At the time of our visit, Torotoro had only enjoyed electricity for 2 years and running water for 1 year. Thus, I expected it to be a quiet, tranquil place. Gonzalo hinted there was more than meets the eye.

View of town, patron house ruins to the right

From the vantage point of a hill outside town, I noticed a large destroyed house near the river's edge. Because the rural villages still tend to build with primitive materials, it seemed almost like an ancient ruin. With dino tracks at my feet, that certainly seemed possible.

Instead, Gonzalo gave us a peek into the seething heart of Torotoro. About 60 years ago, the town was divided by class struggles between the rich patrons and campesinos, or peasants. The campesinos, perhaps finally realizing the power of numbers, suddenly rose up against the patrons. In one bloody night, they descended on the now-ruined house with machetes and wiped out the entire family within—save one child. The child was allowed to live for reasons unclear to Gonzalo, provided he joined the honest campesino life and never rebuilt on that property. That child was William's father.

Unusual twist.

Another nephew...William's little brother

The additional twist: he was also Gonzalo's uncle. We ran into him later in town, a pleasant elderly gentleman pushing a 3-year-old child in a wheelbarrow. Proof again that men's biological clocks do not wind down.

Further probing about the unpredictable violence of the campesinos led to a tangent about our hostal, which was relatively new. Gonzalo told us that when the local government came to fund the hostal, the campesino reaction was hostile. Not wanting an influx of tourists or imposed changes on the town, they threatened to blow up the place. Luckily, a deal was struck, the hostal was built, and threats subsided.

If we'd had more time, it may have been worth staying longer just to understand more about Torotoro's secret nature. As a drop-in tourist however, we only sampled a bit of slow village life.

The children are very friendly. At our first lunch, a young girl made a beeline for our table with an adorable bed-headed toddler in her arms and stopped there, grinning, as if it were show and tell. The next morning kids lined up to stare at us, giggling as we climbed into the jeep...tourists are a fascinating bunch! Another sweet group of kids sat with us during Gonzalo's presentation about dino tracks in Torotoro.

Peeking through the doorway of the hostal

The government hostal is basic by American standards but does feature hot water and electricity 24 hours a day. It's quite big and run by a kind woman. Some basic necessities are available for sale, like toilet paper and bottled water. It's very secure at night, but as I unfortunately found out when trying to take an early walk, it's locked from the inside until the manager wakes up.

The large rooms have multiple uncomfortable beds and uncovered showers that spray water all over the bathrooms. I had 2 beds in my room, with a real—albeit painfully saggy—mattress on the twin bed and basically just a hard pallet on the queen-sized bed. Hemmy's room had 3 beds, also only one with a real mattress.

Hemmy's shower actually caused a minor flood and she spent the first night of our vacation squeegee-ing her hotel room floor! I helped by standing on the sidelines, laughing and pointing.

Extremely uncomfortable beds! It actually looks nicer in this photo than it was.

Mosiacs at Pachamama Huasi

Torotoro also features a local eccentric. The man who runs the museum Pachamama Huasi seems to have started out as someone simply interested in the local fossils and ancient stones in the surrounding hills. Gonzalo referred to him as "doctor," implying he had a PhD.

But somewhere along the way a passion for collecting rocks and creating mosaics turned into a bizarre design scheme. Rocks covered every inch of the small museum, which was also the doctor's home. He would show us a rock that he claimed was millions of years old, and then add grinning, "it also looks like an airplane!" Rubber dinosaurs and a stray Godzilla doll were scattered among the fossils. Yet Gonzalo, William and Shemputos seemed deeply respectful.

Ancient rocks and rubber toys

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