that predates both the Inca and Spanish empires. Their deep cultural connection to the Andean peaks and high plains has endured through the centuries.

At our final campsite, we were treated to expansive views of snow-covered fields and glaciers that cascaded down into the valley where we had rested. Only the hardiest of plants thrive in the harsh alpine conditions, but Rosa’s llamas managed to find patches of vegetation, stepping carefully over streams that were still partially frozen.

During our trek, which took place in the cold, dry spring of the Southern Hemisphere, the sun's powerful rays left the ice in shaded hollows untouched. But the Cordillera Real is not immune to change—climate change has already begun to impact the Bolivian mountains.

For travelers, the retreating snow and vanishing glaciers add a sense of urgency to their trip planning—arrivals may find themselves facing a landscape that has dramatically shifted, as ice and snow give way to entirely new terrain.

For now, however, the Cordillera Real, a compact mountain range stretching under 80 miles, still boasts towering peaks over 21,000 feet. Located just a few hours from La Paz, it offers a stunningly dramatic landscape, teeming with opportunities for adventurous travelers.

Unlike the well-trodden Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in neighboring Peru, which hosts up to 500 trekkers, porters, and guides daily, the trails we explored in the Cordillera Real were almost entirely devoid of visitors.

This seclusion is what sets Bolivia’s mountains apart from other Andean destinations, stretching from Colombia’s tropics to Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego, according to Jeff Sandifort, owner of Climbing South America, where Laso guides.

"Right now, it's still possible to truly get off the beaten path," Sandifort said, whose mountaineering career spans South America and beyond. “In Peru, you'll find more infrastructure and crowds, but here, it's remote with perhaps just one group a week in certain spots.”

In the towering peaks and serene alpine lakes of the Cordillera Real, we encountered far more llamas than humans. Each morning, the stillness was only interrupted by the sound of our footsteps and the occasional bird song.

In the expansive rock fields descending from the mountain passes, native viscachas—large-eared rodents that hop effortlessly across the rocky slopes—chirped from their shaded burrows, while we scanned the skies for a glimpse of the elusive Andean condor.

Throughout our trek, we crossed paths with only a handful of people.

Like Rosa, most of the locals are Aymara, living in the lower foothills before heading into the mountains to care for their herds of llamas and alpacas, fish for trout, mine, and dry their freshly harvested potatoes in the sun and cold for preservation.

These scenes echo the lives of their ancestors, who have long made the highlands their home. However, for most tourists, the Bolivian Andes remain a relatively untouched destination.

As the poorest country in South America, Bolivia's tourism numbers remain far behind its neighbors like Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. The country is harder to access by air—American Airlines, once the only US carrier to fly to Bolivia, ceased its La Paz service in early July—and has faced years of political instability, making travel unpredictable.

However, under the leadership of Socialist president Evo Morales, the country has found greater stability, with tourist arrivals nearly doubling in the decade since his 2006 election, according to the World Bank. (In a controversial decision, Bolivia’s Constitutional Court ruled to overrule both the constitution and a 2016 referendum, allowing Morales to run for a fourth term in 2019.)

“The roadblocks are not as frequent as they used to be,” observed Sandifort, referencing the political protests that would often shut down traffic for days or weeks. “With the country becoming more politically stable and fewer roadblocks, more people are likely to visit.”

For Bolivians, this period of calm is a much-needed change. Despite the remoteness of the mountains, even the highest peaks of the Andes experienced tremors during the gas wars of the early 2000s, when violent clashes erupted over control of natural gas resources.

Laso recalled a time when his hometown of Sorata was shut down by a gas-related roadblock, leaving dozens of tourists stranded as the town slowly ran out of food supplies.

Located less than three and a half hours by car from La Paz, the only way to escape Sorata during the blockade was by foot. Laso guided a group of tourists on a week-long trek to the capital, covering parts of the same peaceful route we later hiked.

“Wherever you looked in the mountains, there were people,” he recalled in Spanish. “Grandmothers, children, locals—everyone was walking, everyone trying to get to La Paz.”

