This past weekend I went on an adventure with my program to Toro Toro, which is both a Bolivian National Park and a small rural town. The weekend was amazing-- My first real outdoorsy trek in South America!
Day 1 started at the FSD office at 6am where we boarded our bus for our 5 hour journey to Toro Toro. The bus was pretty nice, but the roads were ghetto-fabulous (=bad roads). The drive is almost entirely weaving through mountain passes on dirt roads that drop off into steep cliffs. Our drive is a wizard, though-- he even managed to put our bus in reverse and back us up all the way along the cliff road for about 1/2 a Kilometer in order to let a truck pass by going the other way (these are one way roads).
We got to the little town of Toro Toro at about noon and ate lunch at the one (solitary) restaurant in the town. My favorite part of the town is the signs on the trash cans that say in English: "Please do not be friends with the trash." Our hostel was adorable and even came equipped with puppies:
 |
| Please ignore gross sweats and focus only on cute puppy. |
We met our guide who was the cutest and tiniest Bolivian man ever. I'm not sure how old he was, but I know he has been a guide for 43 years. He is more spry than the swiftest mountain goat and very passionate about his work. Our adventure for Friday afternoon was hiking out to a Cave. When we arrived, we realized we were in for way more than just a Cave. The "caves" of Toro Toro are actually huge, nature-made tunnels that stretch for 32 Kilometers underground. The original river that formed the caverns still exists and runs through parts of the underground labyrinth. We all got headlamps and submerged into the darkness. We traversed for about 2 kilometers in total over about 4 hours. Sometimes we were on our stomachs, pulling ourselves through tiny crevices, other times the passages would open up into big, open spaces. We even saw fish in one of the underground pools. After we left the caverns we ran into some other American backpackers, masters students who were researching a series of underground tunnels across Latin America that they hypothesize are actually connected.
 |
| The first set of Dinosaur feet! Time stamped foreva. |
 |
| Entrance to the caverns. |
Day 1 ended with a delicious dinner and a walk around the town. As it turns out, the few little tiny shops that do exist in the town close well before 9pm. We were tired and went to sleep pretty early. Day 2 started with breakfast: Api (a special Bolivian corn-based hot breakfast drink), egg sandwiches, and pastel (in this case, the Pastel was essentially funnel cake). Our guide led us to a hiking trail next to a huge canyon (not Grand Canyon status but still impressive). He showed us more Dinosaur footprints which really blew my mind... I can't believe such things exist in the world. We hiked out to a look-out spot first to get a sense of the depth of the canyon. After, we hiked down to the river below. We even went swimming! It was freezing, but still a lot of fun. The waterfalls in the canyon were beautiful and the hike was pretty invigorating. We got back to the town at about 3pm and ate lunch --rice, potatoes, and chicken-- the Bolivian way! We napped for a bit, had some reflection time with our program coordinators, and after dark walked down to the river and gathered under a bridge for an impromptu rap battle. The stars were... unbelievable. I don't know if I have ever seen so many stars in my whole life.
On our last day we woke up early early early and rode in the bus for about an hour up mountain after mountain, passing tiny little farm houses, herds of goats, and stretches of nature void of all humans. We got to the top of one of the peaks and hiked down into a new set of caverns. These caverns are not underground, but formed by huge boulders that create cathedral-style spaces. We hiked through several rock formations. The our guide managed to rig a rope/belt contraption so that all 13 of us could climb up the side of a sheer cliff to get to the very top of the mountain. I'm pretty shocked that nobody died, but please none the less. This hike was shorter and only lasted for about three hours. After returning to the town, we gathered our things from the hotel, and headed back across the windy, mountainous road en route to Cochabamba.
 |
| Above the clouds. |
No comments:
Post a Comment