Our story begins a million, billion years ago — 1949, to be exact — when an earthquake shook up Sucre, Bolivia, levelling many of the city’s buildings.
In an effort to rebuild, a cement company was formed on the outskirts of town, extracting limestone from the surrounding hills and mountains. Over the years, as the workers dug through layers of stone and dirt, a sheer rock face emerged … along with more than 5,000 dinosaur footprints.
(NOTE: Dinosaurs pictured above are not real.)
The site is now home to a quaint little museum that overlooks the wall of footprints.
I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get closer to the footprints, but I completely understand the need for preservation. I also know that many tourists are assholes and would probably destroy the delicate footprints if given the opportunity.
So this is the best that I — and my camera’s pathetic zoom — can offer you. If you look carefully, you can see tracks running vertically up the rock.
You’ll have to trust me that in real life, it’s even more spectacular. It almost looks like the footprints that cover the floor of a dance studio, except here it’s a brontosaurus doing the tango with triceratops.
Supposedly this land dates back 68 million years, before the Andes were even formed. Back then, the area was a muddy lake bed, where dinosaurs had picnics and parties (I’m assuming). Then sediment covered the tracks before they had a chance to be washed away.
Over time, layers of rock preserved the footprints, until they were rediscovered and turned into a tourist attraction.
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