Bolivian Explorer

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a brash cosmopolitan city in tropical lowlands just below Bolivia's Central Valleys, with good flight connections. Overnight flights from Europe generally arrive in the early or late morning. You are met at the airport and either driven straight to your hotel, or taken for a short tour of the leafy colonial centre of this otherwise not very lovely place, with the rest of your day free at the hotel.

Cochabamba

With an early start you are collected from your hotel, driven to the airport, and met on the arrival of your short flight to Cochabamba. Cochabamba is known as a city of eternal spring for its year-round sunny climate and moderate temperatures. It is a pleasant relaxed town, with a reputation for good food and opportunities to experience the tastes of Bolivia's new foodie revolution. You explore plazas, the cathedral and churches from the city's colonial past and the Palacio Portales - the magnificently opulent (or grotesquely vulgar) house of 'The King of Tin': the wealthy Simón Patiño. You stop by the Heroines of the Coronilla monument, the Christ of the Concordia statue on San Pedro Hill, and arrive at the traditional market of La Cancha, a labyrinth of stalls crammed with everything you could need: fruit, meat, corn, fish, hand tools, embroidery, hats, sacks, electronics, herbal remedies, witches concoctions, schoolbooks, socks, plastic bowls - and a lot more.

Toro Toro

You set off in the morning by 4WD with your guide passing through the villages of Tarata and Anzaldo, and across the Caine River. After around 4 hours you arrive at the sleepy village of Toro Toro and stop for lunch. In the afternoon you you enter Toro Toro national park and visit Umajalanta Cave, which burrows 7km into the earth. In the early parts of the cave you will see flowstones and amazing stalactites and stalagmites, and a small lake inhabited by blind fish. You stay 2 nights at a little hotel in the village.

After breakfast you set off for a day-walk through stunning landscapes along the Toro Toro river to Toro Toro Canyon, with dinosaur prints and water-holes along the way. There's a lookout point with impressive views across the canyon - you might see red-fronted macaws criss-crossing below you. Further on the trail reaches El Vergel where waterfalls fan out over the rocks of the canyon wall, cascading into pools of crystalline water below. At the end of the afternoon you descend 1000 stone steps to the bottom of the canyon and return to the village.

Fossils

After breakfast leave for Wiliu and Siete Vueltas in one of Bolivia’s most important areas for fossils. At Siete Vueltas thousands of fossilised brachiopods, cephalopods and even chrimonide stalks are embedded in the rocks, while Wiliu has petrified tortoises and fish teeth. After lunch in Toro Toro village you set off for the return drive to Cochabamba and the same hotel as before.

Sucre

A morning flight to the beautiful city of Sucre. In the afternoon, your guide shows you the city. You head to the Recoleta Mirador for the best views of the city, visit to the Museum of the Recoleta, and the ASUR Textile Museum, which houses some of the best collections of textiles from the Bolivian valleys. You visit the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Museum of the Merced, the Churches of San Lázaro and Santo Domingo, the Convent of San Felipe Nery, the Casa de la Libertad, the patio of the University of San Francisco Xavier, and the Parque Bolivar. Check in for 3 nights at your hotel in Sucre.

A free day in Sucre. At its heart Sucre is a refined and restrained city, made lively by its university. It's a lovely place to pause and relax into local life after a week of travelling.

Tarabuco

Your guide collects you from your hotel for the hour and a half drive to Tarabuco, a traditional village 60km from Sucre, which has a vibrant Sunday market specialising in the complex and vivid textiles from the Yampura community.

Potosi

You leave Sucre early today to climb on good roads to the Andean city of Potosí below 'Sumaj Orko' the mountain of silver. In colonial times huge amounts of silver were mined and sent to Spain. Potosi's elite flourished while its miners worked like ants in atrocious conditions. You will learn about this history and see the key sites from that period. Today you visit the Museum of Santa Teresa and the Tower of the Company of Jesus. Some silver is still being mined to this day and your guide takes you to the miners’ market. Conditions for the miners are far from acceptable even now. You could also visit one of the working mines, but this is controversial and you may prefer not to engage with the miners’ hardships in this way.

Uyuni salt flats

One of Potosi's key sites is the Casa de la Moneda, where the miners' silver was minted into coins. Then it is time to set off for the salt flats of Uyuni on the high plains of the altiplano. Depending on your choices your hotel may be in or around the town, or out on the salt flats in a hotel made from the salt itself.

