24. Behind the steps of dinosaurs in Torotoro park

Torotoro

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- Located between Cochabamba and Sucre in the heart of Bolivia, this park is quite hard to access. It owns a prehistoric legacy and natural wonders, so it make it a perfect stopover on our road from Sucre to La Paz.
Bad trip...

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- To reach it, we need to take a minibus from Cochabamba. We only keep bad memories of this trip: a limited vital space, annoying Bolivian musics (see article 25) and the vehicle jumping on every rock of this pebbled road.
- Sleepless night and shakings at will, let's say we didn't have clear ideas arriving. However we left during the afternoon for the big excursion.
La Ciudad de Itas

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- Here we could admire the rock painting drawn by the first inhabitants of America thousands of years ago. A painting of lama.
Natural caves

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- We went through a festival of natural cavities, caves dug by flows in limestone.
Panorama

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- From the top, we got a clear vue of the front mountains. On our slope, fields exploited by hand can be noticed on a rocky ground.
Dinosaurs footprints

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- A fascinating discovery was waiting for us at our second stop: dinosaur footprints belonging to the famous tyrannosaure.
- You may wonder:
- - how dinosaurs could let footprints on these rocks?
- - Good question!
- Actually this hard rock was mud during the time of dinosaurs. By the time, it dried and became rocks. It's neither lava nor volcanic rejection but just mud.
La Caverna de Umajalanta

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- Following the way, we arrived in front of a giant pothole. That was the entrance of an immense cave that we explored, equipped with a helmet and a headlamp.
Inside the cave

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- Enormous stalactites point in direction of the ground. They get fatten of 1mm every 10 years. Considering the thickness of this one, try to guess how old is it...
Narrow ways

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- We reached the ground of the cave. But while we were expecting to go back, the guide indicated a 50cm cavity: here is the way!
- Benoit shouldn't be taller...
The lake

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- At 156m depth, we arrived at the extreme limit of our exploration. We found a underground lake which outlet was hidden to us. It is filled up by a waterfall further. Staring the lake, we could observ blind fishes whose of few centimetres. The light can never arrive to their eyes, that's why they lost this unnecessary organ.
Dinosaurs footprints (2)

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- The next morning we joined new road companions: a countryman Matthias and some Brits: Adam, Clair and Jonathan. We were just starting to walk when, 500m later, we run into - again - some footprints, of diplodocus and veliceraptor.
On the road of the Canyon Torotoro

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On the top of the Mirador

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- We discovered almost by surprise the Canyon of Torotoro. Its bulk surprised us as well. How majestic!
At the bottom of the canyon

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- 800 steps down, we enjoyed the waterfalls directly ejected from the rock of the canyon. Bath, shower, hydromassage or suntanning: free instants of happiness!
The city's atmosphere

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- Benefitting from the generous God tourism, the city chose a style... A giant statue of Tirex chasing after a veliceraptor laid on the central square of Torotoro. A head of Tirex surpassing the entrance of the gymnasium and the banks of wrought iron decorated with diplodocus, everything is contributing to the atmosphere of this place.

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