Travel to Bolivia – Episode 821

Hear about an itinerary for travel to Bolivia as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jayne Dear from The Only Way is Not Essex about her recent trip to this landlocked South American country.

Jayne says, you “should go to Bolivia because it’s a very diverse country. It has the largest salt flats in the world. Uyuni, which I visited, and I did that on a three-day tour. Also, go because it’s a great way of having a budget trip to the Amazon. It’s a very diverse country. I think it’s the 27th largest country in the world. There’s a dry forest as well as the rainforest.”

“There are deserts in the South. There are incredible deserts. I particularly enjoyed the Salvador Dali Desert. The planes and the mountains, it’s absolutely beautiful and volcanoes. It has a lot of colored lagoons. They have spectacular backdrops of classic cone volcanoes and amazing wildlife. Some of them are absolutely covered in flamingos.”

Jayne starts us in the south with a 3-day tour of the Uyuni salt flats. She went in the rainy season when the salt flats were covered with a thin layer of water. If you are there in the dry season, you will see salt structures instead of reflections. You will also be able to travel out to Cactus island. Jayne stayed in a salt hotel and ate in salt restaurants where the building and much of the furniture is made of salt. From there, she went to the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, which is known for its multi-color lagoons, volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and flamingos.

She visited the colonial city of Potosí, where the original Spanish mint is now a history museum. You can visit a working silver mine in the region as Jayne did. The historic center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The beautiful white city of Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia. Sucre is another UNESCO site. Jayne recommends the House of Liberty Museum, which is the former church where the country’s declaration of independence was signed in 1825.

The capital city of La Paz is a beautiful, if chaotic, city that is surrounded by the high mountains of the Altiplano. The city is at more than 2 miles in altitude. The city is crisscrossed by a system of gondolas called Mi Teleférico. From the gondolas, you can avoid city traffic and get great views of the colorful neighborhoods. Jayne recommends a visit to the witch’s market, where you can pick up a llama fetus to take home. 

Not far from La Paz is the pre-Columbian site of Tiwanaku, which is yet another UNESCO site. This significant site is thought to be more than 2000 years old. 

Before leaving Bolivia, Jayne visited Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol. 

Learn why Bolivia was worth the wait for Jayne and why it should be on your South America itinerary.

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Show Notes

The Only Way is Not Essex
Bolivia
Salar de Uyuni
Salvador Dalí Desert
Llama
Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve
Potosí
Mine Tour
National Mint of Bolivia (House of Coin)
Sucre
House of Liberty Museum
Museo de la Recoleta
La Paz
Mi Teleférico
The Witches’ Market
Tiwanaku
Bowler Hats and The Cholas of Bolivia – Claudia Looi
Copacabana, Bolivia
Isla del Sol
Death Road Tours

Community

On last week’s show on Travel to Thessaloniki, Greece – Episode 820 our guest sent these corrections:

The famous artefact – the golden larnax (the proper name of “the box” I mention) and the golden grave crown from the Macedonian Tomb of Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great–are now located on-site in the Archaeological Museum of Vergina and not in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

The exchange of populations happened in 1922 –I don’t know why I said 1921, as this a very well-known fact to me and all Greeks!

I apologize for these inaccuracies!

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