Parque Cretácico: A Stomp Through Time

Parque Cretácico, or Cretaceous Park, located just 5 km north of Sucre, Bolivia, offers visitors a fascinating journey back to the age of dinosaurs. The park's main attraction is the Cal Orck'o cliff, a vast limestone wall bearing over 5,000 dinosaur footprints from at least eight different species. These tracks date back approximately 68 million years to the Late Cretaceous period when the area was part of a large ocean inlet. The footprints were discovered in 1994 during quarrying activities at the local Fancesa cement factory. Tectonic activity later shifted the ground, resulting in a near-vertical display of these ancient tracks. The park includes life-size, scientifically researched replicas of dinosaurs, providing a sense of the scale of these creatures. Visitors can also explore a museum with dinosaur-related exhibits and enjoy guided tours that provide detailed information about the different species and the geological history of the site. The tours to the quarry are available at noon and 1 pm every day except Sunday. Though a section of the wall broke off in 2010, destroying some tracks, it revealed another layer underneath, suggesting more discoveries await. The park provides a viewing area with telescopes to observe the tracks from a distance.