Bolivia travel guide

Start whistling a Western tune, saddle a horse or just put on your hiking boots to discover the region around Tupiza. This is the area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent the last period of their lives and also found their death. The classic movie might not be filmed here but the real-life story took place in the desert around Tupiza. You don’t need a lot of imagination to get into a Western vibe. The scenery is stunning with red rock formations, narrow canyons and cacti galore. You can easily get a local guide to show you around on a day trip on foot or by horse to show you some of the sites such as Valle de los Machos, Puerta del Diablo, El Cañión del Inca and El Cañión del Duende.

Formerly the bottom of the prehistoric lake formed in the high plateau between the Occidental and the Royal range shared between Bolivia and Peru. This area now has an attraction very different from the numerous Inka remains. The flat clay was transformed by underground rivers and torrential rain and wind and the area now boasts strangely shaped pinnacles and deep winding canyons consisting of sedimentary clay, volcanic ashes and the occasional congregation of gravel and pebbles. Some of the towering clay pillars have been named according to their appearances but the real draw here is just walking around in this bizarre landscape, whether you think it looks like the moon or not...

At the northern edge of the Salar de Uyuni towers the Tunupa Volcano above the salt lake. On a day trip it is possible to hike to the crater rim at about 5,000 m or even further direction the top of the mountain. The base for the hike is in the tiny village of Coquesa, where there is not much more than a few houses and a hostel. From there you can start hiking but it makes it definitely a little easier to be driven some hundreds of meters uphill close to some caves with mummies at about 4,000 m. The hike from here is quite strenuous, especially approaching the edge of the crater where the terrain is sandy with small stones. The views are amazing though and worth the effort. When you stand about 1,500 meters above the salar you quickly forget the tough climb.