Maragua Crater Day Trip: Your Ten Hours From Sucre

The morning

The day begins with a hotel pickup at half past eight, which is late enough to have breakfast and early enough to have the whole day. Transport is private rather than a shared coach, so the group is small and the schedule is not held hostage by a full bus.

From Sucre it is about an hour by road to Chataquila, a chapel standing on the ridge above the city. The drive climbs, which is worth knowing: the trailhead is higher than the city you started in.

The chapel is where the walking starts, and the point at which the day changes character entirely.

The private vehicle is worth more on this route than it sounds. The access beyond Chaunaca is unpaved and the day involves several separate stops rather than one destination, so a small group in a four-wheel-drive can adjust its timing to the light, the weather and the group in a way that a fixed coach itinerary simply cannot.

The descent

Two hours down the Camino del Inca to Chaunaca. The route is a surviving section of pre-Columbian road, stone-paved for much of its length, dropping steadily through open highland country.

It is not technical and it is not flat. The paving is uneven, the gradient is consistent, and two hours of downhill on stone asks something of the knees rather than the lungs. Guides set a pace that accounts for both the altitude and the group.

The vehicle is waiting at the bottom. That arrangement is what makes the walk a comfortable morning rather than a commitment: you go down, and you do not have to come back up.

Into the crater

From Chaunaca the road runs on into the Maragua formation. The approach is the moment the structure becomes visible as a structure rather than as a set of hills, and it is worth having a camera to hand.

Lunch is served on the crater floor and is vegetarian and included. It is eaten looking at the rim, which is not something that can be said of many lunches.

After it comes La Garganta del Diablo, the gorge cut through the upturned rock, which takes about half an hour and is the clearest short demonstration of what the geology has done here.

It is also the moment the geology page stops being theory. From the road on the way in you can see the rings of upturned rock curving away on both sides, and the abstract description of a breached dome becomes an object you are driving into. Several people on any given day take their best photograph of the trip from a moving car here.

The vehicle on the dirt road running into the crater

The afternoon

About two hours at the dinosaur footprints. This is the longest single stop of the day and it is deliberately so: a trackway needs looking at rather than glancing at, and a rushed twenty minutes would waste the drive.

If a weaver is available, there is time with her and an explanation of the Jalqa textiles. That depends on the day and on the person, and the operator describes it as a possibility rather than a promise, which is the honest way to describe an encounter with somebody who lives there.

Then the drive back to Sucre, arriving about ten hours after the pickup.

What is included and what is not

Included: hotel pickup and drop-off, private transport, entry tickets for the Inca trail, Maragua and the footprints, a guide in English or Spanish, a first aid kit, and a vegetarian lunch.

Not included: your own water, sun protection, and anything you want to buy. Bring more water than you expect to drink, because altitude and dry air remove it faster than thirst reports.

The guide language is worth confirming at the time of booking if English matters to you, since both are offered.

One further note on the entry tickets. They cover the Inca trail, the Maragua area and the footprints, and having them handled by the operator removes three separate small transactions from a day that is already long. It is a minor convenience and it is the sort of thing that is only noticed when it is absent.

How to fit it into a Sucre visit

Not on your first day. Give yourself two nights in the city first so that the altitude is behind you rather than ahead of you, and book this for the third day.

It fills the day completely. Ten hours with an early start does not leave an evening for much beyond dinner, and after two hours walking at altitude most people are not looking for one.

If you also want Cal Orcko, the dinosaur wall on the edge of the city, that is a separate short trip and a different day.

What to bring

Shoes you can descend two hours in, which for most people means walking shoes or boots rather than trainers, on uneven stone.

A hat with a brim, sunglasses, sunscreen. Water, and then more water. A layer for the morning, which at that altitude starts cold and does not stay that way.

And something to carry it all in that leaves your hands free on the descent.

Finally, take a small bag rather than a day pack if you can. The walking section is the only part of the day you carry anything for, the vehicle is with you the rest of the time, and two hours of descent is much pleasanter without weight on your shoulders.

Before you book

The ten hours, in order

1. 08:30 hotel pickup

   From your hotel in Sucre, in a private vehicle rather than a shared coach.

2. An hour to Chataquila

   Up to the chapel on the ridge, higher than the city you started in.

3. Two hours down the Inca road

   Stone paving, a steady gradient and open highland country, to Chaunaca.

4. Lunch in the crater

   Vegetarian and included, eaten on the floor of the formation with the rim above you.

5. La Garganta del Diablo

   About half an hour at the gorge cut through the upturned rock.

6. Two hours at the footprints

   The longest stop of the day, and a weaver if one is available. Then back to Sucre.