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Bolivia is great riding! DONT MISS IT OUT Bolivia is great riding! DONT MISS IT OUT
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Photo by Ulrike Hahnel, Rock Formations on the Lagune Route, Bolivia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Ulrike Hahnel,
Rock Formations on the
Lagune Route, Bolivia



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  #1  
Old 4 Dec 2007
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Bolivia is great riding! DONT MISS IT OUT
Hi All,

Finally through the Uyuni to Atacama stretch. What an amazing weeks riding. I may have even had one or two falls!

check it out

Global Enduro

Simon







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  #2  
Old 4 Dec 2007
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Must agree
Simon, thanks for the foto,
I cannot agree more, great nature, lonely mountains, highest altitude. Cool webpage by the way... Have fun, enjoy you trip, and there is more to come. I guess now you will also look forward to the Carretera Austral...
Ras
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  #3  
Old 4 Dec 2007
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Any specific recommendations? I'm working on my list of places to checkout or roads not to miss for my NA->SA trip.
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Old 5 Dec 2007
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Same here. I would prefer semi-challenging dirt roads though. I'm attempting to try and stay away from paved road for the entire south american loop if possible. Dunno if this sounds wanky, but on our last trip, riding through Kazakhstan and Mongolia turned out to be the highlights. So we would love to have the same sort of thing and so far, Bolivia looks like it's going to deliver the most of it.
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  #5  
Old 5 Dec 2007
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roads
Thanks for having a look guys, I appreciate it. In terms of roads to ride I agreed the tough dirt roads make the trip way more fun, but the bike and the rider takes a huge beating, so Im not sure how much actual dirt you will be able to ride in SA without going stark mad, its sometimes nice to break it up with a bit of the smooth black stuff!

The road I would really reccomend in Bolivia would be the one I rode from the end of the road of death (I forget the town name) south west towards Uyuni.(easy to spot on a map) The road is dirt for a almost 2 days riding and the scenary is great. So as you find the right roads it is the one that passes through a town called Inquisivi (prob spelt wrong knowing me). It was incredible and dead quiet as well.

Apart from that the way from Uyuni to San pedro is littered with so many differnt tracks, I opted to take some round about routes as I had enough fuel. That way you end up staying away from any of the tourist 4x4s almost the whole way, so instead of worrying about being run over you can enjoy the tracks.

hope that helps.

Simon
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  #6  
Old 6 Dec 2007
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Smile blooming hilarious !
just spat my early morning coffee all over the lap top simon ! thanks mate !!

its a joy to read about your adventures ! which have definatly have got my excitement up to silly levels for my little rip down that way...

keep it all going old boy !
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  #7  
Old 6 Dec 2007
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go that man
Good on ya, totally agree. Interested to know the route from Coroico (bottom of camino de la muerte) to Uyuni, you did well to stay off tarmax and keep heading south. We went to Sorata so looped behind the range of La Paz/Lake Titicaca.

If you get a change to draw a line on a map, throw it up!

Feels a long time ago I gave away my trip, getting ready for another one already.
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Old 6 Dec 2007
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I'm no wimp, but I'm in a 30 year old Chevy van, and a couple I know in a ten year old one had their vehicle trashed driving through Bolivia. I really want to go to Bolivia, love those isolated places, but I need to go via the best roads. I do in fact, have more countries to go through!!! Any suggestions from going from Peru then looping around to Chile?? From what I hear, there's little in the way of tarmac, but maybe I've been misled?? Dirt is in fact fine, but corrogation is out.
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Old 6 Dec 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lorraine View Post
I'm no wimp, but I'm in a 30 year old Chevy van, and a couple I know in a ten year old one had their vehicle trashed driving through Bolivia. I really want to go to Bolivia, love those isolated places, but I need to go via the best roads. I do in fact, have more countries to go through!!! Any suggestions from going from Peru then looping around to Chile?? From what I hear, there's little in the way of tarmac, but maybe I've been misled?? Dirt is in fact fine, but corrogation is out.
Lorraine
Hi Lorraine,

I don't have my map in front of me, but I can tell you that I crossed into Bolivia at Copacabana, and rode from there through LaPaz to Potosi, and Sucre all on good paved roads. From Potosi To Uyuni wasn't too bad as far as washboard goes. The salar is dead smooth, and from Uyuni to La Quiaca on the Argentina border, the road isn't difficult, but it is washboarded pretty badly, at least it was a year ago. I'm told the route from Uyuni southwest to Chile is more difficult. Paved once you cross the Argy border. I think the old van is up to it, go for it! No worse than the roads around Nosara.

Andy
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  #10  
Old 6 Dec 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lorraine View Post
I'm no wimp, but I'm in a 30 year old Chevy van, and a couple I know in a ten year old one had their vehicle trashed driving through Bolivia. I really want to go to Bolivia, love those isolated places, but I need to go via the best roads. I do in fact, have more countries to go through!!! Any suggestions from going from Peru then looping around to Chile?? From what I hear, there's little in the way of tarmac, but maybe I've been misled?? Dirt is in fact fine, but corrogation is out.
Lorraine
Lorraine, no fan myself of nasty trails,cost me a lot on repairs! Most of Bolivia can be on tarmac. Road from Puno to LA Paz is paved all the way. Same from there to Cochabamba and further to santa cruz. On the way south it is paved all the way to Potosi (via Oruro). There, unfortunately is the end of Tarmac.
From there to go to Uyuni is track. From Uyuni, to continue south to Tupiza we had various bad reports and went back to Potosi. From Potosi you have about 50kms tarmac road, then a not too bad track to Tupiza and all the way to Villazon (border town with northern Argentina, near also Chile). Good condition more or less. A new tarmac road is almost finished from Potosi to Tupiza. We saw perfect tarmac but it was closed to traffic when we passed few months ago. Might be open soon though... When on track expect lots of corrugations,maybe not great on an old Chevy?
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  #11  
Old 11 Dec 2007
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van travel
Just leaving the internet cafe now, and will go 'home' and peruse my map. Knowing me (and knowing the road isn't as bad as where I lived in Costa Rica for a year), I'll probably chance it. My dogs will hate me....
Mucho gracias!
Lorraine
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Old 13 Dec 2007
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Bolivian Pavement
The road from Cochabamba towards Montero, the ¨new road¨. has some 100 meter streches of missing asphalt, but we passed a guy on a Harley headed west, so it can't be that bad. From Santa Cruz south through Villa Montes it is all tarmac to the Argentina border. The only ¨glitch¨ was the train/car/pedestrian bridge at Villa Montes, therest was really smooth. The border was really busy, lots of carts in the narrow streets.

Good Luck

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