Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
great stone basins out of the soft bedrock - locals refer to this stretch as
Batea Cocha
(Beat-
ing Pool), as they look a bit like basins for pounding laundry. About 7m up the rock face on
the left bank, protected by a low adobe wall, is a collection of ancient
rock paintings
(
pintur-
as rupestres
). Mostly abstract designs painted in red ochre, with several zigzags - including
one that looks like a serpent and another that could be the sun or a star - the paintings are all
less than 1m long and have been partly defaced, but they provide a focus for what is anyway
a pleasant stroll down the river. A little further downstream there's a pretty
waterfall
that
forms a good swimming hole; beyond that, the river plunges down into the deep
Torotoro
Canyon
and you can walk no further, though you can access the canyon from further down-
stream.
Torotoro Canyon
Just north of Torotoro village the Río Torotoro plunges through the deep
Torotoro Canyon
,
probably the park's most beautiful section. Enclosed on either side by sheer, 200m-high cliffs
covered with stunted trees and spiky bromeliads, the river creates a series of waterfalls as
it tumbles over a jumble of massive boulders, forming pools that are ideal for swimming.
The route down to the rock-strewn canyon floor is easy to find without a guide (though you
shouldn't go alone in case you hurt yourself and can't get back).
To get down into the canyon, follow the road out of town towards Cochabamba for about
200m. Where the road turns sharply to the right, follow the track heading off to the left, and
walk for about twenty minutes until you see some well-made stone steps dropping steeply
down the side of the canyon to your left. The most picturesque stretch of the canyon is a few
hundred metres downstream from where the steps reach the bottom, where a ten-metre-high
waterfall known as
El Vergel
emerges from the side of the canyon on the right in several
streams which cover the rock face in slimy-green water weeds.
Caverna de Umajallanta
The most extensive and easiest to visit of the park's many limestone cave systems is the
Cav-
erna de Umajallanta
, where nearly 5km of underground passages have been explored. The
cave makes a great day-trip from Torotoro and is one of the park's most popular attractions;
on no account attempt to visit without a guide as it is easy to get lost once inside. Its entrance
is about 8km northwest of Torotoro, a walk of ninety minutes to two hours across the rolling
landscape with good views of the dramatic geology of the mountain ridges that surround the
Torotoro valley - about halfway you'll pass a trail of
dinosaur footprints
.
The cave complex was formed by the waters of the
Río Umajallanta
, which disappears
below the surface here and re-emerges as a waterfall high above the Torotoro Canyon, 6km
away to the east. It consists of a series of interconnected limestone caverns of varying sizes,
one of which contains a lake fed by the river that is home to some blind white fish. Sadly,
most of the stalactites and stalagmites have been broken off by visitors in the years before