After breakfast you will set off for the salt flats. The Uyuni Salt flats (Salar de Uyuni) is the remnant of lakes that once covered Bolivia’s high lands (Altiplano). It is the largest salt pan in the world and is the world’s largest reserve of Lithium. This journey will take you to a truly isolated and surreal location where you will be surrounded by a glittering white landscape. It starts with a brief stop in a small settlement called Colchani where the local people bring the salt that they have dug from the salt flat, they weigh it and bag it for sale at an artisanal scale. After this stop you reach the salt flats where, depending on the season, you can see small pillars of loose excavated salt, piles of salt blocks used for building, dark water holes “eyes”, and usually in January and February the sky reflected across the entire vista. In the dry season, (usually late March-late November) you will be driven across the salt flats to visit either Fish Island (Isla del Pescado) or Inca House Island ('Isla Incahuasi' in Quechua) where you will see giant cacti and can find birds and vizcachas (giant rabbit-like rodents) that have made these islands their own. It is not permitted to drive this far when the salt flats are flooded. At midday stop for a buffet lunch of local produce while you admire the salt flats. In the afternoon you will visit Uyuni’s 'train graveyard'. Uyuni was founded as a railway junction to facilitate trade links between Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. It was Bolivia’s main gateway to the outside world and the engineering involved was a symbol of cutting edge progress at the end of the 19th Century. Progress was never sustained and the trains have been abandoned as silent witnesses to Bolivia’s mining heyday. Now, after over 100 years, you can wander around, even board the remains of the carriages, as they slowly rust away. A photographer's/train enthusiast's dream! You will stay for one night either in the town of Uyuni or if you prefer, you could upgrade to stay at one of the unusual hotels built from salt blocks on the edge of the salar.

Tunupa Volcano

Today you will have another day of travelling across the Bolivian Salt Flats. The journey includes a visit to the Chantani Museum, Coquesa Mummues and by midday you will arrive to the Tunupa Volcano. After your picnic lunch you stop at the Chillima lookout point and visit the Pucara ruins.

Siloli Desert

The journey continues towards the Siloli desert. On the way you pass Volcano Ollague and a succession of coloured lakes. Look for the lakes' 3 different species of flamingos, amongst other altiplanic birds, before arriving at the Desert Hotel at Ojo de Perdiz

At first light you visit the 'morning sun' geysers at 5,000m. You will then head to the salt plains of Chalviri, the Valley of the Ladies of the Desert, and the dramatic Green Lagoon at the foot of Volcano Uturuncu.

flight to La Paz

You catch a morning flight to La Paz (about 50min) where your local guide will meet you at the airport outside the city. You are driven to the cable car stop at El Alto, where you and your guide will zoom slowly down to the centre of La Paz with spectacular views across the city below the Andean peaks of the Cordillera Real mountain range - while your luggage goes by road to your hotel. Exploring La Paz, your guide shows you the Church of San Francisco, the Witches’ Market and Plaza Murillo with its government palaces. The rest of the afternoon is free for you to explore more of La Paz, or take it easy at your hotel. OR Exploring the city of La Paz is like wandering into a world of magic. La Paz sits in a bowl and looks different from each angle you approach it from. As you tour the city you will get a feel for the social and economic vibe best experienced as you rise high into the sky on the city’s cable car. On the city tour of La Paz, at over 3,600 m.a.s.l. you will visit some of the city’s most important highlights: the San Francisco Church, the 'Witches’ Market', and the museums in the vicinity. You will then head to the 'Plaza Murillo', where the Legislative and Government Palaces are, and onto a replica of the semi-subterranean 'Temple of Tiwanaku'.

The Valley of the Moon

La Paz is surrounded by wonderful places to explore. Today your guide takes you through the outskirts down to the eerie landscapes of the Valley of the Moon and the Valley of the Souls, whose rocks are eroded into spires or organ pipes. At the small community of Palca you might take a short walk with the snowy peaks of Illimani in the background, and then you pass through small Aymara communities on a quaint road far from the noisy streets of La Paz. Return to your hotel in La Paz after a light picnic lunch.

Amazon rainforest

Today you fly to Rurrenabaque, where a local guide is waiting for you at airport for the short transfer to the river dock and your boat up the Beni River. As you journey along the river you enter the Madidi National Park, one of the most biodiverse in the world. The boat ride should take about 3 hours, depending on the river, before you reach Tacuaral Lodge. After lunch and a siesta the lodge's guides take you into the rainforest trail in search of wildlife including monkeys, deer, wild peccaries, capybara, and a profusion of birds. After dinner at the lodge there is usually the option of a night walk to discover the nocturnal wildlife of the forest.

