South America has many faces; it can be a well-turned-out city boy, a peasant in a multi-hued skirt herding alpacas, a rainforest tribesman with painted cheeks, a blank-faced businessman or a tanned, bikinied, party girl. Experience the continent’s schizophrenic personality on this trip into Bolivia and out of Brazil.
Week one
It’s not just that you’re paranoid; they really are out to get you in La Paz. Hostels post notices with the latest scams on kitchen walls, but by then, you’ve already been taken for a ride by a taxi driver.
Book at least your first night in advance and ask the hotel to send a car for you because it would be a shame to get off on the wrong foot in this poor but vibrant city, where peasants in bowler hats and long skirts still ply their trades in the streets. Try a (dubiously legal) tour of the San Pedro prison, led by real prisoners, visit the lunar landscape in La Valle de la Luna and see the ancient Iglesia de San Francisco.
After you’ve exhausted the big city, head to the calm shores of Lake Titicaca. From Copacabana at the Peruvian border, you can access the Isla del Sol y la Luna by ferry. These islands were held to be the birthplace of the sun and moon; experience their celestial peace while hiking – just watch out for belligerent alpacas on the trails.
Week two
Although it’s a long trek south from La Paz, it’s worth going on to the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat and an eerie, ethereal experience. The gateway is Uyuni town and this is the place where you book a tour in a battered four-by-four, quite possibly with a taciturn couple in bowler-hats as your guides.
For three days they will silently drive you across a whiteout of salt, so endless and intense that coming across a hot pink flamingo on an eerily red lake will blow the colour rods out of your eyes. There is even a hotel made purely out of salt.
Try a (dubiously legal) tour of San Pedro prison led by real prisoners
The food on the cheapest tours is awful and served from the back of a truck in questionable conditions of cleanliness. The accommodation is basic at best; but just forget the quality of the bed and board – it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Cochabamba is your next stop on the route east. You’ll feel dwarfed by a truly enormous statue of Christ (they were number one until Poland went for a spot of Christian one-upmanship) and can recharge your batteries at any number of excellent eateries. It is well worth taking the six-hour trip to Toro Toro National Park to literally walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs and explore caves scored with ancient petroglyphs. You can go it alone, but a tour will speed things up considerably.
Week three
Heading hard east again, you’ll come to Villa Tunari. Stay at the local campsite and you’ll have a view of the river worthy of a five-star hotel.
The Inti Wara Yassi animal sanctuary is a must here. They rehabilitate captive and abused animals, and at any one time, there could be anything from a troop of spider monkeys, to a rescued circus puma. You could even be the one that ends up walking him.
The sanctuary runs on donations and volunteer help. If you feel inspired, you can work there and interact with a fabulous array of rainforest animals, but note that the minimum stay is two weeks.
Nearby, Carrasco National Park includes some stunning opportunities for hiking, this is especially recommended for bird watchers. There’s a population of the rare Oilbird hidden away in a cave. You’ll need a guide and prices may vary depending on party size, as well as your negotiating skills.
Moving on to Buena Vista, you’re located north of the splendid Amboro National Park. Use this opportunity to take a day or two to hike the trails (getting into the park from here might require a little ingenuity but don’t look to the Hotel Flora y Fauna for help, the grumpy owner is not a fan of travellers).
On to relax at Samaipata (you could stop at Santa Cruz en route if you have a penchant for large cities), with its quaint colonial architecture, funky coffee shops and handy book swaps, this town has the kind of vibe backpackers are looking for.
El fuerte is the biggest draw in the town. It’s not actually a fort, but a unique religious site of a pre-Incan civilisation. This group carved alcoves, symbols and parallel lines aligned with the rising of Venus and Jupiter in 1066, a phenomenal achievement given the tools they had.
Samaipata is just south of Amboro National Park. Tours aren’t terribly cheap, but if you can get a group of six or so, prices can decrease. It’s worth it to hike with a knowledgeable guide under the astonishing giant ferns (Los Hellechos) and watch birds such as the Andean Condor.
Week four
To exit Bolivia, head to Puerto Suarez. On the other side lies Corumba, from whence you can access a tour to the Pantanal, one of the world’s largest wetlands with 140,000 square kilometres of savannas, forests, rivers and lagoons.
