The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
La Valle de las Animas or the valley of the souls/spirits is a water worn series of canyons that lead up to a plateau that overlooks the city of La Paz (in Bolivia) and provides an incredible view of some of the mountains in Bolivia’s cordillera Real (the most impressive of which is Nevado Illimani). We took the kids out for an easy trek up into the area to have a little fun and give us all a break.
To make it fun we started with Salteñas (a local staple of La Paz that is similar to a sweet cornish pasty) at the “Laguna de las Animas” while we overlooked the incredible Mount Illimani. The kids devoured their late breakfast while I wandered off with my may and directions looking for this mysterious route.
After that, we wandered back and forth for the entrance to la valle de las animas. After hearing various different opinions from the locals on which route was the right one, we decided to choose one of the fairly dry creek beds and just head up until the kids got tired. After a bit of off-roading we parked the car and headed up into the unknown.
We didn’t cover the whole route (as much as 5 hours), but that wasn’t the purpose. Although our daughter (4) has done some hiking with me, my son (turning 3) doesn’t have the endurance.
To make it interesting we brought trekking poles for the kids and the promise of snacks and a cup of tea when we stopped. For my son we brought our Kelty Back Country child carrier and told him that when he got tired he could get in. He did pretty well and walked half way there and all the way back (its amazing what a cereal bar and cup of tea can do for motivation).
We followed what appeared to be a llama (that’s Ya-ma) trail up and let the kids choose a spot for their “treat”. They had fun looking for a place that wasn’t windy and that had enough space to sit down. At that point we set up my bulky but reliable Swedesh Military Mess kit (with Trangia alcohol stove) and sent the kids looking for twigs and sticks to have a small fire.
When they had enough of the fire, we entertained them with the little pool of water, flowers, bugs and what they called the “lion’s cave”, a narrow run-off channel cut deep into the valley.
When we were finished we packed up and headed home. The kids were tired, had lots of fun and even though we never made it through the whole trek, that didn’t matter.
