“Ride your dreams”
9 Day "Motorcycle Diaries" Guided Tour in Bolivia
Samaipata, Bolivia
Bolivia Motorcycle Tour
This is Bolivia Motorcycle Advantures' smallest tour and dedicated to the famous revolutionary Ernesto Ché Guevara, who died in 1967 while trying to start a revolution in Bolivia. Mostly, you will follow the “La Ruta del Ché” and enjoy the fantastic roads and scenery of Bolivia. Some of the roads are the same that Ché took to escape. Possible options: Vado del Yeso, where passing Rio Grande, almost the entire Tania and comandante Joaquin group was massacred, as well as an encounter with members from the “Fondation Ernesto Ché Guevara” in Vallegrande.
Key information
- Terrain: 60% off road
- Bike: rental bike (Suzuki DR650SE)
- Mileage: 915 kilometers / 569 miles
- Daily rides: 120 - 175 kilometers / 75 - 109 miles
- Meals: all meals
Meet the instructors
Roland
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Highlights
- Starts and ends in Santa Cruz
- Use of motorcycle, support vehicle available
- Visit El Fuerte, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Tour to various places related to Ernesto Ché Guevara
- Tour led by multi-lingual, experienced guide
- 8 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Intermediate
7 days with instruction in English
The organizer also speaks: French, German
Group size: 3-8 participants
Airport transfer included:
Viru Viru International Airport
Accommodation
Various hotels will be your home during your stay in Bolivia.
Program
Day 1: Airport pickup at Viru-Viru, Santa Cruz
- Altitude: 400 meters
The staff will pick you up at the airport of Santa Cruz, Bolivia from where they will drive to the small town of Samaipata (120 kilometers, three hours). There, you check into a comfortable hotel and spend the rest of the day to relax and discover. If your flight arrives late, you need to spend the night in Santa Cruz. In that case the following day is considered as day 1.
Day 2: Samaipata
- Altitude: 1650 meters
You start with the briefing where you learn more about safety riding, the route, the local traffic rules, and about each other. To get used to the bike, you go for a ride to the archaeological site of El Fuerte. Classified World Heritage by UNESCO, it is an old Inca town build around the, much older, largest stone sculpture in the Americas. For some people, it is an ancient Alien landing field!
Day 3: To La Higuera (175 kilometers / 109 miles)
- Terrain: 50% off-road
- Altitude: 1900 meters
Leaving early in the morning, you stop in Vallegrande to visit the hospital´s laundry, where revolutionary hero Ernesto Ché Guevara´s lifeless body was presented to the world. Also on the program, his thumb transformed today in a mausoleum, the thumb of Tania Tamara Bunke (Tania la guerillera) and the commandante Joaquín grave.
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 stop at Ché monuments and 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 the hotel, you listen to Don Juan’s comments from the time of the guerrilla war.
Day 4: To Villa Serrano (120 kilometers / 75 miles)
- Terrain: 100% off-road
- Altitude: 2100 meters
After visiting the ancient school building where Ché Guevara was executed on September 9, 1967, and the related sites, you leave towards Villa Serrano. On the suspension bridge over the Rio Grande you have a picnic lunch and if the conditions are good (mostly the water level) you can go for a swim.
You arrive in Villa Serrano in the afternoon, Bolivia’s capital of the Charango. It's a kind of a small, double five strings guitar, very difficult to play.
Day 5: To Monteagudo (120 kilometers / 75 miles)
- Terrain: 100% off-road
- Altitude: 1130 meters
Following dusty gravel roads across wild scenery, you continue to Monteagudo. No infrastructure for far, lunch picnic on the road. Only basic comfort available.
Day 6: Via Lagunillas to Camiri (160 kilometers / 99 miles)
- Terrain: 90% off-road
- Altitude: 810 meters
You continue your route to Muyupampa and Lagunillas, were you visit the place where the guerilla camp was located. Your way leads you through the gas production zone of Bolivia. In Camiri, you visit a hotel room where Ché spend a night in 1967.
Day 7: To Samaipata (340 kilometers / 211 miles)
- Terrain: 0% or 30% off-road variants depending on weather conditions
In the morning you leave Camiri. The road to Samaipata takes you alternately over sandy tracks, the road is more or less the route Ché escaped or asphalt roads along the Piraí River, the Eastern cordillera up to Samaipata, your starting point. You leave your bikes behind and hurry to jump into the hotel's pool.
Day 8: To Santa Cruz
Late in the morning, you set off for Santa Cruz where you can relax, hanging around the plaza and do some souvenir shopping. In the evening, you have a farewell dinner.
Day 9: To the airport
Always a sad moment when you say goodbye. But who knows? You won't be the first to come back for more!
Skill level(s) required for this tour: intermediate
Intermediate:
- can ride for 3-4 hours
- average riding experience
- little assistance required
- comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- average experience with unsurfaced roads
- steep ascents and descents
About the tour
Safely drive at all time and minimize potential dangers are Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures' principal concerns. Their tours consist of maximum 6 people, 8 people for groups. This tour is available on demand.
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, technical assistance but also offers riders the opportunity to rest during the tour. Riders drive only with a small daypack, containing camera, bike gear, snack, drinks, personal belongings, etc.
