Travel Tales from the Americas: From the Subterranean to the Jurassic

After panting a final farewell to Potosi on Thursday 28^th March, we made our way around green hills and deep valleys to the city of Sucre which is full of fine Spanish colonial architecture. Sucre is in fact the official capital of Bolivia, although all real power has long since passed to La Paz.

Alleyway at Sucre

Our first day in Sucre was a non-starter, literally. We jumped into Lucy with the intention of going to see some dinosaur footprints, pressed the starter and nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen on subsequent attempts, so we called for an electro-mechanic who turned up on a rather scruffy motor bike with his baseball cap back to front and the legend ‘Dope’ written in bold letters across it. This was not a good start, but he got Lucy going, basically with a long piece of bent wire which he prodded around with inside the engine compartment. Whilst the engine did start, it would not start on the starter key because the immobiliser, living up to its name, had immobilised everything and refused to be immobilised itself.

The Dope accompanied Alan to a garage where he managed to have a light bulb moment and work out why the immobiliser had refused to deactivate, and the motor finally started with the key.

The next day we did manage to visit the Dinosaur footprints, definitely the highlight of our visit to Sucre. These footprints, laid down 70 million years ago, are on a huge slab of sandstone which is almost vertical. This was originally a muddy beach on the side of a lake until the Andes started to rise, eventually bringing it up to where it is today. Up this slab are thousands of dinosaur prints and tracks, the likes of which we have never seen before and this is, in fact, the biggest known collection of dinosaur footprints in the world.

Dinosaur footprints, Cal Orko, Sucre

Dinosaur footprints walking to oblivion

Dinosaur footprints

Small person next to large dinosaur footprints

Alan next to dinosaur footprints

What is really upsetting is that there is no conservation of the site whatsoever, so the rock is degenerating. Ten years ago, a huge triangular section which contained by far the best prints that had ever been recorded fell down and is now completely lost to humanity. Alan felt so strongly about it that he has since written a stiff little note to UNESCO, signed Disgusted of Bratton!

After Sucre we headed north to the large city of Cochabamba, a journey which took us two full days, but we were rewarded once again with the beautiful mountain scenery.

On the road to Cochabamba

Morning Glory by the roadside

Morning Glory close up

We stopped off for the night at a strange little town called Aiquile. It was strange because it is the first place we have come to in our travels where people have completely ignored us. They were not actually rude, they just behaved as though they would prefer that we weren’t there and sort of looked through us. Nobody smiled or greeted us, and we decided that the population could only be described as miserable.

Canyon on the road to Cochabamba

Lakeside lunch stop

As we approached Cochabamba, we came to a grinding halt somewhere to the south of the city because the road that we were taking went straight through the market. The market went on for about a mile, people were weaving in and out of vehicles, women pushing trolleys with cold drinks, women carrying babies on their back, men and women with peanut stalls and coca stalls and stalls selling agricultural implements and plastic chairs and all the paraphernalia of a South American market. It was fascinating and Alan, of course, took advantage of the situation with a few clandestine shots of the locals from the inside of the car.

Campesina selling sugar cane, Cochabamba Market

Street vendor

Chicken buses at Cochabamba market

Street vendor with infant (not for sale)

Campesinas at the market

Our main reason for coming to Cochabamba was that the only road to the Torotoro National Park is accessed from here (more of that later). In any event, it turned out to be quite a civilised city and, for once, we stayed in absolute luxury at an ‘Apart Hotel’ which provided us with a kitchen, a dining area, a lovely lounge area with a great big squashy sofa, and a very nice en-suite bedroom. So much for camping!

One of Cochabamba’s most popular attractions is the Cristo de la Concordia which stands on top of a very high hill. This is a figure of Christ with his arms outstretched, modelled on the one at Rio de Janeiro but, as the locals will tell you, this one is 40m high and thus the tallest statue in South America. It weighs over 2,000 tons and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Did I ever tell you about the Sea Trout I caught? It was this big!

We decided to go and have a look by taking the modern cable car that makes the journey up the Serrania de San Pedro hill in five minutes but, of course, it was closed. Now, there are 1,430 steps to get to the top of this hill and we got fairly monumentally pooped in the process. When we finally reached the top, we were rewarded with an absolutely amazing 360 degree view of Cochabamba and the surrounding countryside.

