We were a bit groggy when we climbed off the overnight bus and found our driver, Tito, in the bustle of Cochabamba bus station. Our faith in his abilities was not off to a good start when he couldn't find the hotel of the other guests coming on the tour. Finally we found them, an Italian-French couple, and off we went.
The five hour drive to Torotoro was an uneventful, bumpy trip. About half the road is cobblestones and the rest is dirt; not the most comfortable ride. The scenery became more and more interesting, very arid, but with amazing hills rising out of the riverbeds.
Arriving in Torotoro village we thought the journey was over, but no. Tito kept asking for directions and being sent down streets that were impassable due to roadworks. Eventually we found the 'bypass' - around the edges of someone's crops, across the football field, past some donkeys and then back on the road.
Hotel El Molino was rather lovely, but lunch wasn't. Bolivian food hasn't left us too impressed and this was no exception; somewhat bland, no fruit or veges for the 3 day stay except chopped tomatoes (!) and worst of all no desserts!
After lunch we headed back to town via the bypass, which wasn't very kind to Tito's van, only to arrive at the park office with rangers but no guides. They seemed politely baffled by us and provided completely erroneous information on how long each park attraction would take to visit. Our travelling companions spoke fluent Spanish and were not impressed by this inefficiency.
Eventually a guide called Victor turned up and quickly had us organised for the next 3 days. Off we went to see the first of the dinosaur footprints and walk to a waterfall.
I admit to being a little disappointed in the first footprints we saw; they just looked like deformations in the rock that kind of looked like footprints if you squinted just right. However, this was just Victor's way of warming us up; the footprints became clearer and more interesting as we went.
The walk down into the canyon was lovely, the afternoon mellowed into a beautiful evening.
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| The famous footprints and our guide Victor; part man, part mountain goat |
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| Anna looking rather pleased to be next to some real live dinosaur footprints |
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| 4,000 year old cave paintings; the squiggles on the right is a map of the river, on the left is a llama |
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| Contrast of rough canyon walls and water smoothed river bed rock |
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| More water carved rock. During the rainy season the locals use parts of it as a waterslide |
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| Rocks. Interesting rocks. This is not the place to come if you don't like rocks. |
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| Geology at work; the valley sides are slowly going under |
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| Hay stack (not giant birdnest like we first thought ;-)) |
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