A salt lake like a mirror, a capital at 3,600 metres and flamingos in red lagoons – Bolivia is the adventure after Peru.
Photo: Matheus Oliveira (Unsplash)
Full disclosure: Bolivia is still in my future. Friends who travelled on from Peru say it's rougher, poorer and more spectacular. The Salar de Uyuni is the image everyone knows – a salt lake the size of the canton of Bern, a mirror in the rainy season, a white hexagonal pattern stretching to the horizon in the dry season.
The jeep tour across the Salar takes three days: a salt hotel, the cactus island of Incahuasi, then the lagoons of the Altiplano with flamingos, geysers and the red Laguna Colorada at over 4,000 metres. It's cold, basic and unforgettable. La Paz with its cable cars above the city and Sucre, the white colonial city, are the urban counterparts.
Altitude is the issue: almost everything is above 3,500 metres. If you come from Cusco or Lake Titicaca, you're acclimatised – the natural route is Peru first, then Bolivia. Organised tours take care of the logistics; buses and roads are not up to European standards.
Uyuni: a salt hotel on the edge of the Salar. La Paz: Sopocachi or Zona Sur (lower down, more oxygen). Sucre: old town.
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