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This tour is specially designed for those who want to see most of Bolivia's highlights and ride a lot of off-road, but nothing too difficult for the average motorcyclist. You will pass the Ruta del Che (Che Guevara Trail) heading to an indigenous market, the capital city, the oldest operating silver mine, salt flats, lakes, mountains, and more. This is a tour filled with extremes, on a selection of the best motorcycle roads available!
During this tour, you will stay in various hotels along the route. Most will be nice and comfortable, some will be less nice. Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures always tries to maintain a standard of clean rooms with private bathrooms that have hot showers, but please understand that this is Bolivia and sometimes there just is no good option.
Starting with the “Ruta del Ché”. you make your way to the indigenous market of Tarabuco, following to the colonial Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. Continuing, you ascend to Potosí, the highest city in the world and the oldest operating silver mine in the world. This is followed by the “Salar de Uyuni”, the largest salt flats in the world, the train graveyard, the Dakar monument, and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
You try to ascent Chacaltaya Mountain at a 5,270-meter altitude by bike. Including the most dangerous road in the world, the infamous “Death Road”, the coca leaf plantations, you reach the highest Christo statue in the world. Photographers get prepared for a 100 years time travel to Totora. The highest riding peak will be 5,200 meters resp. 4,650 meters.
You will be picked up at the airport of Santa Cruz, Bolivia from where you will drive to the small town of Samaipata (120 kilometers, three hours). There, you will check into a comfortable hotel and spend the rest of the day relaxing and discovering. If your flight arrives late, you need to spend the night in Santa Cruz. In that case, the following day is considered day one.
You will with the briefing where you learn more about safe riding, the route, the local traffic rules, and about each other. To get used to your bike, you will go for a ride to the archeological site of “El Fuerte”. Classified World Heritage by UNESCO, it is an old Inca town built around the, much older, largest stone sculpture in the Americas. For some people, it is an ancient Alien landing field!
Leaving early in the morning, you will stop in Vallegrande to visit the hospital's laundry, where revolutionary hero Ernesto Ché Guevara´s lifeless body was presented in 1967 to the world.
After lunch, you continue your ride towards the tiny mountain village of La Higuera, the place where Ché was captured and executed. On the road, you observe condors, the world's biggest bird.
After your first special drive, you arrive at the end of the afternoon in La Higuera. In the evening at the campfire in the courtyard of your hotel, you will listen to Don Juan’s comments from the time of the guerrilla war.
After visiting the ancient school building where Ché Guevara was executed and the related sites, you leave for Villa Serrano. On the suspension bridge over the Rio Grande, you will have a picnic lunch and if the conditions are good (mostly the water level) you can also go for a swim.
You will arrive in Villa Serrano in the afternoon, Bolivia’s capital of the charango. It is a kind of small, double five-string guitar, very difficult to play.
You leave Villa Serrano early in the morning so you can visit the Tarabuco Sunday market. This is the only place in Bolivia where you can take photos of traditionally dressed indigenous people without them turning away.
After lunch, you continue to Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. The rest of the afternoon and evening is for exploring this beautiful colonial city. The entire white-painted city center is classified World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
You leave Sucre after breakfast. On smooth tarmac, you start to climb towards the altiplano (high planes) until you reach a strange bridge, which you will intend to ride. The mining city of Potosí is at a 4,100-meter altitude, the highest city in the world, and also classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. During the ascent, the guides will give you instructions about altitude sickness.
In the afternoon, you visit the miner’s market where we can buy anything, ranging from coca leaves and dynamite. Then continue to the mines where you will get “geared up” and descend into the belly of “Pajcha Mama” (mother earth) to visit the 500 year old but still operational silver mine. This is not suitable for those who don’t like small spaces or suffer from claustrophobia.
Crossing incredible canyon scenery, passing tiny villages, watching for vicuñas (family of camelids), emus (ostrich family bird), and thousands of lamas, you arrive at the small mining village of Pulacayo. Here, you will walk a little around the ancient railway station, and the mine entrance and you climb the train wagon with which the American outlaws Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid arrived in Bolivia.
Next break is Uyuni, where you visit the train graveyard, a fantastic collection of discarded railway material dating back to the 19th century. This includes at least a dozen steam locomotives, perfect photo shooting
The Salar de Uyuni is a dried-up salt lake, the size of a small country (11,000 square kilometers). Since the largest salt lake in the world has no references, whatsoever, and because there are only two colors in the world (blue sky and white salt), there is no perspective. Your brain will have a meltdown and you can take the weirdest photos (crazy photos with crazy bikers).
On your way, you will visit the cactus island “Inca Huasi”, the salt market, the flags monument, the salt hotel, and the Dakar monument.
In the morning, you will leave Uyuni behind you. Passing scenic altiplano desert landscapes and several small villages, you make your way to Oruro, famous for its markets and grill restaurants. So “grill” will be your treat in the evening.
But before, you will observe a strange phenomenon. More should not be divulged here!
To avoid the chaotic traffic in the city of El Alto, you will leave Oruro early in the morning by the newly built motorway. Conditional to your arrival time nearby El Alto, you will evaluate taking a shortcut toward Lake Titicaca. Crossing the crystal blue waters to the peninsula of the famous Copacabana on a pontoon, you will enjoy views of snow-capped mountains over the clear blue lake. Your hotel has a marvelous view of the lake. Guess what is going on for dinner?
