Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Brief history
Though reached from Cochabamba, Parque Nacional Torotoro actually lies within Northern
Potosí department. Before the Spanish conquest this was the core territory of the
Charcas
Confederation
, a powerful collection of different ethnic groups subject to Inca rule. Follow-
ing the conquest, the different Quechua- and Aymara-speaking groups that made up the con-
federation retained their distinct identities, each as separate
ayllus
(extended kinship groups,
similar to clans or tribes). The
ayllus
of Northern Potosí mostly live in the higher-altitude
lands to the west of the region, where they grow potatoes and raise livestock, but they main-
tain islands of territory in the dry valleys such as Torotoro, where they cultivate maize, wheat
and other lower-altitude crops. This system ensures each group has access to the produce of
different altitudes, and represents a distinctly Andean form of organization that has long fas-
cinated anthropologists.
Throughout the colonial era and long after independence, Northern Potosí was the focus of
frequent
indigenous uprisings
. As recently as 1958, during the upheaval following the 1952
revolution, Torotoro village - which was formed in the late colonial period by mestizo mi-
grants from Cochabamba - was ransacked by armed
ayllu
members, who seized the lands of
the haciendas that had been established on their traditional valley territories.
Torotoro
The administrative centre of the park and the only base from which to explore it is the sleepy
village of
TOROTORO
. Home to just a few hundred people, it stands beside the river of the
same name at the top of a broad hanging valley at an altitude of about 2600m and is the place
to find
food
,
accommodation
,
guides and information
. Torotoro's main annual celebration is
the
Fiesta de Tata Santiago
, held on July 25 each year, when the
ayllus
descend on the vil-
lage to drink, dance and stage ritual
Tinku fights
.
The dinosaur tracks of Cerro Huayllas
The park's clearest
dinosaur tracks
are on the lower slopes of Cerro Huayllas, the mountain
just east of the village across the Río Torotoro (generally only a stream in the May-Sept dry
season). To reach them, walk back along the road to Cochabamba and cross at the ford, turn
right and walk upstream about 100m, then climb about 20m up the rocky slope to your left.
The tracks were made by a quadruped herbivore that roamed the region in the Cretaceous era
more than sixty million years ago - they comprise a trail of deep circular prints about 50cm
in diameter imprinted in a sloping plane of grey rock and set about 1m apart. A little further
upstream there's another trail of smaller (and much less distinct) prints left by a three-toed
carnivore.
Along the Río Torotoro
Follow the Río Torotoro downstream from the Cerro Huayllas dinosaur tracks for about
twenty minutes and you'll reach a stretch where the rushing rainy-season waters have carved
