Torotoro: Dinosaur Tracks, Caving and the Canyon

The center of town in Torotoro, the church

Sow walking the cobblestone streets near center of town

Donkey in front of the local gym with a t-rex theme

A home on the edge of town

Local carport

The way locals store corn husks in the trees for farming use

This past weekend (September 26-28th) a group of 8 of us from Sustainable Bolivia organized a trip to Torotoro from Friday night after everyone got off work until Sunday night. We booked a hostel, a van and driver and headed out on the 4-6 hour ride over dirt and cobblestone roads to the tiny historical town of Torotoro. The trip was rough getting there as cobblestone is a crazy bumpy and at some point you stop noticing the rattle until you drive over a small bridge and it's suddenly quiet for a moment. It's also pretty dusty on these roads. On the way there was also a truck that had gone off the road at a small town midway, and the crane taking the truck apart was blocking the road for almost an hour. We arrived in Torotoro around midnight to a quite bare bones set of dorms and a very nice host named Lilly. In the morning Lilly set out a nice breakfast of tea, coffee, bread, jam, butter fruit and yogurt. She also packed up nice bagged lunches for our trip.

Highlights from Saturday:
-Canyons, hyroglifics and views of the seven vueltas and the larger cordillera.
-Caving in the Uma Jalanta caves in Torotoro National Park where we saw vampire bats, underground rivers and waterfalls and blind white fish. The Uma Jalanta caves are 4,600 meters long and 164 meters deep. At times we were crawling on our bellies to get through small sections of labrynth like tunnels. The caves open up to a big cavern with pools of water, fish and a large cascada at the back - all in pitch darkness.
-Dinosaur tracks

Temple like formations make by water in the canyon

Views of the Eastern cordillera that runs from Bolivia to Chile

Photo in the Uma Jalanta cave in front of a group of stalagmites that look like a tree

Highlights from Sunday:
-Hiking the seven vueltas
-Fossils from the ancient ocean bed
-Larger dinosaur tracks
-Hiking in to the Vergel or Waka Singha Canyon in Torotoro National Park - swimming in the pools and lush waterfalls

Close up view of the rock formation in one of the seven vueltas

Hiking along the seven vueltas

Natural rock bride on the hike to the Vergel Canyon

Mirador over Virgel Canyon

The canyon walls from below

Lush waterfalls with vegetation and birds

Getting one more photo in before starting the trek back up