After breakfast, you will take a boat up the Tuichi River to Caquiahuara, a clay cliff where macaws and parrots nest and feed. There are great photograph opportunities from the observation deck. Lunch at the lodge. Afternoon free for your own nature walks or relaxation.

An early breakfast ready for the boat ride back to Rurrenabaque, where you hop into 4WD for a 3hr trip to Santa Rosa del Yacuma, arriving at Caracoles Lodge. In the afternoon a wildlife guide from the lodge takes you on a boat ride to look for pink river dolphin, capybaras, turtles, black caiman, monkeys and many bird species.

Pampas

In the morning you will hike through the pampas in search of the mighty anaconda, black caimans and alligators. Lunch at the lodge. After a short rest, you will take a boat ride along the Yacuma River for piranha fishing and swimming with pink dolphins. After dinner you will take a night time boat ride to observe some wildlife at night, including the black caiman.

La Paz

At a convenient time, transfer from Santa Rosa to Rurrenabaque. Flight back to La Paz.

Tiwanaku and Lake Titicaca

After breakfast your guide collects you for a 90min drive to the archaeological site of Tiwanaku, one of Latin America’s most significant pre-Columbian sites. The Tiwanaku culture developed 500 years before the rise of the Incas, and flourished for several centuries. The ceremonial site you will visit is one part of a larger citadel that is still yet to be properly explored. On the site you will see the Gateway of the Sun, the Pyramid of Akapana, the Temple of Kalasasaya and a semi-subterranean temple. The excellent site museum holds important pieces and explains, with your guide’s help, the relationships between Tiwanaku and other cultures of that time, and their key importance to the Incas that followed. In the afternoon you arrive at Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca’s intense blue waters, passing traditional Aymara villages along the way. You cross the Straits of Tiquina by boat and continue by road to visit the church of El Santuario de la Virgen Morena de Copacabana, before lunch by the lake shore. There are plenty of opportunities to see and buy local textiles and handicrafts in this area. In the afternoon you visit the site of an Incan astronomical observatory, returning to stay at your hotel in Copacabana.

Islands of the Sun and Moon

Today you have a full day excursion by boat to explore Bolivia’s hilly islands of solid rock amid Lake Titicaca. These islands are home to a few small communities of Aymara and Quechua speaking people who cultivate the islands, graze sheep and make handicrafts. They have no motorised transport on the islands. The navigation over to the Sun island takes approx 90 minutes, you disembark at Yumani dock from where there’s an unavoidable climb of 200 stairs taking you past Incan agricultural terraces which follow the contours of the island and the Inca’s terraced garden to the “Fuente de la Eterna Juventud” a natural spring that is said to be the source of eternal youth. From here there is a 20-minute walk to visit the ruined Pilkokaina Palace of the Incas which offers commanding views down upon the blue green waters of the lake in the bay below. A short (25mins) boat trip takes you to the nearby Moon Island, where you are likely to be able to participate in a typical local Aymara lunch, called Apthapi. Traditionally this meal is eaten communally with all diners sat on the ground in two long rows either side of a great spread of local delicacies. The principal ingredients are local potatoes, of every shape, size and hue, large white boiled maize kernels, yucca, llama meat, locally caught fish, fresh or fried cheeses, tortillas and eggs. All are set of by the highly colourful picnic cloths creating a photographers delight [a box lunch will be supplied just in case you would prefer to feast on the Apthapi with your eyes only!]. After lunch you visit the 'Palace of the Virgins' or Iñaq Uyu Temple. The Inca chief was the only male allowed to enter the Temple on Moon Island. Here daughters of noble Inca families were sent to live in seclusion where they made fine clothing and textiles for use by those in high society. These nustas, princesses of royal blood, were considered secondary wives of the Inca and a suitably precious commodity to make ideal offerings to the gods whenever an important sacrifice was required. Upon your return to Copacabana in the late afternoon you can visit the town’s beautiful cathedral, usually shining in the altitude’s bright sunlight. Transfer to La Paz (approximately 4 hour journey).

This morning you are collected from your hotel and transferred to La Paz’s international airport for your flight home or onwards.