Torotoro is a national park located 138km south of Cochabamba and is mainly know for its dinosaur tracks and caves.
We learned that Torotoro (and Cochabamba) are not very common tourist destinations, so information on Torotoro tours turned out to be a lot harder to come by... After lack of response to email inquiries, visiting a few agencies, and struggling to gather decent pricing / information, we decided we would instead buy a local bus ticket and try to visit the area on our own. That night, we totally lucked out and were contacted back by one of the agencies, Exprintur, about joining up on a 3 day / 2 night tour with a couple from Switzerland - Patrik and Priska. The price was right, so it was an offer we couldn't refuse!
Day 1: The Town of Torotoro
Our first day started bright and early with a 4.5 hour car ride to Torotoro (that's right - 4.5 hours to go 138km...).
We arrived in the afternoon and took our time visiting the quiet town of Torotoro and its museum of various fossils and rocks collected over the past 24 years by one of the locals.
We then wandered just outside of the town where we checked out our first set of fossilized dinosaur tracks. To our surprise, based on our observation of the tracks, dinosaurs actually seem to be quite a bit smaller than we imagined from our childhood.
According to our guide, Ivan, Bolivia doesn't have a lot of archaeologist. He indicated that currently, the park is not being actively studied or excavated - all of the tracks are being discovered by locals, as nature erodes through the layers of sediment and reveals various new sets of tracks. Ivan also told us that so far, they have only found dinosaur tracks in Torotoro but no bones - this contrasts the Tarija area (in the deep South of Bolivia), where they have only found dinosaur bones but no tracks. Their theory is that the Torotoro area was along the migration path for the dinosaurs.
Day 2: Torotoro Canyon and the Turtle Cemetery
On our second day, we set out on a 8km hike to El Vergel in the Torotoro Canyon where we chilled out and enjoyed the scenery. Along the way, we also saw the biggest dinosaur tracks discovered in the park to-date.
After lunch, we took a walk to the Turtle Cemetery where, to our surprise, there were barely any turtle fossils remaining… From what we could gather from talking to Ivan, they were probably recently removed from the park to be put in a museum because they were extremely brittle (and apparently tourists and locals were taking them as souvenirs….) Regardless, the scenery and sunset along the way was well worth the walk. And, on our way back, we passed a local family that was cooking fresh bread outside in their horno (oven) - they were super friendly and agreed to sell us a few pieces to try…. mmmm fresh bread….!
Day 3: Umajalanta Caves
This was by far the highlight of the trip: We put our helmet and set out to explore an really cool cave. We walked, climbed, roped, crawled, slid, and squiggled our way through the terrains of the Umajalanta cave for a distance of about 2km, and depth of 118meters. The entire cave is actually 12km long but tourists can't pass the 2km mark as it requires diving under water (with the blind fish) for a fair distance in order to reach the rest of the caverns.
Note to Other Travellers
Originally we where planning on going on our own as Cochabamba agencies were not responsive to email price inquiries. When we arrived in Cochabamba, we did a last-ditch effort of visiting a few agencies but since there's not a lot of tourists in the Cochabamba area, they could only quote pricing based on 2pax which was WAY outside our budget. We lucked out that Poala from an agency called Exprintur actually followed up quickly and gave us an offer we could not refuse. We were super happy with the service that they provided, so here is their information:
Tour Agency: Exprintur (by the main plaza in Cochabamba)
Agent: Paola Gabriela Quispe (paolacbba@gmail.com)
Guide: Ivan Quipse (excellent guide - very knowledgeable, super helpful & friendly, and speaks excellent English)
Tour: 3d/2n in Torotoro - all inclusive with private transportation for $110/person (based on 4pax)