Making Tracks

Are we in Arches National Park?

We are currently ousting this blog from Buenos Aries (although this is still about our time in Bolivia). We are getting ready for the new year and continuing our adventure no matter what bumps we hit in the road (literally and metaphorically). While we have spent some time in Chile and Argentina, it is amazing to see how much fun we had in Bolivia and we are definitely missing Bolivia as we re-read about our adventures and all the cool things we did there.

 November 7^th – Fingers Crossed

It was a little surreal to be finally leaving La Paz and hard to say goodbye to the community we had made, but thanks to them, among others we had met in La Paz, our saga of vehicle issues and health problems was still, all things considered, a positive moment within our trip.

The coolest hot showers we've ever had!

We left as early as we could bring our selves to leave and after our final goodbyes we started our journey towards our next must-do stop in Bolivia; Toro Toro National Park.  According to Google it was going to take us 10 hours and although we had enough road snacks and podcasts to keep happy, after 8 hours on the road we were done.  Thankfully that brought us to the 3^rd largest city in Bolivia, Cochabamba. 

Rupert's new friend

The campground in Cochabamba was perfect.  We knew we had made the correct decision to stop when we saw the toilets and outdoor shower the belonged in a high-class resort and pet llamas beside us with a temperature in the low 20s at night.  The place seemed like paradise.  As we set up for the night Paul diligently checked the vehicle hoping that everything was as it should be, and to our delight the van was running perfectly.

 

November 8^th – A descent we will not forget

Javiar, the campground host, was a bit surprised when we said we already wanted to leave Cochabamba.  It was obvious he loved his city and wanted us to experience a bit of it before we left.  After explaining that we were a bit behind schedule he quickly designed a highlight list of things he thought we could/should do in one day.  It was hard to say no to a list of must-do activities, so we decided to stay another night.

Laguna Mal Paso

The first must-do activity was to hike to Laguna Mal Paso within Tunari National Park.  The National Park is “only” 14 kilometres from the campground but the drive is almost double the amount of kilometres and it goes up a long and windy road into the mountains. We felt like we were on a forestry road in BC, surrounded by pine trees on an unpaved road. The drive took us more than an hour to complete and brought us to a high elevation lake.  We weren’t 100% sure how to get to Laguna Mal Paso but, based on google and some old llama paths we charted a route.  

The hike was beautiful and a stark contrast to the community below it and after a few hours of hiking were finally overlooking Laguna Mal Paso.  It was around this time we learned that there was an easier way to reach the lake through another entrance, but in the end we were happy with the route we had chosen due to the landscape we walked through.  At least this is how we felt until we started our walk back.  We wanted to take the most direct route back to the van meaning we kept to the ridge line, which we guessed would save us walking at least 3 kilometres.  The problem was that the trail we were following disappeared and after another kilometre we were standing on top of a cliff.  The good news is we could see the van, but we had no way to get to it. We scouted the area and did find a way down but it was steep and required us to descend very slowly and carefully. Kendra wanted to turn back and try and find a different path, but Paul with Rupert on his back comfortably in his backpack decided the best way to go was down. The descent was terrifying but we did it.  Kendra cried and made sure to hyperventilate for dramatic effect, but Paul coached her down. 

Kendra crying while climbing down

We don’t think we saved anytime as it must have taken us almost an hour to walk 500 metres down.  By the time we got back to the van we were exhausted but overjoyed to be done.  We are not too sure the hike was worth the effort but that could be because our hearts were still racing from the decent we had to do.  One thing we failed to mention as well was that this hike was around 4500 m elevation so walking on flat ground had our hearts and heads pounding.  Hiking at elevation is no joke and while we have joked in our past lives about elevation in Jasper, that elevation is nothing compared to the past two months for us.

The second must-do activity was the market of Cochabamba which many say is the largest market in South America.  We challenge that statement as we felt it was smaller that Otavalo in Ecuador, but maybe it was only small because it was a weekday.  Markets tend to get exponentially larger on weekends.  We were able to purchase food we were missing, some olives, and even some delicious ice cream so it wasn’t a total disappointment, it just didn’t feel like the largest or most interesting market we had been to on this trip, but if you’re in the area definitely stop and check it out.

