Adventure Travel In Bolivia

Bolivia is a country that seems to have been created for adventure travel. With mountains, salt flats, deserts and jungle, it is just begging to be experienced. Here are my 5 favourite travel adventures in Bolivia.

Otherworldly landscapes – on a 3 or 4 day tour from Uyuni, a outback style jeep will bounce you across mysterious desert landscapes and never-ending salt flats. Staying overnight in hostels built of salt, standing in the centre of an island of funny-shaped cacti and seeing lakes of green, red and blue, you’ll feel like you’ve travelled to another planet.

Brushing with death – not far from Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, you can blast down the legendary Death Road on a mountain bike. You descend 11,800ft on this mud road that clings to a mountain-side, picking up speeds of up to 30mph (48kph). And with hairpin bends, no roadside barriers and possible meetings with oncoming trucks, don’t take the name of this road lightly.

Remote islands on the highest navigable lake – spending a night on Isla del Sol in the middle of Lake Titicaca is one of those magical experiences you won’t forget in a hurry. After taking the three-hour ferry ride from Copacabana, it’s worth staying in one of the basic accommodations on the island so that you can experience an ethereal sunset and a magical dip in one of the many lakes on the island. 

An Amazon Expedition – Rurrenbaque, in the Amazon basin, North of Bolivia, easily competes with jungle excursions in Brazil, with good chances of seeing wildlife in Madidi National Park and the pampas. Madidi is one of the most biologically diverse protected areas on the planet and home to more than 1,000 bird species, plus it’s a home to a large populations of jaguar, spectacled bear, maned wolf, vicuña, giant otter, Andean condor, military macaw, and much more. Stay in an eco-lodge and really get away from it all, with nothing but the sounds of the rain-forest all around.

High Mountain adventure – even climbing noobies can attempt an ascent of the spectacular snow-capped Huayna Potosi, a mountain only bested by La Paz. Just 15 miles away and visible from the city, you are given glacier training and equipment before setting off on this two-day trek. At 6088m (19,974ft) this is no lean feat and you must be well acclimatised to high altitude – a good excuse to hang out in La Paz’s variety of cafés for a good few days!

Rachel Ricks has travelled extensively throughout South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Peru, where she now lives. She has written and edited travel websites for over ten years, and wrote this article for Tucan Travel, experts in adventure travel in Bolivia and all over South America.