A Family Road Trip Through the Wild Andes to Bolivia’s Salt Flats

Wedged into a highland valley just east of the altiplano – the Andean plateau stretching across western Bolivia – Sucre is one of the most beautiful cities in South America and a place that confounds expectations. Set at an altitude of 2,810m, it was established in the mid-1500s by Spanish conquistadors on the lands of the indigenous Yampara people and has since been known as Charcas, Chuquisaca, Ciudad de la Plata (City of Silver) and finally Sucre, rightfully earning it the title “The City with Four Names”.

An Australian sailor and his beloved dog, Bella, were recently reunited after surviving two months stranded in the Pacific Ocean.  

You might want to rethink your Christmas market plans—the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just moved four popular European destinations to the highest warning level for travel (Level 4: Very High Risk).

Like a sprawling carpet of moss, the Amazon Rainforest stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the foothills of the Andes, creating a lush basin that still remains partially unexplored to this day. Cut by thin ropes of water flowing from the Amazon River, the forest stretches over land in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

Life on two wheels is a beautiful thing, and travel on two wheels can be epic. Here are a few of the world's greatest cycle routes to consider for your next big trip.

We left the trees far behind as we climbed up to Bolivia’s Altiplano, but this was no place for them anyway. The dryness would be fatal, and even if they could find water, the ferocious winds wouldn’t allow them to stand. On this high-altitude plateau, life has had to make some extreme adaptations to survive, finding ways to eke out water and nutrition over 4,250 metres above sea level. Trees are yet to find a solution.

Whether it’s a friendly face at check in or a taxi driver who’s full of useful tips, nothing beats getting a warm welcome on your travels – and our interactions with local people have a huge impact on how we view countries as a whole. We asked our Facebook and Twitter followers to share where they’ve found the most hospitable places around the world. Here’s what they said.

Ros Walford recounts her time studying Spanish in Sucre, one of Bolivia’s most relaxed towns.

Taken from the Rough Guide to South America on a Budget , these are our top nine tips for backpacking South America.

Psychedelic tourism isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but there is nowhere on Earth where so many shaman serve such magical brews as they do in Peru. The typical setting for a session with an ayahuasquero or jungle shaman, is to meet him at a rainforest lodge on the edge of an Amazon tributory. After giving each guest a bitter, small gourd-full of psychotropic hallucinogen, the shaman begins to rattle, chant or drum. The effects can be challenging – the drug’s purging qualities mean many people vomit, while the colourful visions may be spiritual, sexual or just plain terrifying – but most people, helped by the shaman’s guiding songs and vision, make it beyond this to a healing and ecstatic session.

As T.S. Eliot once said, “The journey, not the arrival, matters,” and nowhere is this truer than travelling in Bolivia. Here, we've picked five of the most beautiful travel routes throughout the country. Follow these to witness some of the finest scenery Bolivia has to offer.

Bolivia brims with unique and barely-visited landscapes and cultures. It offers everything from the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flats, to the Parque Nacional Madidi – one of the most biologically diverse places on earth, plus a wealth of ancient indigenous customs and traditions.