The final must-do was to take a gondola to statue of Cristo of the Concordia, so even though we had already walked 22,000 steps we made our way to the gondola station.  It took so much for us not to cry when, after 30 minutes of walking, we learned the gondola was closed for maintenance.  We knew we were exhausted and it was time to go back to the campsite.

The view of Cochabamba

We were pleasantly surprised when we returned to the campground to see some familiar faces, a couple Paul had befriended in La Paz (while Kendra was posting some pictures to Instagram).  We ended up getting along with each other really well and after ordering a couple pizzas together had decided to once again meet up with each in Toro Toro.

 

November 9^th – Back to the Badlands

After saying our “see you laters” to our new friends and picking up some groceries we started our drive to Toro Toro National Park.  As we drove the landscape started to dynamically change reminding us a mix of Southern Alberta, near Drumheller and the American South West (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona).  The area was dry, hot and full of red colour.  It was beautiful.

After finding our campsite for the next few days we made our way into the community of Toro Toro where we were further reminded of Drumheller thanks to the dinosaur statues found everywhere in the community.  Toro Toro is known for its large collections of dinosaur fossils making it the Drumheller of South America. 

Our time in the community gave us the opportunity to purchase our tickets for the national park and hire a guide for the next couple days.  Slightly unique to this national park is a policy that you are required to have a guide to visit any of the tourist sites.  Thankfully the cost is quite low at 100 bolivianos or the equivalent of $20 CAD for each 4-hour tour.  We decided to do three 4-hour tours, booking 2 for tomorrow and 1 for the day after.  Unfortunately, Rupert was not allowed to come with us to the sites.

 

November 10^th – Crawling through Caves

Traffic Jam.

We were asked to be at the guides office by 7am so we could pick up the guide and be at the start of our first tour location for 8am.  Yes, we drove the guide and ourselves to the location of the tour as it was far cheaper to do this and it meant Rupert would be left alone in the van for the minimum amount of time.

Our first tour was of the Ciudad de Itas, a location where people lived almost 3000 years ago.  The area was full of cave drawings made from blood and fruit, beautiful vistas of the surrounding areas and most famously large caverns larger than most we had seen in any national park within the United States.  It really felt like we were back in the United States within Arches or Colorado Monument.  The only difference being we had the place to ourselves and we got to see viscachas. Viscachas are like a rabbit chinchilla hybrid and they were just perched in the rocks wiggling their little noses. We thought the day couldn’t get better until we made our way to the next tour location.

It looks like the southwest in the USA!

Viscacha

  

The most famous attraction in Toro Toro National Park is the Caverna Umajalanta, the largest cave system in Bolivia, it is even showcased on the 10 Bolivianos bill.  

These stalactites are on the 10 boliviano bill.
 

We had heard that you can’t be too big to enter the cave as it requires quite a bit of crawling but when Paul asked if he was too fat to enter the cave all the guides assured him he would be able to explore it.  After donning our helmets and headlamps we descended into the cave.  Within about 10 minutes we not only were crawling through the cave, we were army crawling, dragging our bodies through tight and narrow corridors.  Although we don’t define ourselves as claustrophobic our hearts were racing.  We climbed further and further below the surface until we were 200 metres below the ground and a little over 700 metres into the cave.  We were told it continues for at least another 7 kilometres but we would need special equipment to continue.  People know the cave extends further than 7 more kilometres but have been unable to go any further thus far.  We assumed we would be retracing our steps back out of the cave but surprisingly we were directed down a different pathway more narrow than the ones we had previously gone through and after more crawling and climbing we began to see light at the end of the tunnel.  Our caving adventure was amazing!  It was the perfect amount of “extreme” for us to be completely pushed out of our comfort zones without feeling like we were going to be trapped and/or die.  We had such a sense of accomplishment when we finally stepped back into the light.

The day was pretty much perfect except for one issue, when we arrived back to the van one of our tires had gone flat.  Our rear tires are in pretty bad shape after driving all of central America and a large portion of South America but we are hoping to limp the tires to Chile where we can get good quality tires for an affordable price.  

After a few minutes using the air compressor we were able to drive ourselves back to Toro Toro.  For those who have seen our van, you may notice that we have a spare tire on the roof. However, we have only used it once, in the Yukon, after bending two rims in Alaska. We could have changed the tire then, but figured to take the easy way out and use the air compressor.

