Torotoro, a paleontological wonderland

There is no easy way to get to Torotoro (see my other post). The village of Torotoro is not special in itself and is surely not the reason why we choose to travel to Torotoro. When we arrived at night we felt a bit of despair when we realized that our contact to our hotel El Molino had not been informed of our arrival, and that we were stuck in the middle of the night with no idea where to find a hotel room in the village.

We asked the lady at the transport office to direct us to a good hostel. She signaled her own residence which had rooms to offer.

What a terrible place it turned out to be. After our infamous hostel in Singapore we promised ourselves we wouldn’t ever stay in another s****hole, but “Los Chocos” in Torotoro managed to beat our accommodation in Singapore. Ania will have more details in her monthly summary.

There are four possible trekking circuits around Torotoro. Tourists are not allowed outside the village without a guide (milk ‘em), but the price is reasonable at least and the guides are generally knowledgeable.

The attractions outside of Torotoro are extremely interesting, especially for those interested in paleontology. In fact the village of Torotoro is surrounded by dinosaur footprints and its mountains contain an inordinate amount of prehistoric fossils. Torotoro is surely one of the best places on earth to see dinosaur footprints. Trekkers can also enjoy a beautiful walk down a canyon with crystal-clear groundwater cascading down.

Our first trek brought us high in the mountains surrounding Torotoro where we discovered a mountain of earth filled with fossils. There were so many fossils that we were literally walking on them as we explored the site. We saw countless fossils of prehistoric plants and amphibian creatures. Solid rocks were peppered with unicellular organisms (I'll upload the pictures shortly).

Our second trek brought us closer to the dinosaurs, where we saw dozens of well-defined footprints of carnivorous as well as herbivorous dinosaurs. Our guide showed us footprints of a dinosaur family heading in the same direction. When we saw the massive footprints of the brontosaurus, we were blown away. We were actually at the site where the gigantic animals once tread. That was a truly great moment.

Now it should have been a perfect tour but it wasn’t. My main criticism is exactly the same I had in Tilcara ruins in Northern Argentina: conservation.

Guides in Bolivia tend to know a lot about dinosaur footprints and can easily recognize footprint patterns and give information about the creatures. That’s all fine.

My main concern is that if guides are trained to recognize dinosaur footprints, they are absolutely clueless about conservation. And that, in itself, is a big problem. Take for example our excellent guide during our hike outside of Sucre, Enri. When we arrived at the site of the dinosaur footprints, he showed the tourists what great pictures we could take by putting our feet right where the dinosaurs used to tread. Ohh that picture makes a great souvenir, no doubt, but it is a terrible move that can speed up erosion greatly (all guides talk about the erosion effects of rain on footprints – well, let me tell you that walking on any of these footprints is much worse than rain). Of course most tourists did exactly what our guide advised them to do and stepped right in the footprints.

Our guide Emilio In Torotoro knew many things about his beloved dinosaurs, but he failed the conservation test as well. He showed us a trick guides like to pull with tourists. The trick goes like this: The last guide always covers in sand one amazing fossil (claw of dinosaur) after he is done with his group. Then, the next guide shows up and goes to the fragile dinosaur claw (covered in sand) and washes out the sand with his bare hands, to the “Ohhs!” and “Wows!” of tourists. Well I was amazed no doubt but for a different reason: amazed at how quickly this wonder will disappear if guides keep on doing this.

There is no doubt in my mind that distant generations won’t be able to see many of these footprints unless immediate action is taken. Bolivia no doubt needs help in managing and conserving its prehistoric sites. International organizations would be more than happy to provide Bolivia with much-needed funding and training. But like everything else in Bolivia nowadays, it seems that the ruler, Evo Morales, has a serious disdain for outside help.

That’s too bad because not only Bolivians, but the rest of the world as well, stand to lose if the wonders of Torotoro disappear from the surface of the earth.