As your bus gets closer in the twilight, you’ll begin to smell the water before you even see it, a fresh and earthy smell, which hints at the natural beauty that will unfurl at sunrise the upcoming morning.
The experience is radically different depending on whether you visit in the wet season, when the area floods and turns a brilliant green, or the dry season, when birds return in phenomenal numbers.
In the wet season, you’re likely to get some of your best sightings from a rowing boat. Highlights include five species of kingfisher, 26 species of parrot, jabiru storks (the largest in the world), the toco toucan and hyacinth macaws.
The dry season is better for animal sightings, especially from horseback. A standard four-day tour will give you a good chance of seeing giant anteaters, porcupines, capybaras, agoutis and tapir. As long as you don’t say his name out loud, you might even catch a glimpse of the jaguar.
Sunset does not mean kicking back with a beer here; nightfall brings out the nocturnal species, so expect to see owls and crab-eating foxes and to hear the haunting call of nightjars and potoos.
Tour prices vary dramatically, so shop around. Remember that roughing it in basic accommodation is part of the fun and some tours will let you camp to save money.
As long as you don’t say his name out loud, you might even catch a glimpse of the jaguar
Brazil is huge, so if you’re pressed for time, but want a little taster, head on to Curitiba. After the (relative) deprivations of the Pantanal, enjoy some great food. One speciality is their pizza with cheese and jam, an intriguing and not altogether unpleasant combination.
Sights include the Wire Opera House, accessible by a bridge over a lake, and the botanical gardens.
Week five
Once you’ve explored, book a ticket on the Curitiba – Paranagua train and sit back and watch the glories of Brazil’s coastal range slide past the windows. The train chugs along vertiginous tracks cut into mountain slopes through 14 long mountain tunnels and over 30 bridges.
Jump out at Marumbi to scale the Abrolhos peak and to explore the enchanted rainforest below (you’ll need camping equipment and food).
Board the train again for Paranagua, connect with the ferry, and that should lead you to the heaven that is Honey Island (Ilha do Mel). A couple of nights is enough to enjoy the island (it’s possible to hike all the way round in a day), before you head back to Paranagua.
Having acquainted yourself with Brazil’s wild side, it’s time to board the bus for the urban culture shock that is Sao Paulo, the largest city in the Americas.
Week six
Head up the Banespa Skyscraper for free to get your bearings on arrival, then hit the ground running at the Museu de Arte for a fabulous impressionist collection, the Mercado Municipal for snacks and produce Brazilian style, or the Bosque da Leitura, where you can borrow books from an open-air library.
Spend at least one (or perhaps every) night in a Brazilian club drinking caipirinha and dancing salsa, samba and semba (it gets easier after a couple of drinks).
Your last few days belong to Rio, further north. Start off with a tour from Rios de Historia. The company has garnered rave reviews by offering a genuinely local product, which takes in the major sights and is open to detours or questions and also hits some of the best street food and eateries. Then there are the iconic ‘can’t miss’ sights of tourist brochure lore: Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Christ the Redeemer Statue, the Pedra da Gavea mountain hike, and of course, the surfing/tanning/general show-off beaches; Prainha and Ipanema are two of the most famous.
Go out on a high with a night on the town. Flying out of Rio is highly recommended unless you got very attached to those local Bolivian buses... you’d be in the minority.
How to budget
In Bolivia, about €25 a day will cover most things that you want to do as a backpacker. For a poor country, that sounds like a lot, but although day-to-day living is cheap (often incredibly so), tours and tourist activities can be comparatively expensive.
It is possible to do it on less (some backpackers get by on as little as €15), but you are likely to miss out on things you’d like to do, which defeats the object of travelling to some extent.
Bolivian prices will seem like a dream when you get to Brazil however, where due to a booming economy, the minimum daily spend can be more like €75, particularly in the big cities.
The initial part of the trip can be done on much less (camping in Marumbi for example is free and the Ilha do Mel has good value accommodation; street food is plentiful and cheap) but Sao Paulo and Rio may require an even bigger budget, especially for party animals for whom the clubs will be a budgetary black hole.
That’s why, despite Brazil’s size and obvious attractions, many backpackers curtail their route, prioritising a few key locations.