By the time we arrived in Toro Toro, found a place to stay and had a bit of lunch, it was 3pm. Given we were 3 people travelling together we decided to sneak in a short excursion that afternoon – so arranged a guide and headed off to see the marine fossils on the Siete Vueltas route.
This was a relatively short hike (7km round trip) up into the hills just behind Toro Toro.
You really get a great view of the folded and tilted strata (yes, I remember some things from 1st year Geology!), which are really, really impressive in this part of Bolivia.
The ultimate goal though, is the rock layer that contains loads and loads of marine fossils. Although the fossils were not as big as I was expecting, there certainly were a lot of them!
After exploring the fossils for a bit, we headed back to Toro Toro via the “old path”, which took us up and over the strata we’d seen before. I wasn’t entirely convinced this was a good idea given the thunder, lightning and rain that was very close by, but we all survived intact and didn’t end up getting too wet. And the views were spectacular!
Got back to Toro Toro after dark – there was just enough light to see where we were going and not trip over anything. Was good to get out and about!
Recommendation: If you arrive late in Toro Toro and need a short excursion, this is a good one
Cost: 100 Bolivianos for the group, split between however many people there are (maximum 6)
Time: ~3-4 hours.
