After the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru (see blog) we headed through Lake Titicaca to Bolivia.
The good stuff: This is an amazing country with the most geo-diversity of all my travels so far. The prices are the cheapest and it is easy to get by on $15 to $20 a day including transportation and excursions.
The NOT so good stuff: Some of the roads are very dangerous and most are unpaved. On our journey from La Paz to Rurrenabaque the bus in front of us went over the side of the road and 20 people died (see List of Bad Travels blog for more). Of course this road is considered the "World's Most Dangerous Road" (see pics below) and there were heavy rains the night before. We decided to fly back to La Paz.
Where to go: We started at Lake Titicaca where we stayed in Copacabana and then went to La Paz where we caught the a bus to Rurrenabaque and took a 3 day jungle tour through Pampas. This is an incredible trip –with pink dolphins, monkeys, alligators, piranhas, turtles, colorful birds, and amazing sunsets. Then we went to Salar de Uyuni which is the world's largest and highest slat flat. We did a 4 day trip that included Laguna Colorado filled with flamingos and flaming red algae colored water with shores crusted with arctic white gypsum salt. Then we saw Laguna Verde which is a bright turquoise green due to the arsenic and other minerals. Then we cruised across huge expanses of desert with amazing views. From here we made our way to the "mines" of Potosi where we did a tour of the mines and blew some stuff up with dynamite from the local roadside stand (seriously). Then we made our way to Santa Cruz where we were too tired to do much anything and just caught a train to Brazil (see Rio blog).
Videos:
(Salt Flat #1 Video) (Salt Flat #2 Video) (Jungle Tour Video) (Other Video)
