Further Adventures in Toro Toro: Bouldering and Caving

At 8am, we met the Bolivian couple from yesterday and were joined by a French couple to make a team of six for a second day adventuring in the national park of Toro Toro.

With a full day ahead of us, our itinerary was more ambitious than yesterday afternoon's and involved transport out to Yunguma and the "Ciudad de Itas" or "Ciudad de Piedres" (city of stones).

Transport

At 3,800m elevation, the 'city' is a collection of large rocks pushed up from beneath the Earth's surface by movement of tectonic plates.

Ciudad de Itas

The rocks have the appearance of a petrified lava flow, but there is no volcano in the vicinity. The rocks form a network of passageways, through which our guide led us expertly, and even created a vaulted natural 'cathedral', which was apparently used by the local people for weddings.

Navigating the labyrinthine 'city', we came across rocks in the form of rabbits, elephants and giant tortoises, as though these creatures were the ancient  inhabitants of the area and had been turned to stone where they stood.

Tortoise

We clambered up to stand atop the rocks at the same altitude as the soaring condors and experienced the same expansive vista as they do.

On top of the world

Sharing the sky

In the afternoon, we descended to explore a different kind of labyrinth - the underground cavern of Umajalanta. In the area around the caves are more of the famous dinosaur footprints, highlighted with red dust.

Las huellas

Again, led by our guide, who scampered around the twisty and narrow cave as though it were his natural home, we squeezed ourselves into claustrophobia-inducing gaps, crawled on our bellies, and lowered ourselves into the darkness, illuminated only by the lights on our helmets.

Mites grow up

The stalactite and stalagmite formations were impressive, at times joining the ceiling with the floor of the cavern. One in particular, named Mary and Child, revealed itself to have an eerily accurate features of a child's face, like those of a porcelain doll.

Spooky child's face

Emerging, blinking into the light at the end of the cave, we had come full circle and it was time to head back to the town.

We went straight to the mercado and reprised our dinner of yesterday - pasta and potato with a 'salad' of onion and tomato. Fine cuisine it may not have been, but it was welcome nourishment.

Given that an advertised "gran peña folklórica" (large folk festival) for this evening failed to materialise, Toro Toro offered little else by way of entertainment, so we took the opportunity for an early night, in anticipation of a 6am bus back to Cochabamba.