Bolivia

Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia. Coming all the way down to the remote south of Bolivia just to see some salt flats may seem crazy; it's just a boring dried lake bed, right? Well yes, but it's interesting and pretty in its own way. And it has two personalities: when it's wet you get this cool mirror effect, even though the water's only about a half-inch deep. And when it's dry you can do all the standard dorky photo-tricks that tourists like to do here (below). When I was here in 2026 you could have both effects on the same day, just a few miles apart.

The dry parts of the Uyuni Salt Flats are about as desolate as a place can be. The flats were mostly avoided by the Incas and other ancient civilizations, but today tourists flock here for a sense of that desolation. And because there's a lot of fun to be had by being creative with your camera in this strange place with no depth perception.

La Paz, Bolivia. The highest capital city in the world. Flying here from sea level can be a real challenge, since the airport is at about 13,500 ft of elevation, about even with the top of the Colorado Rockies. It's also one of the most vertical cities I've seen anywhere, with the "low" parts (center of pic) being about 2,000 feet below the "high" parts (behind me). Because of the huge ups and downs across this sprawling city, the largest ski-lift system in the world was built here (pictured). It operates just like a bus or subway system and is very cheap to ride. It covers about 20 miles and is worth riding just for the views alone.

Scenes from around La Paz, Bolivia. Clockwise from upper left: The Witches Market, a row of shops for buying any potions or poisons that you might need. One of countless classy churches that dot the landscape. A typical sidestreet in one of the 'nicer' parts of town. One of many roadblock/ protests that shut down city traffic during my stay. Sorry to say, these are not uncommon.

Scenes of traditional dress around Bolivia.

Altiplano Desert, Bolivia. Talk about a high and lonely place. The ground elevation down there is over 16,500 feet. It's cold, windy, and very very quiet!

The Altiplano is an area of high desert and volcanoes, extinct and otherwise. It's also full of wildlife -somehow- if you know where to look. The many lakes hold an amazing variety of birds, the flashiest being large flocks of flamingoes as shown above. This being South America, there are of course large numbers of llamas too.

This is Copacabana. No, not the one in Rio; go to the Brazil page for that one. This Copa is on the shores of beautiful Lake Titicaca, the highest large lake in the world. Copacabana is the closest thing Bolivia has to a beach town and on the weekends is a little like Daytona during spring break. For a more serene experience go out on the lake and stay on the Isle of the Sun or Isle of the Moon.

Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. This is more like it. The tiny town of Challapampa, near the north end of the Island of the Sun. It looks a lot like the Med, and at only 6 miles long you can walk the whole island in a day. So peaceful and pretty...I coulda stayed here all week.

Carnival!! This event is much bigger in South America than up here at home. It begins well before and usually runs well after the actual "Carnival" that we observe. Here is a warm-up parade in mid-January, in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.