
Excursion: Toro Toro
Cochabamba has not much to offer, except a Jesus statue to great and some museums, like the anthropological. But there are several parks surrounding the city of which one of them is the Toro Toro national park in Toro Toro.
This is by far one of the smallest national park of Bolivia. But it has a lot to offer in its small area, such as Dinosaur footprints, caves, turtle skeletons, fossils several canions and an amazing landscape.
For the trip you should calculate two to three days and one day of getting there. To get there one has to take a minibus in Cochabamba at the crossing of Avenida Republica and Mairana. Those leave as soon as they are full. Or one can also take a bus at 6 am, but it seems to be more uncomfortable and takes longer. The minibus needs around four hours to get to Toro Toro.

In Toro Toro you need to go to the office of the national park and pay the entrance fee of 15$. After that you can go to the guide office right next to it and hire a guide for a tour. All tours have to be made with a guide except for the cementerio de tortugas, because it’s right next to the village and has signs. As you pay per guide it gets cheaper the more people there are. The tours to the ciudad de Ita and the cave are done by car and therefore have a maximum group size of six (cost of 16$). Those are normally done together and take a full day.
Recommendations: For the ciudad de Ita you should be free of vertigo. For the cave you should wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty, be moderately fit and shouldn’t be claustrophobic.
The Cafe el dinosaurio has some vegan options such as soups and pastas, the owner is from La Paz. There is not much variety of fruits, so it is better to take some with you from Cochabamba. The shops are rare and vegan bread is even rarer.

The Hostal Eden offers you a vegan breakfast, a plate of fruits, but I wouldn’t recommend it in general. The bathrooms are not attended and the beds are uncomfortable. Or in short it is too expensive for what it offers. Furthermore the plate of fruits didn’t fill me for the morning.
Is it vegan: Yes, the dinosaurs didn’t feel pain walking along the beach.

