Cochabamba and Torotoro

At Cochabamba we arrive very early morning, at 5:30AM. We want to try to go straight to Torotoro where there is the Parque Nacional de Torotoro. We ask at the Touristic Information at the bus station that is open at this time (unbelievable). They inform us (wrongly) that there is a bus that leaves at 6AM from the other side of the town.
Taxi to there. But we don’t see any sign of any bus to Torotoro. Buses to everywhere except to where we want to go.
We finally the bus office that goes there. Is close and there is a note on the door with the new timetable, 6PM...
So we have 12 hours for Cochabamba. First of all we wait that the office open to buy the tickets and to leave the backpacks there.

So, how to get to Torotoro and where to stay? http://wikitravel.org/en/Torotoro_National_Park#Get_in  where you can find timetables of all the companies that run this route.

After this we go to the centre to have breakfast, walk, take some information of the national Park and try to get Anna Vaccine.
The Vaccine will have to wait. Only till 11AM

At 6PM we take the bus to Torotoro. Are 6 hours of unsalted rocky road ... and we get there after midnight. We stay at the hostel that the bus company owns. Cheap and simple but we don’t want to look for anything else, we are tired.
Next morning we have breakfast at the market... Sweet bread and Toroji with milk.

At all the Parque Nacional Torotoro you have to hire a local guide. Every route costs 100 Bolivianos for a group of 6 people and to access to the park is 25 Bolivianos for 5 days.

Mapa Torotoro

We visit the office of the local guides that they have at the village square. Is close... so we wait for a while and they appear. They tell us the prices that we already know and then appears Luis... One of the guides that is waiting a group of 3 that wants to go to the Vergel and he offer us to join them, so we can split the costs.
The 3 that he is waiting they still sleep and they arrive after 45 minutes. Two girls from Paris and one Switzerland man.
So we go for the walk with Luis as our guide to the canyon of Torotoro and the waterfalls of Vergel.

We pass an area that you can see food prints of Dinosaurs that have boon fossilization and a river that is a very rocky valley with vegetation surrounding it before we get to the lookout of the canyon of Torotoro. Spectacular views of the deep canyon!

From there we descend to the bottom of the canyon and we follow the river till the waterfalls of Vergel. We have lunch, a swim and we rest till the sun goes away on our perspective.
We take the way back through. We cross the river many times and we have a swim again before we start to win altitude and exit the canyon.
After we follow the river almost till Torotoro.
We end up having dinner at the restaurant of Luis with the entire group. We really like Luis as our guide!
Next morning we arrange to meet him at 9 to go to visit the Cove of Umajalanta. We already had breakfast at the market and we wait him to appear.
He is late, but instead appears a group of doctors that are doing a control on how are going the actions to prevent Chagas at the area. They also want to go to visit the caves and they have transportation.
When Luis appears, is already 10:30 and go walking to the caves with the sun heating is not recommended. We end up going at the back of the pickups of the doctors.
Is the biggest cave in Bolivia and the 3th bigger in the world, is spectacular. We do a loop of two kilometers in two hours. Luis tells us about some expeditions that they had been going in for four days and they didn’t reach the end (if there is an end).
Looks like the travel to the centre of the earth, isn't it?

Rest is what we do the afternoon and the day after. Torotoro is comfortable and we like the village. We visit the school and we join a kid’s class.
Ana try to get the vaccine at the red cross centre. She needs from 6 to 10 people more, the kind of vaccine they have is up to 10 people and only valid for 4 hours). Anna and I we’re already with the vaccine. So, we need more than 5 people that wants to put the vaccine before 7. She find at the school some people and Luis. So there is a moment that they are 6, but then they have some emergency and they cannot put the vaccines.
At the end the nurse say to Ana that she can find kids that have to put the vaccine for tomorrow, around 11. So we change the bus tickets to the afternoon bus instead of the early morning one.
At night with we join Luis to watch a football game of woman’s.
Next day is the mother’s day in Bolivia. The image to see playing the woman’s with the traditional dress is very estrange and fanny at the same time.

In the morning we go to see if Ana gets the vaccine. They tell her to come back at 2PM. We visit the school celebrations on the mother days. Dances and music for the mothers.
After take a walk to make some time, we go back at the red cross. There is another nurse that say that there is no possibility to put the vaccine today. Ana says that she needs to talk with the other nurse and she is not going anywhere without speaking with her. After an hour the other nurse appears and say that she found the kinds so she can take the vaccine.
So we take the bus to Cochabamba. The bus arrive at 00:30 and we take a bus at alojamiento Familiar that a girl recommend us on the bus. We spend the night and next morning we decide to go straight to Puerto Villaroel as soon as possible to be able to watch the match of the Final of the Champions League in some bar.

Some photos
2011-05-Cochabamba i Torotoro (BOL) https://photos.app.goo.gl/Rx1uwJ6TCa5XCvVS6

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Versió catalana
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