Hello! Here’s a quick post to give you the low-down on visiting Torotoro National Park, Bolivia.
We did a 3-day tour over the 6 de agosto public holiday, and what I’ll say is this: never before have rocks looked so fabulous.
Day 1: Cascada de Golondrinas
Day 2: Umajalanta
Day 2: Ciudad de Itas
Day 3: Cerro Waylas
Day 3: El Vergel
General advice for visiting Torotoro
Getting there and around. Bus La Paz-Cochabamba: 11pm-7am, 100bs/USD15 bus cama. Flight Cocha-La Paz: 30 minutes, 252bs/USD36. The bus ride from Cocha to the Torotoro area is about 4 hours long; note the roads are not great.
Accommodation. We stayed at Hotel El Molino, a 15-minute walk from the village of Torotoro. They also organised the tour (Spanish only), which starts and begins in Cocha and cost us 750bs/USD110 each, all inclusive. 2-day tours are available on weekends. You can do this trip independently if you have an off-road vehicle, and camp instead of staying at a hotel – though you’ll still need a guide for the Umajalanta cave.
Difficulty level. The activities were not too intense, but satisfyingly challenging. There’s a lot of walking, including a significant amount of uphill/downhill. The caving can be quite intense – prepare to get down and dirty and use ropes to scale down the rocks. That said, there were some older people on the tour and they did fine with most of it 🙂
Climate. Warm and super sunny – bring plenty of sunblock. It gets pretty chilly at night, so make sure you have a jumper. The different locations we visited ranged from about 1500m to 3500m above sea level. If you’ve spent time in La Paz, you’ll be fine.
What to bring. Sunblock; sunglasses; jumper; swimming gear; camera (with a case you can attach to yourself if you want to shoot inside the cave – no backpacks allowed); good hiking shoes; small backpack; insect repellant.
