Bolivia Altiplano & Amazon: 10 Days — Uyuni Salt Flats, La Paz & Madidi Jungle

Tour Overview

Itinerary Highlights

Day 1-2: Arrive La Paz — World’s Highest Capital

Arrive at El Alto Airport (4,058m — the world’s highest international airport). La Paz is built in a canyon bowl, with the wealthiest neighborhoods at the bottom (less oxygen = less altitude sickness) and the poorest climbing the steep valley walls — the opposite of most cities. Day 1: rest and acclimatization. Day 2: explore the Witches’ Market (Mercado de las Brujas) where Aymara witch doctors sell dried llama fetuses (offerings to Pachamama, the Earth Mother), potions, and amulets. The cable car system (Mi Teleférico) is the world’s highest and gives breathtaking views of the city in the bowl, with snow-capped Illimani (6,438m) on the horizon. Visit the Valley of the Moon, a surreal eroded clay landscape just outside the city. Overnights in La Paz.

Day 3: Death Road & Yungas

Descend the “Death Road” (Camino de la Muerte) on mountain bike — from 4,700m in the Andes to 1,200m in the Amazon basin in 64km, on a gravel road cut from the cliff face (now mainly used by cyclists, as a new road handles traffic). The drop on your left is 600m vertical — but the views of cloud forest, waterfalls, and the transition from alpine desert to Amazon jungle in a single day is extraordinary. Arrive in the Yungas, a subtropical region of coca plantations and cloud forest. Overnight in a Yungas eco-lodge.

Day 4: Yungas to Uyuni — Andean Desert

Return to La Paz, then fly to Uyuni. The high desert of southwestern Bolivia is starkly beautiful — a landscape of volcanoes, colored lagoons, and empty horizons at 3,600m. Overnight in Uyuni.

Day 5: Salar de Uyuni — The World’s Largest Mirror

Full day at the Salar de Uyuni — 10,582 sq km of salt crust, the world’s largest salt flat, visible from space. During the dry season (May-October), the salt forms a vast white plain of hexagonal patterns stretching to the horizon. During the rainy season (January-April), a thin layer of water creates the world’s largest mirror — an optical illusion of infinite sky where you cannot tell where the earth ends and the heavens begin.

Morning: walk the salt flats, visit Incahuasi Island — a cactus-covered hill in the middle of the salt sea, with giant cacti up to 12m tall (some 1,200 years old) and 360-degree views of the white expanse. The silence here is absolute. Lunch on the salt flats with a table literally made of salt. Afternoon: visit the Salt Museum (a hotel built entirely of salt blocks) and the train cemetery — rusting steam locomotives from the 19th-century mining boom abandoned on the edge of the salt flat. Evening: the sunset on the Salar is one of South America’s great experiences — the sky explodes in colors reflected on the white crust, stars begin to appear, and the temperature drops rapidly. Overnight at a salt hotel.

Day 6: Altiplano Lakes & Flamingos

Drive south into the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. The landscape becomes increasingly surreal: Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon), stained crimson by algae and plankton, where three species of flamingos — James’s, Andean, and Chilean — feed in their thousands against a backdrop of volcanoes. The Sol de Mañana geysers at dawn (4,850m) — bubbling mud pots, hissing steam vents, and the smell of sulfur. Hot springs at Termas de Polques for a soak in 30°C water while surrounded by snow-dusted peaks. Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon) at the foot of Volcán Licancabur — toxic arsenic and copper minerals color it an impossible emerald green. This is one of the most alien landscapes on Earth. Overnight at a basic refuge.

Day 7: Altiplano to La Paz

Return drive across the altiplano to Uyuni, flight to La Paz. Evening at leisure — try api (hot purple corn drink) and pasteles de queso (cheese pastries) from street vendors. Overnight in La Paz.

Day 8: La Paz to Rurrenabaque — Amazon Basin

Morning flight to Rurrenabaque, a frontier town on the Beni River at the edge of the Amazon. The transition from the 4,000m altiplano to the 200m jungle in 45 minutes is one of the most dramatic flights in the world. Afternoon: motorized canoe up the Beni and Tuichi Rivers into Madidi National Park — one of the most biodiverse protected areas on the planet (1,000+ bird species, 200+ mammals). The jungle closes in as you travel upstream. Overnight at a jungle ecolodge.

Day 9: Madidi National Park — Amazon Adventure

Full day in the Amazon. Morning: jungle walk with an indigenous Tacana guide — they identify medicinal plants (quinine, used for malaria, originated here), demonstrate how to make fire, weave palm fronds, and read animal signs invisible to untrained eyes. Piranha fishing in oxbow lakes — surprisingly fun, and you’ll eat your catch for lunch. Afternoon: boat safari searching for wildlife — capybaras (the world’s largest rodent), caimans, howler monkeys whose calls travel kilometers through the forest, and if incredibly lucky, the elusive jaguar (Madidi has one of the highest jaguar densities in the Amazon). Evening: night walk — the jungle transforms after dark, with insects, frogs, and nocturnal mammals emerging. Overnight at the lodge.

Day 10: Rurrenabaque to La Paz — Departure

Morning canoe ride back to Rurrenabaque, flight to La Paz. Connect to international departure.

Included

• 9 nights (hotels + salt hotel + jungle lodge + refuge)
• Daily breakfast + 5 lunches + 5 dinners (all meals on Uyuni & Madidi excursions)
• Expert guides (Andean + Amazon)
• Domestic flights La Paz-Uyuni / Uyuni-La Paz / La Paz-Rurrenabaque round trip
• Uyuni Salt Flats 4×4 expedition (2 days)
• Eduardo Avaroa Reserve entry
• Madidi National Park 2-day expedition
• Death Road mountain bike descent
• All transfers