Our first view of the Argentinan/Bolivian border was almost comical. A frantic flow of pedestrian traffic forced us to a stop on the road. I was reminded of a trail of industrious leaf cutter ants as we waited for a break that didn’t come. Locals ran back and forth carrying and pushing loads way bigger than themselves with a life or death sense of urgency. Our eyes followed this line of activity across a bridge to our destination. On the other side, we saw a road clogged with roadside stalls, red taillights and general chaos. There was Bolivia.
We’ve heard it said many times: South America doesn’t really begin until you get to Bolivia. Riders that had already traversed this country warned us of a very poor country, corrupt border and roadside police, routes blocked by protesting locals, bad roads, altitude sickness, Bolivia belly, freezing temperatures and the eternal issue of buying petrol as a foreigner*. As a result, we expected a few hiccups would upset our incredibly smooth ride to date. So imagine our surprise when we cleared the border without problem and found ourselves riding an empty road to Tupiza before midday!
Given the above, and knowing the limits of ourselves and our bikes, our first decision was to jump on a jeep tour to explore Bolivia’s south western corner for four days. This is a desolate region famous for its stark natural scenery, including coloured lagoons, volcanoes, geysers and wildlife, including flamingos! It is sprinkled with adobe (mud brick) townships, the hardy residents subsisting by raising llamas and sheep (for meat and wool); producing quinoa and mining.
The grande finale of our tour was sunrise on an island on the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. This will go down as one of the unforgettable moments of our trip. If this is the real South America, bring it on!
*In Bolivia, the government heavily subsidises the cost of petrol for locals. Any vehicle with foreign number plates is charged the full price, 2.5 times what locals pay. The seller is required to fill out extra paperwork to document this and petrol stations are fitted with video cameras to patrol this law/tax. Problems can arise when foreigners refuse to pay the foreign rate; local sellers sell to foreigners at the local rate; local sellers refuse or don’t now how to complete the extra paperwork and therefore refuse to sell petrol to foreigners; or, local sellers don’t complete the official paperwork thereby raising suspicion that they are pocketing the difference rather than passing it onto the government.
Some photos are below. More are in our online gallery here.
Our Odyssey Overland 
Stunning photos and gorgeous descriptions as usual. You make us feel like we are (almost) there too!