Bolivia: Where the Sky Is a Mirror, the Altitude Steals Your Breath, and Road Safety Is Mostly Optional

Welcome to Bolivia, South America’s landlocked wonderland where the landscapes look like a sci-fi film and your lungs will spend the first three days aggressively demanding oxygen.

It’s a country that holds world records for geographical absurdity. You’ll start in La Paz, the highest administrative capital on Earth, a city built inside a giant mountain bowl where the local public transit isn't a subway, but a network of sleek cable cars soaring over high-altitude neighborhoods. Just walking up a flight of stairs here feels like running a marathon while breathing through a cocktail straw, but luckily, locals will hand you mounds of coca leaf tea to keep your brain from floating away.

Then you head out to the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. During the dry season, it’s a vast white desert so blindingly bright you'll need three pairs of sunglasses; during the rainy season, a thin layer of water turns it into a giant, perfect mirror that reflects the sky, leaving you completely unsure which way is up. It’s also where every tourist spends three hours taking perspective photos pretend-stepping on their friends or getting eaten by plastic dinosaurs.

If you like your travel with a side of adrenaline, you can ride a mountain bike down the infamous "Death Road"—a narrow, cliff-side dirt trail with 2,000-foot drop-offs where mist hides the edge and oncoming trucks have the right of way. Or you can head down into the Amazon basin, where the altitude drops, the temperature explodes, and pink river dolphins swim past sleepy caimans.

Between buying colorful alpaca sweaters, marveling at flamingo-filled pink lagoons in the High Andes, and eating savory salteñas for breakfast, Bolivia is rugged, breathtakingly cheap, and wildly adventurous. Just take it slow, drink tons of water, and never underestimate the sheer power of thin air!

March, 2010