Rupert not being helpful while Paul changed the tire

Shortly after arriving back to the campsite our friends from Cochabamba arrived into Toro Toro.  Unfortunately, they arrived after we swapped the tire from the roof so they missed an opportunity to help us.  If only we had known we would have delayed this task.  We also checked the air pressure in all our other tires to make sure we wouldn’t have any further issues. Thankfully they didn’t come empty handed, they quickly pulled out a bottle of rum and we started catching up and talking about our trips through North and South America.  Before we knew it, it was pitch black and ¾ of the bottle of rum was gone. 

 

November 11^th – Soaking beside a waterfall

Katharina and Michael (our new German friends that we met in La Paz/Cochabamba) decided to join us in our final tour of Toro Toro.  The tour included walking to various sets of dinosaur foots prints found in the ancient river beds filled with unique rock formations, including “lovers bridge”.  After about an hour we reached Toro Toro Canyon a deep and wide canyon that reminded us of Chasm, BC; however, this was not the main attraction of the tour.  The tour we had selected was a tour to El Vergel a waterfall surrounded by pools that you can swim in.  The only issue was the location of the waterfall.  We didn’t realize it was at the bottom of the canyon meaning we had to both walk down to it, and more poignantly, walk back up it.

Fossilized Dinosaur Tracks

A Kendra-sized dinosaur footprint

Mirador of the canyon

Lovers "sketchy" bridge

The walk down the canyon was beautiful and relatively easy.  It was hot, around 30 degrees, but cool breezes whipping down the canyon kept us cool.  After about a kilometer of walking we turned the corner and found the waterfall we had been promised.  It was amazing, the water was refreshing and the waterfall provided many great photo opportunities.  We moved from pool to pool to pool taking photos and relaxing.  The canyon even provided rocks that appeared to be perfectly designed for sun bathing.  The time flew by.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to and end so we put our clothes back on and started our ascent. *We wore bathing suits for those who interpreted that last sentence as us being nude. The heat and dry air made the hike especially tiring, but we did eventually make it back to the van. 

On the hike up we had a great idea.  All the relaxing by the water and the heat reminded us of summer BBQs and before we knew it we had finished the tour and Paul had driven us to the local butcher to purchase meat before heading back the campground.  We had previously noticed the campground had a charcoal BBQ, so after asking permission and paying some money for the charcoal we lit the BBQ and cracked open a couple beers and made the final ¼ of the bottle of rum disappear.  The BBQ was perfect with the chicken being some of the best chicken we have had in our lives.  The dinner was the perfect way to end the day and our time in Toro Toro.

Winner, winner, chicken is for dinner!

 

November 12^th – In a van down by the river

We once again said goodbye to Katharina and Michael.  They were staying in Toro Toro one additional day to do the tours we had previously done so we decided to make our way to Sucre.  According to google the drive would take us 8 hours so we left as early as possible.  After 6 hours of driving, we were pleasantly surprised that we were on schedule to arrive to Sucre by 3pm so we started reaching out 3 different campgrounds to see if there was availability.  There was no availability in any of them and there was no formal campground anywhere between where we were and Sucre.  What made the situation worse is that it was 40 degrees outside. Everything we had read and heard from other travellers ahead of us on the road was how Bolivia is at a high elevation and it is never really warm because of the elevation…but none of them had visited Toro Toro or Sucre or any of the towns in between.

Proof it was 40 degrees outside.

After a lot of searching we found a spot down by the river to camp, we felt like real van lifers; we even befriended the local dogs.   

 

A Rupert Update:  As some may know when Rupert is tired of walking we lay his backpack on the ground and he willingly will sit on/in it; he thoroughly enjoys being carried by us.  We have also noticed that a lot of the street dogs in Bolivia have ticks. Rupert is protected from ticks with his Bravecto/anti-parasite treatments, but he hasn’t had a treatment since August, so he is a bit over due.  After hiking in Cochabamba we noticed a pink/red spot on his back that he had been trying to itch on the hike.  After some googling we determined that he was bitten by some sort of bug but was recovering.  Further googling and the realization that we have been in areas with ticks have turned us into professional google vets and we have determined Rupert had a tick granuloma.  Luckily there is no signs of any ticks because his previous medication likely killed the tick shortly after it bit him.   It is mostly healed now other than some hair loss.