Exchanging your bikes for a boat, you will visit two legendary islands from the Inca times. On the Island of the Sun, you make a short hike with fantastic views of the snow-covered mountains that border Lake Titicaca. On the Island of the Moon, you will visit the ruins of the moon virgin’s temple.
Altitude: 3,600 meters
Terrain: 0% off-road
In the morning, you will leave lake Titicaca behind, stop at the La Paz view point and arrive in La Paz, the defacto capital of Bolivia at noon. In the afternoon we start to a round trip over La Paz and El Alto by funicular, unique in the world. Actually there are 7 lines in service. Don´t worry: Made by Doppelmayr, Austria. It is possible to visit the witches market where you could buy anything ranging from magic potions and amulets to mummified llama embryos. In the evening, you can witness the changing of the guards at the presidential palace.
From La Paz, you ride to Coroico on what was once officially the most dangerous road in the world. Plummeting down into the tropical Yungas region, the views are magnificent and if you keep your speed down, you have a very good chance to arrive safely in Coroico. For the really brave, you can finish today’s ride with a 500-meter zipline adventure, sitting or in a spider position. From here, it only takes a 45-minute ride to the hotel's pool.
You leave Coroico and follow narrow unpaved mountain roads through the Yungas, well known for its coca leaf plantations. Passing small picturesque mountain villages and on the end, a very scenic real-death road, you arrive in Chulumani around noon. Time to soak in the swimming pool, explore this bustling agronomic trade center of the Yungas, or just relax.
Again, today is an entire day of narrow, unpaved roads following deep ravines, crossing rivers, and passing tiny settlements. Late in the afternoon, the last hour before arriving, you ride on the edge of a small curvy gorge road with a splendid view. Quime is a small cradled mining town in between massive mountains. Your dinner and hotel are basic and very Bolivian.
After a Bolivian breakfast, you leave Quime. At a traditional sanctuary, you sacrifice cigarettes, alcohol, and of course, coca leaves to the patron saint of the place.
On curvy roads with amazing views, you climb to a 4,400-meter altitude, before you descend to the valley of Cochabamba, surrounded by huge mountains.
After you have mastered the traffic, you rush straight to the plaza, from where you cuddled the bustle. At one plaza corner is the best-known coffee “cortado” café, and for dinner, you will enjoy the best-known “Pique Macho”, a traditional dish.
In the morning, you will visit the largest “Christo” sculpture of South America. With almost 40 meters in height, it is a bit higher than the famous “Christo de Rio de Janeiro”.
After this, you will leave the big city to have a fresh fish lunch and pass beautiful valleys. You make your way to Totora, a small colonial town in the mountains, where time stands still for 100 years, a paradise for photographers.
This last day starts with an 80-kilometer (roman!) stone road, which feels like Ben Hur! Passing the valley of Rio Mizque, the scenery becomes one of the rough and colorful mountains and the road becomes challenging.
In the afternoon, you arrive back in Samaipata, on a marvelous motorcycle road through the mountains. You leave your bikes behind and hurry to jump into the hotel's pool.
Late in the morning, you will set off for Santa Cruz where you can relax, hang around the plaza, and do some souvenir shopping. In the evening, you will have a farewell dinner.
Always a sad moment when one says goodbye. But who knows? You would not be the first to come back for more.
Adventure bikes with high HP performance do not bring any advantages in Bolivia and can only be used on good asphalt roads. Instead, lightweight single-cylinder bikes make it easier to ride on bad roads and on dirt-road tracks. In order to ride at high altitudes, however, quite a bit of cubic capacity is needed. 650cc dual sport bikes in some countries also called trail bikes, are the ideal choice.
They have renewed their entire motorcycle fleet to the Suzuki DR650SE. Model 2018 / 2019 / 2021. The bikes are specially prepared for long-distance tours and come with a 20-liter fuel tank, a rear rack, an elevated handlebar, handlebar protectors, and a USB or micro USB plug.
The Suzuki DR650SE is reliable, easy to handle, simple in design, lightweight in its class, not heavily dependent on electronic systems/sensors, has an electric starter and some bikes in the fleet are specially modified for small, tall, or overweight riders. They are very proud of the well-equipped workshop and professionally maintained bikes. We also offer our workshop to world motorbike travelers to repair and maintain their bikes.
Riders are participants that ride a Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures motorcycle (the standard). Passengers are participants that accompany the riders, either as a pillion, in the support vehicle, or with their own bike. Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures will try to give you the bike you like, but if everybody chooses the same bike, they will have to decide who gets which bike. For this, they need to know your gender, experience with motorcycling, height, weight, and age.
Each tour is accompanied by a 4x4 assistance vehicle with a motorcycle trailer and for some tours also with a spare bike: luggage, medical material, and technical assistance but also offers riders the opportunity to rest during the tour. Riders drive only with a small daypack, containing a camera, bike gear, snacks, drinks, personal belongings, etc.
During this tour, you will be served daily meals according to the itinerary. All meals are included, and generally, it will be nice and tasty, but again, this is Bolivia and sometimes there just is no good restaurant in the area.
Viru Viru International Airport
98 km
Transfer included
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