Bolivia outdoor vacation

Bolivia is a land-locked South American country that hangs off the spine of the high Andes into the tropical zone of the Amazon Basin. It has a wealth of natural features and muscle-power adventures to explore for active people who like their vacations a little rough around the edges. This photo gallery captures some of the highlights Outdoors editor Rich Landers and his family enjoyed in a July (winter south of the equator) 2014 trip. They have especially fond memories of unusual wildlife and flamingo lagoons, Salar de Uyuni, Titicaca, Sucre, La Paz, the virtuoso of the charango, and the family's favorite portion of the trip -- the Takesi Trek. Also see Landers' feature story about the adventure in Outdoors.

Section:Gallery

Sat., May 30, 2015

Bolivia highlight: The Takesi Trek near La Paz, one of Bolivia's finest examples of pre-Inca paving.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: The Landers family walks back to the guide vehicle while exploring Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: High Andes mineral lagoons, where the James flamingo and two other flamingo species feed off the ice above 12,000 feet in elevation.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: Titicaca, highest navigable lake in the world.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: La Paz, capital city, elevation 12,000 feet.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: Street markets in every city.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: Sucre, original capital city, perhaps the country's most beautiful city, home to the colonial Parador Santa Maria Hotel.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia highlight: Tiwanaku, a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Bolivia is a land-locked nation on the spine of the Andes in South America.
An oxygen therapy room immediately greets passengers who might need it as they leave their flight at the El Alto airport, elevation 14,000 feet, near La Paz, Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Llama fetuses hang at markets in La Paz, Bolivia. They're offered by some to please the gods.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
San Francisco Church and the busy Plaza San Francisco in La Paz, Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Sucre, Bolivia, the original capital city and perhaps the country's most beautiful city. Worth a visit is a small park at the concrete quarry where workers unearthed a huge wall of rock that holds the world's largest known collection of dinosaur tracks. Thousands of dino footprints crisscross the now steep limestone wall creating more than 250 trackways made by six different kinds of dinosaurs in all sizes, including Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The Parador Santa Maria Hotel in Sucre, Bolivia, the original capital city and perhaps the country's most beautiful city.
A boy in Sucre, Bolivia, the original capital city and perhaps the country's most beautiful city.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Potosi, Bolivia, one of the highest cities in the world at elevation 13,400 feet; home to a prominent silver mine and the historic Spanish colonial mint.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Women at a market in Potosi, Bolivia, one of the highest cities in the world at elevation 13,400 feet; home to a prominent silver mine and the historic Spanish colonial mint. The child is being carried in an aguayo, a traditional sling that's also used for carrying supplies.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Potosi, Bolivia, one of the highest cities in the world at elevation 13,400 feet; home to a prominent silver mine and the historic Spanish colonial mint.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Ice lines a fountain in July in Potosi, Bolivia, one of the highest cities in the world at elevation 13,400 feet; home to a prominent silver mine. The historic Spanish colonial mint, shown here, offers a humbling tour of how indigenous slaves and mules were worked to death to produce coins used around the world.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Llamas are ranched like cattle in Bolivia, where drivers are warned that they may show up on the free range.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The vicuña, a relative of the llama, is a common wildlife sighting on the Alti Plano of the Andes in Bolivia. It's one of two wild South American camelids; the other being the guanaco.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The vicuña, a relative of the llama, is a common wildlife sighting on the Altiplano of the Andes in Bolivia. It brings to mind the pronghorn of Eastern Washington in this scene during a back-track journey into Uyuni. The vicuña is one of two wild South American camelids; the other being the guanaco.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Prepare for cold weather in July on the Altiplano of the Andes in Bolivia. The high plain of South stretches from northern Argentina to the flatlands of Peru. It holds the world's highest navigable lake, Titicaca, and the largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni. It is the second largest mountain plateau in the world after Tibet.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The Landers family found adventure in Uyuni, Bolivia, where protestors had hanged the mayor in effigy and blocked road access to the city in a political dispute over a bus depot. This photo was snapped as they slipped out of town on a backroad with their guide, Gonzalo, who'd had his tires slashed by the protestors the previous night.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A street market in Uyuni, Bolivia, in July, with temperatures well below freezing.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Paja brava grass, some call it “angry straw,” is a coarse bunch grass of the Altiplano in Bolivia generally unpalatable to animals as it matures, but is useful in making thatched roofs. It heaps up across the plain like yellowish tongues of fire.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world, is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Hikers explore the cacti-studded Isla Incahuasi, which rises up from the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world. The Salar de Uyuni is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Brook Landers explores the cacti-studded Isla Incahuasi, which rises up from the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world. The Salar de Uyuni is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A girl sweeps a cafe patio on Isla Incahuasi, which rises up from Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world, is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. The mirage affect plays tricks with your eyes, as Rich and Hillary Landers demonstrate.