View of Cochabamba from the Mirador at the top

View of Cochabamba from the Mirador

Children chasing bubbles at the top

The drive from Cochabamba to Torotoro on 2^nd April was interesting. To begin with we went through some fairly gentle countryside with little villages, then we came out near the top of a mighty gorge where we had our picnic lunch looking out over a wide river valley. Thereafter we were rewarded by some stunning scenery, great crimson and green cliffs, rock formations and wide rushing rivers.

Lunch stop on the road to Torotoro

On the road to Torotoro

The road itself is currently being renewed, in fact they’re building a new road. This being the case, the old road which is quite a nice little road made of cobbles was only occasionally available and the lovely wide new smooth road was hardly available at all. What we had were muddy diversions which went uphill and down dale, through splashes, and round impossible hairpins. Sometimes there were signs telling you that there was a hairpin when it was perfectly obvious that there was a hairpin and when the road suddenly disappeared down a sixty degree slope, they didn’t tell you anything, they allowed you to find out for yourself. So, this was all a great entertainment along with the big trucks kicking up smoke and fumes, only rivalled by Lucy who does her bit in that regard. So, our 130 km journey was made rather longer and certainly a great deal slower than it would otherwise have been, 6 hours in total.

Donkey, Torotoro village

Mother and child, Torotoro village

Street scene, Torotoro village

Toddler with doll, Torotoro

Street scene, Torotoro

Next day was a gentle introduction to the Torotoro National Park. In the morning we went along to the Tourist Information, paid the park entrance fee and arranged for a guide, a compulsory requirement. After lunch we picked up Daniel, our very diddy but lovely guide and he took us first of all to see some dinosaur footprints, of which there were many.

Sue's hand next to dinosaur footprint

Dinosaur tracks

Footprint of carnivorous dinosaur

Sue next to great big dinosaur footprints

Then we all trundled off to the upper reaches of the Torotoro Gorge where we saw the ‘theatre’ which is a sort of round waterfall, although without much water, and other rock formations. Following the course of the river we eventually emerged at the top of the mighty Torotoro Canyon where the river plunges down.

The 'Theatre', Torotoro National Park

Naturally formed bridge, known locally as the Bridge of Love

It was here that we saw the rare and beautiful Red-Fronted Macaws, found only in this particular region of Bolivia. Alan spent quite a long time trying to photograph them with limited success as they were quite far away, even for the Telephoto lens. Thereafter we went and stood in awe in front of the beautiful spectacle of the canyon.

Endangered Red-Fronted Macaws

Red Fronted Macaws

Torotoro Canyon

The following day was not gentle. In fact, it was the most strenuous and challenging day that either of us has experienced for some considerable time. We collected Daniel at 7.30 am and then drove for about an hour and a half further up into the Andes to an area called Ciudad de Itas. Here, at an altitude of 3,400 metres we walked, scrambled and climbed for two hours to see some beautiful shallow caves and rock formations. We also saw a pair of Condors soaring majestically overhead, and several Chinchillas sitting on bare bits of rock ledge.

Rock formations, Torotoro National Park

Lucy dwarfed by boulders, Torotoro National park

Andean shepherdess with flock

The 'Cathedral' at Ciudad de Itas

Inside the Cathedral

Giant Turtle rock formation

Sue in awe of the Cathedral

Sue and Diddy Daniel, our guide

Sue and Alan in the Cathedral

The route was not always obvious

Rock formation at the top

Flock of sheep with shepherdesses

After a lunch break, Daniel took us to the Caverna de Umajallanta, a limestone cave system where nearly 5km of underground passages have been explored. Now to get to this cave involved a walk of about an hour and once inside the cave we were being required to scramble over slippery boulders, crawl on our hands and knees through tight spaces, abseil with rope assistance down vertical cliff faces and slide down rock slides. Sue miscalculated a rock slide and landed heavily on her coccyx and has been complaining ever since. Suffice to say it was a brilliantly marvellous knackering life-affirming sort of day and we wouldn’t have missed it.

We had the same arduous journey back from Torotoro to Cochabamba where we have re-installed ourselves in our opulent suite and are enjoying a couple of days well earned R & R. Today, Sunday 7^th April, is the day when the City Fathers of Cochabamba have decreed that there is no vehicular traffic allowed in the city and what a wonderful idea that is. Apparently, this happens once every three months.

The roads were absolutely full of people, people walking, having fun runs, cycling, youngsters on roller skates or skateboards, toddlers on plastic tractors with pedals and the whole place took on a holiday atmosphere. The market area was also thronged with people, with hundreds of stalls selling everything you can think of. It makes you wonder why we don’t try that in some of our congested cities in the UK.