Adventures in Torotoro

Torotoro is a bit of an out-of-the-way destination. We hadn’t originally planned on going there, but since we couldn’t do the salt flats tour we decided to check it out. To get there you need to take an overnight bus to Cochabamba. (Pretty much everyone in Bolivia reckons this place is a hole). Then get a taxi to take you to a random street in the city. (Definitely the kind of thing that you shouldn’t do in a dodgy city). And here there is one tiny office selling tickets in unroadworthy vans along a bumpy cobblestone road. After five hours you eventually make it to Torotoro. But it was definitely worth the hassle.

The main things to see are caves, rock formations, canyons, waterfalls and dinosaur footprints. But the most fun is when you do the adventurous activities like crawling around in pitch black caves and climbing around canyons. This might be because of the lack of proper safety. So all the adventure activities have an edge of danger to them. (Don’t worry mums and dads, we didn’t do anything seriously dangerous!)

Ciudad de Itas (City of Stone)

Ciudad de Itas is a place full of caves and rocky cliffs that you can hike around. It does feel a bit like a secret city of stone because of all the caves scattered throughout the cliffs. They even had ancient pre-Inca civilisations here, but since Bolivia doesn’t have a lot of money they haven’t been able to do any research so no one knows anything about them. We actually kept hearing this a lot in Torotoro, not just with the ancient civilisations, but also all the dinosaur-related stuff too.

After hiking and climbing around for a few hours we were feeling like we’d had some good exercise (it was also at 3800m above sea level so it was actually hard). But exploring Ciudad de Itas was the easiest of all the activities we did. After lunch it was time to go caving.

Caverna Humajalanta

This cave in Torotoro is actually the largest and deepest cave in Bolivia. It’s so big that they haven’t even finished exploring it yet. At the entrance they gave us hard hats and headlamps (actual safety gear!), and you definitely need both of them. I lost count of the number of times I smacked my head on the rock ceilings.

The cave gets very low in some areas and at the tightest point we actually had to lie flat on our stomachs and shimmy sideways for 15 metres, then do a 3 point turn at the end to get through. Not a good place for large people. Or claustrophobic people. One of our new friends in our group nearly got wedged in the little gap. He was the third in our group to go through so if he did get stuck we probably could’ve had me and Pedr pushing from behind and the guide pulling from in front.

There was also plenty of climbing up and down and around slippery limestone sections. The scarier parts had some ropes to hold onto, but that was it as far as safety. The main thing was to hang on tight and watch where you put your feet. It’s amazing just how much stronger your hand grip becomes when it’s the only thing stopping you from falling backwards into a hole. It all sounds a bit scary but it was so much fun climbing around! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of adventure.

Torotoro Canyon

After our cave adventures we thought the next day would be a bit easier. A nice hike down to a canyon waterfall for a swim. And for the first part of the trip it was a nice comfortable hike. We even stopped to see a whole bunch of dinosaur footprints along the way. There seem to be dinosaur footprints everywhere in Torotoro. There are even more footprints hidden under the soil. Until they can get some funding from the government for research and excavation, they have to keep most of the footprints and fossils buried to protect them from the elements.

After a couple of hours hiking we made it to the lookout for the canyon. It’s a semi-circular walkway that hangs out over the deepest part of the canyon, not good for people scared of heights.

From here it was a short but hot hike in the sun to the bottom of the canyon to the waterfall for a swim. When we finally got there we all ran to the water to cool off. Except for Pedr since he hates water colder than 30°C. Turns out that Pedr was the smart one. The water was icy. As soon as the rest of us jumped into the water, high pitched screaming echoed all through the canyon. The water was probably only 12°C since it came straight from an underground river.

After an hour in the sun recovering from the freezing water it was time to head off back to town. But we didn’t take the normal route that we used on the way in. Since our group was feeling adventurous our guide took us through the canyon, climbing up and along large rocks and cliffs. Like the cave the day before, it was all about hanging on tightly and not losing your balance.

There were a few hairy sections, but nothing too crazy. And like the cave, it was a lot of fun. We even took shortcut through another cave so we wouldn’t have to walk all the way around one of the canyon walls.

We eventually made it to the top after several hours climbing and scrambling over rocks and cliffs and caves. We were absolutely exhausted when we finally made it back to town. But very satisfied and happy with the adventures we’d had the last two days. We knew barely anything about Torotoro before we arrived, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in South America so far.