Just back from a 3-day trip to Toro Toro, sub-tropical region about 5 hours drive from Cochabamba however in the state of Potosi (was translating the tour for a French couple, who serendipitously wound up on this off-road excursion...not quite what they signed up for back in Paris).
Egad! Yet another example of how Bolivia should get it's sh*t together. We are drowning in attractions-landscape-resources-ruins-paleontology-archeology. But we are so, so bad at packaging and selling it. Upon arriving to the pueblo (of about 40 inhabitants), there was not a morsel to be had. Thankfully our guide Gonzalo had come prepared, with spam and nuts galore. The following days we subsisted off the scraps of Dona Nora, who only sells the dishes from her kitchen when she feels like it...
Scarcity of food aside, Toro Toro is known mainly for its dinosaur prints - literally, it's a case of seeing a hole and then realizing it's a print - mostly from the Jurassic period - carnivores and herbivores alike (including but not limited to: terradactyl, velociraptors, brontosaurus, torosaurus, triceratops). There are fossils of all shapes and sizes - even seahorses. None of which are protected of course, you're allowed to walk all over everything. Geologically, the place is magnificent, as you can see each layer of earth in all its glory: each one is a different color - green (sadly, used for making cement) red, brown, gray.
Other attractions include the Huacasenqa canyon - a 400m drop, as beautiful as the USA's Grand (I swear!), complete with a skyboard, perfect for climbing and rapelling; magnificent cascades for swimming; the Umajalanta cavern - 7km large, in which a rare species of blind fish live (there are 11 more caverns of comparable size, none of which have been completely explored) ; a turtle cemetary (these suckers are 65-60 million years old) and a little collection cave paintings.
...a hiker's delight.
Click here to view all of my photos of Toro Toro.
