This place has a similarity to Toro Toro, however this is located in the department of La Paz and a little far away, it is known as Awqani, the enigmatic and hidden grotto of La Paz.
Even for us as mountain lovers we love to discover new destinations to visit and enjoy every landscape that bolivia has to offer us.
Well, our adventure begins like this, we learned of the existence of awqani through some photos, the first thing we thought is “It’s Toro Toro” (Toro Toro is a park in the department of potosí with caves, a canyon, ancient cities, dinosaur footprints), we thought it was that place because of the similarity of the vegetation and rock formations, but investigating we learned that it is in La Paz, then we planned to go to see the place.
The day came to know it, we left very early from the city and we went almost blindly because the place was not on the internet, the closest reference we had is the town of Yaco so we pointed in that direction, it took about 4 hours to get there, in the place we asked the locals and fortunately, we got Don Juan who was something like a local guide who offered to take us, obviously we agreed. From Yaco to Awqani is about 2 hours, the time when we went was not the best for the vehicle, but it was achieved, the guide told us that the best time to go is between May to October, although it loses a little of the charm of the place because it is no longer very green.
We arrived at the place where we left the car, we got ready and began the hike, the red earth, and the very green vegetation gave a simply beautiful contrast and also some amazing meadows.
After walking for about 1 hour we arrived at the entrance of what would be the caves, where we started to descend towards the rock formations and that vegetation gave a feeling of a mini ecosystem, the ground was slippery and also a part of sand, some plants itched but nothing out of the ordinary, as the water runs, the huge rock walls and how the sun made that contrast with the rest, really could easily be scenes from a documentary. The tour is not very long maybe that’s why it is not a known place, since it is more time in the vehicle than the walk itself, but for my part it is totally recommended.
