Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lowed, the prints became fossilized, and about 25 million years ago the Andes began to rise,
eventually bringing them to where they stand today.
The prints are scattered across a long plane of greyish rock about 100m high and set at an
incline of about seventy degrees, and they look at first like so many pockmarks. Study them
for a while, though, and you'll see the clear footprints of many different sizes running in long
lines across the surface, and the astonishing fact that you're looking at the trails of animals
who lived some seventy million years ago in the Cretaceous era begins to sink in. It's thought
the site may have been the scene of a chase and kill by predators, who were followed by
various scavengers. The largest prints are about 1m in diameter - these are thought to have
belonged to an
apatosaurus
(commonly, though erroneously, referred to as a brontosaurus).
The longest single track (and by far the longest in the world) stretches for over half a kilo-
metre and was laid down by a
baby tyrannosaurus rex
known to researchers as Johnny
Walker. The cement plant is still operating, and new prints are constantly being revealed, but
ongoing quarrying and natural erosion threaten to destroy the tracks so far uncovered. The
site has been declared a national monument, but no serious conservation measures are yet in
place, though there are plans to preserve them with silicon injections into the rock face.
Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to approach the tracks to a distance of closer than
several hundred metres. Upon arrival you can either gaze upon the tracks through a chain-
link gate or pay an additional fee to enter the thoroughly underwhelming
Parque Cretácico
,
which has a slightly better positioned viewing platform. The entrance fee includes a guided
tour of the park, but your best bet is really to skip the tour, which spends the majority of its
time focusing on plaster replicas, and proceed directly to the viewing platform overlooking
Cal Orko.
Castillo La Glorieta
Daily 8.30am-noon & 2-6pm • Bs10
About 6km outside Sucre on the road south to Potosí is the bizarre shell of the
Castillo La
Glorieta
, a must for lovers of kitsch. Built over seven years from 1890 as a home for mining
baron Francisco Argandoña and his wife Clotilda, La Glorieta is probably the most ridiculous
construction in Bolivia. The extravagant
pink sandstone structure
combines a surreal mish-
mash of different architectural styles, including a minaret, a Gothic clocktower and a Byz-
antine onion dome, while life-size stucco horses' heads running the length of the roof add a
sublime Dalí-esque touch. The once-lavish interior still boasts elaborate Neoclassical stucco
ceilings, Venetian stained glass and fireplaces of pink Veronese marble, as well as portraits of
Francisco and Clotilda in full princely regalia meeting Pope Leo XIII, who pronounced them
“Principes de la Glorieta” (“the Princes of Glorieta”) during their visit to Europe in 1898 in
recognition for their work looking after orphans.