Though the political climate has stabilized, occasional protests over natural resources, corruption, and other issues still disrupt travel. During my 10-week stay in Bolivia, I was caught in a two-week, peaceful blockade in Sucre, the country’s constitutional capital, and ended up walking 25 miles along the highway to reach the next province.

As Laso made his way from Sorata to La Paz in 2003, he passed towering peaks that the Aymara people believe to be the homes of apus, powerful spirits who guard the mountain folk and protect the land.

From the northern peak of Illampu to the southern summit of Illimani, many of the Cordillera Real's most striking mountains still bear their original Aymara names, a living reminder of the cultural resilience that has survived under two colonial empires.

When the Inca first invaded these mountains, they subdued Aymara uprisings only by sending waves of reinforcements and attempting to replace the local population with Quechua-speaking Inca loyalists.

The Aymara withstood the initial invasion. However, when the Inca empire crumbled to the Spanish, life for the Aymara people became even more dire.

Spanish colonial rule imposed centuries of slavery and oppression, alongside discrimination against indigenous people that continues to reverberate in modern-day Bolivia. Like many other Aymara speakers, Laso’s parents never had the chance to attend school because they didn’t speak Spanish.

Even today, under the leadership of an indigenous, Aymara-speaking president, Laso’s children hesitate to speak their native language outside the home, fearing ridicule at school.

"They don’t want to be called ‘Indian’ or ‘uneducated,’" he explained.

Despite centuries of colonization and hardship, the mountains remain a deeply ingrained part of Aymara culture, customs, and spirituality. Now, with an Aymara president in power, indigenous ceremonies that never truly faded are regaining prominence in Bolivia’s public life. For example, on the recent Aymara New Year celebration on June 18, 2018, rituals were held at sacred sites across the country, including one led by Morales himself.

Some of these rituals are focused on the weather, which has traditionally been thought to be governed by a council of achachilas, ancestral spirits that dwell in the towering peaks of the Cordillera Real.

Despite the rise of indigenous pride, some Aymara leaders point to modern life and the decline of traditional customs as the cause of disturbances in the seasonal weather patterns that have long shaped the pastoral lifestyle in the region.

"Things were different in the past," one Aymara leader told Swedish researcher Anders Burman. "There was a proper time for planting, a proper time for harvesting. Not anymore... The climate is changing, and it worries us."

While their explanations vary, scientists also agree that the shifting climate is rapidly causing Bolivia’s glaciers to melt into dwindling streams.

Between 1986 and 2014, glaciers in the Cordillera Real shrank by 41.9%, according to researchers – a stark indicator of the ongoing environmental changes.

Once the world’s highest ski resort, the 17,700-foot Chacaltaya now lacks enough snow to operate its solitary ski lift, and the mountain’s main glacier has vanished even more quickly than scientists had anticipated.

You don’t need sophisticated equipment or decades of farming experience to witness the changes happening here. Over 23 years of climbing in the Bolivian Andes, he has seen the mountains melt away from one expedition to the next.

"There’s more exposed rock all the time," he said, "and the glaciers aren’t just shrinking; they’re losing mass, too."

While conditions shift year by year, the Andes in Bolivia are melting even as the country emerges from political instability and gains a foothold on the tourist map.

For those who wish to visit the mountains where Inca soldiers faced Aymara rebels or trek among snow-capped peaks named after the spirits that dwell there, the coming years may be the last chance to plan a trip. But for now, the Cordillera Real remains an enticing, remote challenge, just beyond the horizon of La Paz, with technical summits and hiking routes that call to adventurous travelers.

Whether you choose a 20-day journey across the entire range or a shorter day trip to La Paz with a summit of Pico Austria, you'll begin your trek accompanied by the sounds of a world in flux.

As you explore the Cordillera Real, listen closely and you might hear the call of the Andean Condor, learn a few words in the Aymara language, and catch the constant drip of melting glaciers.