Bolivia
 

Hi does someone knows how are the roads from La Paz to Uyuni, an from Uyuni to Villazon, i did La paz to Uyuni in 2010, but i´ll be going with my girl on a GSA 1200, and i would like to know if there still the gravel road with sand or if it´s preatty good, or if they have paved it.
thank you

La Paz to Uyuni...via Potosi...all paved roads, except for crappy engineerring which led to the deep ruts in the road, caused by trucks, for a stretch south of La Paz (circa 2013), the roads are basically modern and not a challange at all. North of Potosi you will climb through high elevation and may encounter, hail, snow, low tempertures and rain. Be prepared for cold and take your time if you encounter snow. Just because you travel in South American "summer", December, January...doesn't mean you won't hit snow in the mountains. I did north of Potosi in January and Febuary.

Taking the direct route from Oruro to Uyuni (Bolivia 30)...someone else will have to weigh in with current road conditions, but I would bet it will be more challanging the the going through Potosi.

From Uyuni to Villazon...can you be more specific? There are many possiblities.

Bolivia
 

Hi Peter thanks for your quick response. I would like to go from Uyuni to Villazon via Atocha, Tupiza, i dont know how hard is the terrain on that road and if i can do it with passenger, or if it would be better to go around to Potosi, and then south to villazon?

In January 2013 I rode into Bolivia at Yacuíba. I went north to Palos Blancos, then took Bolivia 11 west through Entre Rios to Tarijaa. That road was well maintained dirt/gravel.

I wish I could tell you more about Bolivia 20, but I didn't ride. Look through the archives here as people often post about southern Bolivia.

I've been riding there last year around this time. Went from Tupiza to La Paz. Road 21 from Tupiza to Uyuni is ok, solid dirt, bits of washboard every now and again. From Uyuni we went along road 30 for a bit to get onto the salt flats, was horrible. Sandy road with lots of washboards. We were told it would be like that all the way to Challapata, about 200 kms. So we decided to take road 5 to Potosi and from there road 1 to Oruro and La Paz. That was pretty decent tarmac.

About road 20, was good fun. Took us a bit to find it, expecting it to be similar to road 1 from Potosi to Tarija, perfect tarmac. But it is not, at all. It's a rocky dirt road. The first bit goes through plains, after that it went winding through the mountains. Was raw and desolate, we met about 4 other vehicles in the 4 hours it took us :) We were both not very experienced drivers, riding 150-200cc Chinese motorbikes, but I don't think that bigger is better on that road.

Hope it helps, been reading a lot of interesting information in the time I've been lurking, so thought it was time I'd contribute something as well :)

Hi, we´re in Bolivia at the moment, two up on a Vstrom 650. From La Paz to Cochabamba via Road 1 is excellent highway- from what we saw of it. However we went a less direct route, to Coroico (via the old "Camino de la Muerte" which is actually now really easy as there´s no heavy traffic on it, just cyclists and motorcyclists, as there´s also now a paved road) and then on dirt roads via Irupana and Caxata, route 25. On my own, no problem, but two-up with luggage there were some tricky sandy sections- but worth it if you´re confident, some amazing views and fun riding through the little villages. We camped overnight on a football pitch in the village before Circuita and it was very freindly.

We rejoined the highway Road 1 at Konani- dual-carriageway, new tarmac, really good road but very straight and boring!

Now we´re in Sucre but again via a very indirect route! Road 4 to Santa Cruz is good, apart from the ridges in the tarmac in some sections (and a 5-hour roadblock for a bridge cleaning). From Santa Cruz to Sucre, basically don´t do it two-up. To Samaipata on Road 7 is bad tarmac but OK and lovely countryside. But Road 5 through Aiquile is the worst road we´ve done, lots of deep sand, often on downhill switchbacks, and lots of trucks coming the other way. We stacked the bike once and it´s the only time since leaving Bogota that I´ve felt out of my depth and that I´m risking my wife´s physical (and mental) wellbeing unecessarilly.

Will be going to Uyuni and on to Argentina next week, will post on here the road conditions when we´ve done it.

Just got into La Paz today came up from Uyuni in two days. They are building a new road and it is perfect tarmac on and off. Each time it is off the gravel detour is clear. Sometimes it is a bit sandy because the trucks have hammered it, but nothing too bad. It stopped and I guess I was on the old gravel for a while. I had no issues. It dropped back to old tarmac somewhere south of Huari.

Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, my map is a tourist information map from last year! But road wise no troubles.

We were there a few months ago and the road (21) from Uyuni to Villazon is not paved. We rode back north to Potosi and then down as it was too late for us in the day to start the gravel/sand road with 2 heavy bikes, one of them 2 up. It can certainly be done but it was washboard.

Hope this helps.

-Terry