58
edits
Changes
Added directions to east, information on public transportation
The road is much less used and it can be hard to find someone but if you're lucky and patient you will. Or you can take a minibus from Cochabamba for 35 Bs. and try to hitchhike on the way back.
The national park is expensive (100 Bs., you would have to go by yourself at the office in the village to pay) and they won't let you enter in any place during the day without guides (which are also expensive).
=== East towards [[Santa Cruz de la Sierra]] ===
Ruta 4 runs east-west across the length of Cochabamba Valley and is the primary route eastward and descending to the lowlands of the department of Santa Cruz. Continuing east from the city of Cochabamba it remains heavily urbanised for a further dozen kilometres, first passing through the city of Sacaba, the second largest in Cochabamba department.
Still before Sacaba there is a toll booth, search Peaje Huayllani, but it is still so deep in the urban fabric, on the busiest highway in the department between its two largest cities, that it really doesn’t make much sense to hitch there.
Similarly, while there are gas stations along the route through this area, your chances getting a ride at any of them are no better than in any such urban area. There are three gas stations past Sacaba where it would be better to try your luck: ES Villa Obrajes, ES Trans Sacaba, and Surtidor Chiñata. All are on Ruta 4 and it’s around two kilometres walking from first to third. All three get traffic from truckers, assuming there is gasoline to pump, and if there’s no gasoline they line up and wait, making asking even easier.
To get there from central Cochabamba you can get a Trufi, of course. According to Trufi App, the 212 runs from La Cancha central market along Aroma, up Oquendo, and then turns northeast on Aniceto Arce to pass the narrow beneath the Cristo de la Concordia toward Sacaba and out to the above gas stations.
OJO: There are MANY different routes that operate under the number 212, and not all go as far as these gas stations. The town nearest just beyond them is Catachilla, which can be used as a further reference point when asking if they make it that way. The Trufi App lists many of the different routes when searching by the route number 212, but not all trufis use standardised names and descriptions. [[User:Movethathoof|Movethathoof]] did not realize this and ended up at the end of a road parallel to Ruta 4 but way up the slope of the northern foothills. He ended up taking another Trufi to the entrance of Sacaba, and from there found another, with a different number, that got him the rest of the way.
== Trufis ==
The combi public transport vans that are ever present are known as trufis, and generally there's one going wherever you could possibly need. On the highway it's easy enough to flag one down ans ask, but their endless flow in the city makes that more complicated. There is an [https://trufi.app/| app] with lots of information on routes and potential schedules of the trufis serving the Cochabamba area, available on both Android and iOS. Click the preceding link or search "Trufi" in the appropriate app store and it should show up, the icon self-evident, the images confirming it's for Cochabamba.
== Nomadwiki & Trashwiki ==