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As you descend the river rock path to the open meadow a hand painted sign greets, “I sowed my dreams here, please tread lightly.” Johnny, a Bolivian who fell in love with the country after spending some time in Europe has certainly sown something wonderful.

For about 28 years he has called the small town of Sorata home. Since that day 28 years ago, he has turned this riverside forest into his own paradise. This true oasis is filled with blossoming fruit trees, beautiful flowers and wild anis.

The accommodation caters to everyone from campers who want to bring their own tent and use the outdoor kitchen to multi-bed sleeping rooms with shared bathrooms to clean and tidy cabañas (cabins) with living rooms and private kitchens. They even have matrimonial suites with private bathrooms and towels folded to look like flowers. The only downside in my experience was that some of the beds sagged.

Oh, and all these bathrooms boast tankless hot water heaters (which equate to long hot showers… and I mean hot).

Johnny has moved his restaurant out of the town center and into his balcony. A great decision. The new balcony location shares the warm feel of locally cut and personally worked eucalyptus wood. In addition to this and complementing the friendly and tastefully decorated dining area is the view across the valley of the local peak of Illampu (6400M+). The food is excellent. From goulash to crepes you wont be disappointed. The soups and salads made from his own garden vegetables are a real treat. Oh… Make sure you try the steak with the garlic sauce. It is massive and excellently grilled.

If you are brave, you can even try their ambient temperature swimming pool or pick up some snacks from the Kiosk.

Our kids loved the geese, ducks and turkeys that wander in the lower meadow and spent a good deal of time climbing and playing in the tree fort. They would have spent all of their time out there if it hadn’t been for the rain (we visited in the wet season).

The town of Sorata itself offers various forms of tourism from mountaineering, multi day hikes (up to the glacier fed lake), mountain biking or a fun tour of “gruta San Pedro” (a cave with a navigable lagoon and the friendly chirp of bats). They even list sport fishing as an option, (although, we didn’t have any success with that).

All in all, the stay was quite enjoyable. We hope to visit them again in the dry season and take advantage of all that Sorata has to offer.

If you missed the previous post on Sorata and what to see a bit more of the scenery, take a look at the brief comments and videos:
Fishing in Sorata
San Pedro Caves

A few weeks back my parents came to visit us, so we decided to take a trip down to the small town of Sorata. My parents were kind enough to watch the kids while my wife and I went for a trip down to the San Pedro Cave.

Travelling down a major road strewn with boulders, mudslides and small lagoons should have perhaps served as a warning to us of the success of the trip. but, for some reason, it didn’t deter us.

I wanted to get in a few sights and hopefully a bit of sport fishing when my parents came down to visit. We got all the gear together and made a few homemade flies for the trip as well. Then it was off for the 3 our drive to Sorata, Bolivia in the raining season.

Regardless of the fact that the river looked like brown soup from the runoff, the hike down to the water and through the brush generated excellent memories and beautifully views to remember.

Take a look at the video below of the adventure and stay tuned for part 2 of our trip.

After much humming and hawing we’ve got ourself a new domain.
Update your links to Http://www.theoutdooradventure.net.

The Stevens Lakes Chain

Make sure you leave the logging road at this point. We had some late arrivals who missed the sign and followed the logging road down into the valley. They ended up blazing a trail and adding a few hours to their trip.

One of the large open meadows on the way in.

We set up camp and headed out to fish. The best area is about 100 meters off shore where there is a deep hole. Definitely bring a collapsable rod. Wedding bands were excellent as well as flatfish.  On a double wedding band I lost something around 18 inches or so. We had 3 people in the canoe and several times had 2 trout on at once. We feasted well that night.

Battle Mountain

Early morning on the lake.



take a look:.

All in all, it was a good experience. I didn’t make the summit (stopped at about 6000 m, 400 meters altitude and 4 hours hiking/climbing from the summit), but I made it back to my wife and kids (although the pain in my legs almost made me cry when my son hugged me) and I learned a lot.

I should have paid a bit more attention to the gear when we were given it, rather than get lost in the prospect of doing something I never had done before. We borrowed our climbing and sleeping gear from the guide, including backpacks. The packs were made by high sierra (a Chilean company whose gear looks expensive, but who hasn’t quite gotten the comfort level right). Even with reasonably light packs, after three days my shoulders, back and waist were killing me. There wasn’t enough padding on the waist belt and the shoulders, even though they hardly carried any weight. It would have been nicer to take my regular Swiss army daypack that I got for carrying my laptop around with me.

I take at least partial responsibility for not checking or knowing the gear, so I chalk it down to an opportunity to learn from mistakes and be prepared next time.

