Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia

There is a unique trip you can take in Sucre. At Cal Orck’o, one of the largest sites of dinosaur tracks in the world, you are able to take a trip back in time to when the dinosaur species were the most diverse.

Bolivia - Sucre - Cal Orck'o - Dinosaurs

 

Cal Orck’o Statistics
• How old: 68 million years
• Geologic Period: The late Cretaceous period
• Number of tracks: 220 – 350
• Number of footprints: Over 5000
• Number of species: 330
• Length of the wall: 1.5 km
• Height of the wall: Up to 150 m

 

The Wall
Cal Orck’o is at La Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA) cement company’s limestone quarry, 5 – 6 km northeast of Sucre city centre.

Bolivia - Sucre - Cal Orck'o - Cal Orck'o

The imposing near-vertical white limestone wall has hundreds of dinosaur footprints from the late Cretaceous period imprinted on it. Some tracks go straight up and some sideways along the wall. Experts believe the wall used to be a lakeside.

Bolivia - Sucre - Cal Orck'o - The Wall

As I stood there retracing the tracks made by the footprints of different shapes and sizes, the brittle wall crumbled and peeled off bit by bit on its own, eventually to reveal another layer (and more tracks) underneath. Each 10 – 15 cm thickness of the layer represented about 1000 years.

Bolivia - Sucre - Cal Orck'o - Footprints

The progress on preserving the site has been slow ever since the footprints were discovered by the quarry workers in October 1994. El Parque Cretácico (The Cretaceous Park, A dinosaur theme park) at Cal Orck’o opened its doors to visitors in 2006.

 

How to get there (This information may not be up to date.)
Get on the red Dino-Truck that leaves from Plaza 25 de Mayo, Sucre’s main plaza. (Timetable: 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.)

 

Useful websites:

El Parque Cretácico (The Cretaceous Park)
http://parquecretacicosucre.com/

A tale of two capitals, August 7, 2007
http://www.theworld.org/node/11913?answer=true

 

Related post:
Tarabuco Market, Sucre, Bolivia