Bolivia Adventure

Samaipata is a small town of 10,000 inhabitants founded by the Spanish, the name derives from Quechua and means "rest on the heights". Breakfast at the Samaipata market with traditional sweets followed by a small information briefing and departure towards La Higuera. After taking our motorbikes we head towards the first mountain ranges of the Andes bend. Short walk at around 3000 meters and up the hill to Vallegrande, leaving behind the green and humid area of ​​the Sierra for a completely different, dry and arid landscape.

Visit to the mausoleum built where Che Guevara and his guerrillas were buried in a mass grave. Return to the town and visit the old hospital laundry where Che's corpse was exposed to the press, the only building preserved from the guerrilla years in Bolivia.

Climb up the mountain range, in the historical places of the guerrilla war. 60 km from Vallegrande we arrive in La Higuera, where we visit the small museum dedicated to "Che" Guevara, which stands where once there was the school where he was locked up and then killed by the military. Free dinner and overnight stay in the hostel.

Breakfast. We set off for a walk that takes us from 2,200 meters up to 870 meters down into the Rio Grande valley: we will see the first parrots and the climate will become hot and dry. In the afternoon I arrive in Villa Serrano, a small mountain town, famous for the manufacture of the Charango, an instrument similar to the mandolin of Spanish origin. Free dinner and overnight stay in a family hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. From Villa Serrano we will travel along a beautiful asphalt road to Tarabuco, known for its very colorful and folkloristic Sunday market. We continue to Sucre: lunch on the beautiful square overlooked by the Casa De la Libertad, where the first Constitution of the Republic of Bolivar was drawn up, the colonial-era cathedral and the Government Palace. Hotel accommodation and visit to the city with a local guide (in Italian). Free dinner in the hotel restaurant located next to the convent of la Recoleta.

Breakfast at the hotel. We head towards the Pilcomayo river, which divides the regions of Sucre and Potosì, and we stop to admire the beautiful recently restored suspension bridge. Potosì, famous for the mountain called Cerro Rico, a gigantic silver mine, is located at an altitude of 4,090 meters and is considered one of the highest cities in the world.

Visit to the historic center. For the more adventurous you can plan a descent into the mines of Cerro Rico with specialized local guides. Free dinner and overnight stay in the hotel.

Breakfast. We leave Potosì behind us and set off again on asphalt heading towards Uyuni (3700). The landscape from here on begins to be lunar.

On a beautiful asphalt road we climb over the last steps of the mountain range until we find ourselves facing the immense expanse of the plateau with Uyuni at our feet.

Free dinner and overnight stay in the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. We leave the motorbikes at the hotel and with 4x4 vehicles we enter the Uyuni Salt Flat, the largest salt flat in the world. We cross it to Incahuasi island, where we have lunch in the house of the caretaker, Don Alfredo, the first inhabitant of this petrified coral island covered in cacti.

With a short trek you can climb to the top of the island to have a 360 degree view of the salar and the volcanoes that surround it. In the afternoon return to Uyuni. Free dinner and overnight stay in the hotel.

The journey continues across the vastness of the plateau, with Lake Poopò keeping us company for several kilometres. We continue north on the state road that leads to Oruro, we cross the mining town of Oruro and leave behind the dry plain of the plateau to climb above 4,500 meters on the Quimsa Cruz cordillera, from where the descent into the temperate valleys of the Yungas of La Paz begins .

In Quime, a quiet mountain town, we are staying in a colonial-era house with a magnificent view of the valley.

Breakfast. Departure in the morning for a long day, with a lot of dirt road and mountains. We drive alternating several times between passes above 3000 meters and the valley bottom at 700/800, with changes in climate and landscape from the cold peaks with sheep and llamas to the humid valleys where parrots are spotted, cultivated with coca, bananas and cassava. We have lunch in Licoma, then continue towards Irupana, where we will spend the night.

The climate of the Yungas is very particular, because although it is between 1,300 and 1,800 meters, the proximity to the tropics and the humidity of the valleys is similar to the Amazon forest, even if in the evening it is nice and cool thanks to the altitude and the neighbors glaciers of the Cordillera Real. Irupana is famous for its excellent quality coffee, grown on the surrounding hills. Free dinner. We stay in a hotel surrounded by nature just outside the town.

This stretch of Yungas is a full immersion in lesser-known Bolivia. We cross hills and valleys for more than 80 kilometers of coca plantations, grown on slopes where it is difficult to stand.

In the afternoon we are in the lush valley of Coroico at 1,700 meters, the pearl of the Yungas of La Paz, from where you have a spectacular view of the succession of semi-tropical humid valleys.

Free dinner in the village, overnight stay in the hotel.

Breakfast. We go down to Yolosa, from where the climb of the famous Carretera de La Muerte begins. The Death Road is the most dangerous road in the world, a succession of overhangs, curves and hairpin bends for travelers who love adventure. In a few kilometers it takes us from the tropical heat to the 4600 meters of the La Cumbre pass. Until a few years ago, this road was the only connection between the capital La Paz and the Yungas region where vegetables, fruit, meat and coffee for the city's needs come from.

It was recently replaced with a modern asphalt road, relegating the historic Death Road to a passage for motorcyclists and cyclists who want to experience the thrill of its cliffs. The road is very narrow and you have to be careful to leave room for those who are going downhill. We arrive at the asphalt that takes us up to the 4,600 m of the La Cumbre pass, from where in about twenty km we arrive in La Paz. The afternoon will be free to visit the city.

It is possible to "fly over" the city with the cableway, the highest (and most spectacular) transport service in the world. Free dinner in the city and overnight stay in the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. In good time, transfer to the airport for the flight to Italy.

Arrival in Italy expected in the afternoon.