The scenery was amazing, and this being my first time ice climbing, I’m sure I will never forget it.

I remember the first time I went into an outdoor store… not Army & Navy, but a real outdoor store. Well I remember the price and thinking that my dad would NEVER buy me anything like that. All that money for a stove and gear. Why? And then I remembered that my dad took us camping in old tents with with two small aluminum poles (from an age gone by) and a pack of matches.

When the Europeans came through and made a mess of things… they brought their “know how” and tinned food and heavy loads, but were faced to make two choices: Die, or listen to the locals. The locals and their know how influenced how the trappers and traders made their way across the continent (or didn’t) and even the things they sold had to drastically change when the native Americans stopped buying cheap rubbish and only traded for quality, usable kit.

Now a dad and wanting to take my kids with me on trips, beit by car, boat or foot I’ve realized that I have to invest in local know how, skills and what I do learn from the “Europeans” needs to be quality, usable and light. Oh and cheap. I don’t live in Seattle and I have 5 mouths to feed.

The light aspect was learned on my first hiking trip with my daughter and wife. My daughter was a year old and we weren’t going to let that stop us. We ended up buying a Kelty Back Country Child Carrier (A deluxe version of the newer Kelty TC 3.0, which included the zip off day back and sun/rain hood) for my wife to carry. It was second hand and a great steal. It is a great pack that we still use, but there isn’t nearly as much space on the back country as their appears to be on the TC 3.0 for stuff, so that left me to carry most of our supplies in and all the dirty diapers out (leave only footprints). That was when I realized, light and compact wasn’t an option it was a necessity.

I didn’t have much of a backpack (one of the good old aluminum framed wonders from the 70s); space and money was a premium.That led me to look for cheap and light ways to pull off this 3 day expedition. That’s what led me to look into inexpensive alternatives to the $130+ backpacking stoves that shocked me years earlier (and their much more efficient modern counterparts). Using sites like Mark Jurey’s “Penny Ultralight Alcohol Stove” I put together something that was lighter and cheaper than what the outdoor store could offer me.

“Be careful, that looks dangerous” was the feedback from the doubters, and to be honest, one should be… careful, that is. With a bit of practice we never had a problem on the hikes we’ve used it on. In fact, that next day we turned around while our dinner was quietly simmering away to see 10 feet of flames coming from one of the $130+ backpacking stoves. I don’t think there is even enough fuel in the penny stove to get 10 feet of flames!

Since then I’ve puttered around with the DIY philosophy and until I get some kind of sponsorship, or a lot more money, I will continue the hunt for creative solutions for that balance of quality, lightweight and low-cost kit.

When I was younger, my Dad would take us camping and fishing fairly regularly. We would travel all around southern British Columbia, Canada and the car trips were kept interesting by his seemingly unending knowledge of local flora and fauna, survival skills and stories about his own childhood in England.

As a kid growing up in the post war UK, he made the most of what he had, taking multi-day biking trips just to get to some obscure fishing hole somewhere. He kept some of his books from his own childhood and shared them with us. From books on stickleback to the tales of Mr Crabtree (The creation of Bernard Venables). More than that, he shared his passion for nature and bushcraft.

Coming to Canada in the late 60s, early 70s, he spent a lot of time in and around the BC parks, mostly fishing, but camping and exploring the mountains, valleys and lakes and absorbing the local know-how: lighting a fire with your “last match”, where to get dry kindling and wood, Looking for good shelter, what to do in the presence of local wildlife, which plants, roots and berries are edible or can be used for survival, what gear and equipment worked best, where to cast that dry fly and how to pull in that wiley brook trout. And while we groaned after hearing “What will you do when you are stuck on that deserted Island with only one match?” for the 8th time that summer, it stuck.

It more than stuck, the passion was passed on. Now, as my own kids start to grow up (4, 2 and 2 months) I know what I want to do. I want to find out what and how my father learned the things he passed on to us. I want them to have an appreciation for nature and the Bushcraft skills of those in times past. I want to give them the skills to buy what they need, make what they can and use what they know. But of course, I’ll have to learn all that first.

So that is why I decided to start this blog. I want to share what I’m learning, to have some kind of reference for myself and motivation to iron out details, get feedback from others and share a passion for getting outside.

The movies and television of today paint the concept of a post apocalyptic need for survival skills. I don’t buy that, neither will I market it. It is just that too much time is spent rotting brains, when we can encourage problem solving (not just why the printer won’t work), ingenuity and creativity outdoors and hands on. In the end, even if they get just an appreciation of the outdoors that they can look back on, that would be enough.