Main guide speaks 5 languages, assistance vehicle driver and local guides speak English. The main guide is medically trained and holder of pre-hospital emergency certificates. Recommendations, venous access, arterial pressure, pulse oximeter, basic and emergency drugs, procedures and emergency equipment (spinal board, stifneck). Medicaments against altitude sickness, snake bite serums.
There will be triple communication methods, cellular phone, radio, and satellite. The main guide is equipped with a basic survival kit and an advanced First Aid kit. The main guide includes a PLB system (personal location bacon) registered at the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC).
Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures respects the age, physical conditions and special interests (such as photographers) of their guests, with regard of breaks and drive rhythm. Their main object is to have fun, while traveling, visiting sites and inside the group.
The daily stages are never too long and calculated that even with several flat tires, the daily destination can be reached in any case before darkness. During some breaks, they offer snacks, coca tea and they give specific information about Bolivia. The team is specialized in nature, culture, history, ex-urban art, archaeology, prehistory, and rock art.
Election of rest days will be in pleasant climatic zones with many options for those who do not want to rest. Laundry service is available 24 hours. You will stay in some choice of good touristic hotels and restaurants (heating, buffet, A/C).
Your family members and friends can follow your adventure via GPS live tracker, at the BMA website and via BMA Facebook where they will post each evening (if possible) a picture from the day stage with a comment.
During the second day, the team offers a two-hour essential briefing on the particularities of Bolivia and safe driving. Before each tour (not before Mission Impossible tour), the Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures team offers "off-road and safe driving" training at the rental price of the bike. Ask them.
Their tours are adventure tours. The team recommends a few days of altitude acclimatization at Samaipata (1.650m) before starting the tour. Ask them for more details.
The rider will
- Not operate the motorcycle or permit it to be operated, while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Respect Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures safety policies
- Ride safely and responsible
- Respect group travel regulations
- Follow guide's instructions at all times
- Ride always in appropriate and full bike protection gear
- Do not permit any other person to ride your motorcycle
- Take all reasonable care in handling and parking the motorcycle
- Pillion passenger (two-up) is not permitted unless specified in their booking
- Notify Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures immediately when any significant damage occurs to the motorcycle whether or not *it renders the motorcycle unrideable
- Do not operate the motorcycle, or permit it to be operated, in any race, speed test, rally or contest or to propel or tow any other vehicle
- Not operate the motorcycle or permit it to be operated, in breach of any legislation of by laws relating to road traffic
- Not allow anyone to perform any type of significant mechanical repair or work on the motorcycle beyond minor maintenance such as tightening cables, mirrors or bolts, unless they are a certified mechanic or approved by Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures
The rider is liable to pay for:
- Any parking or traffic fines
- The replacement cost of any lost or damaged keys, registration and/or insurance papers, license-plate
- The full tour charge is applicable for the duration of the tour period despite any early return of the motorcycle and accessories at the discretion of the rider
- Riders are responsible for material damage to the motorcycles. This includes, but is not limited to: All damage caused by falls, abnormal use, pothole damage, and brake disc damage for unappropriated use, broken mirrors, brake- and clutch-levers, cosmetic damage such as dents and scratches, engine damage due to the lack of oil or coolant or neglected signs of mechanical failure
- Riders are responsible for costs resulting from accidents not covered by the obligated SOAT insurance. These costs can include and are not limited to: Personal medical costs, medical costs of any injured parties, vehicle damage, vehicle transportation/towing, any legal costs that might arise
- It is not clear in Bolivia how much alcohol constitutes “under the influence”, therefore it is Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures's policy not to consume any alcohol when there is still riding to be done
- All charges under this clause are payable on demand
Instructors
Roland
Ronald is a motorcycle enthusiast, BMA's owner, and the lead guide. He rides motorcycles his whole life and since his first motorcycle, he always traveled further. He worked before with humanitarian non-governmental organizations and in the petrol industry and arrived 1997 in Bolivia for a medical development cooperation project. He is medically trained and speaks five languages. Today, he lives with his family in Samaipata, Bolivia, and shares his motorcycle passion with bikers from all over the world. Bolivia is an awesome biker country!
Location
This tour will bring you to some places which are related to Ernesto Ché Guevara. Some of them are La Higuera, a mountain village where he was captured and executed, as well as Ché monument.
Food
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Soda
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
If you have special dietary requirements it's a good idea to communicate it to the organiser when making a reservation
What's included
- 650cc Dual Sport motorcycle with SOAT insurance
- Fuel
- Road tax and tolls
- 8 nights accommodation based on double occupancy
- 3 daily meals
- Third party tours and/or excursions as detailed in the itinerary
- Entrances
- Support vehicle with guide / mechanic, spare-parts, medical material and bike trailer
- Multi-lingual guide on motorcycle
- Airport transfers from Santa Cruz to Samaipata and vice versa
What's not included
- Alcoholic beverages
- Personal items
How to get there
Recommended Airports
VVI
Viru Viru International Airport
98 km
Transfer included
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flights to arrive at Viru Viru International Airport (VVI). Direct flights with BOA and Air Europa from Madrid and with American Airlines and BOA from Miami. All offer luggage formula: Piece concept 2 x 23 kg. Bolivia Motorcycle Adventures offers transfer service to / from Samaipata.
Airport: Viru Viru International Airport
Airport transfer included: Viru Viru International Airport
No additional charges. You can request this in the next step.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 10% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 28 days before arrival.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through Tripaneer.com. All major credit cards supported.
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