Brook Landers
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world, is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. The mirage affect plays tricks with your eyes, as Rich Landers and Meredith Heick demonstrate.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world, is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. The mirage affect plays tricks with your eyes, as Brook Landers demonstrates.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world, is about 100 times larger than Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Rich Landers recorded his visit with a selfie.

Brook Landers
The Galaxia Caves near the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia hold ancient tomb. The Landers' guide, Gonzalo, said the old and sick who couldn't continue with their families would sometimes crawl into tombs such as this and wait to die.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Flamingos winter in the several mineral lagoons of Eduardo Avaroa National Park in the southwest corner of Bolivia along the border of Chile, where volcanoes range to more than 19,000 feet elevation.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The James flamingo, smallest of the three flamingo species found in Bolivia, feed off the ice in a mineral lagoon above 12,000 feet in elevation in the shadow of volcanoes in the Andes of Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Visitors on the Altiplano geyser basins near Eduardo Avaroa National Park in the southwest corner of Bolivia visit a hot spring near volcanoes ranging to more than 19,000 feet elevation.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
An Andes fox on the Altiplano of the Andes in Bolivia

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Viscachas, photographed here above 14,000 feet in elevation on the Altiplano in the Andes of Bolivia, are rodents of of the chinchilla family that look similar to rabbits except they have a long tail.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake at 12,507 feet, is a popular attraction in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A ferry at a Bolivia highway takes several vehicles across a narrow channel on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake at 12,507 feet.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Copacabana, Bolivia, is a town on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake. It's a popular tourist stop and launch to Isla del Sol.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Visitors have their vehicle blessed during an annual July festival at a church in Copacabana, Bolivia, a town on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake. It's a popular tourist stop and launch to Isla del Sol.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
No need for ice! A fresh pig carcass is delivered in the back of a truck to a market in Copacabana, Bolivia, a town on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A boatman ferries passengers from Copacabana, Bolivia, on Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
The Incas believed the Sun god was born at Isla del Sol in Bolivia on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the world's highest navigable lake.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Farming and tourism feed most of the inhabitants on Isla del Sol, Bolivia, on Titicaca, the largest lake in South America. The island has no roads or motor vehicles.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
An indigenous Bolivian woman on Lake Titicaca's Isla del Sol carries a load on her back wrapped in an aguayo, a traditional sling that's also used for carrying small children.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A boat ferries visitors from Copacabana, Bolivia, on Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A van drops off hikers near the end of the road in Bolivia for the Takesi Trek, a 45-mile pre-Inca route over a 15,400-foot pass not far out of La Paz.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Walls for the pathway built centuries ago still hold up along the Takesi Trek near La Paz, one of the finest examples of pre-Inca paving in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Hillary Landers hikes up the Takesi trail toward a 15,400-foot pass in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Hillary Landers pauses on the Takesi Trek along one of the finest examples of pre-Inca paving in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Hillary Landers pauses at a high pass on the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Drainage and walls for the pathway built centuries ago still hold up along the Takesi Trek near La Paz, one of the finest examples of pre-Inca paving in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Meredith hike passes a lake at about 14,000 feet along the Takesi Trek, one of the finest examples of pre-Inca paving in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Andes geese spotted in the alpine area of the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Dozens of llamas are herded at dusk past the Landers 'campsite to corrals at a ranch along the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A guide cooks a meal for the Landers family in a stone hut during their three-day backpacking adventure on the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A llama greets hikers first thing in the morning at a camp along the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Hikers break camp on the Takesi Trek in Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A day after being in alpine areas higher than 15,000 feet on the Takesi Trek, hikers plunge more than 4,000 feet into the sub-tropical zone of Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
A day after being in alpine areas higher than 15,000 feet on the Takesi Trek, hikers plunge more than 4,000 feet into the sub-tropical zone of Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Treat water, even from a clear stream in Bolivia: a Takesi Trek version of a flush toilet.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Two days after being in alpine areas higher than 15,000 feet on the Takesi Trek, hikers plunge into the cloud forest sub-tropical zone of Bolivia and out to the small town of Yanacachi. Note the glacier on the top of the surrounding mountains.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
Mountains seen from the Hotel Rosario in La Paz, Bolivia.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review
At a musical performance in La Paz by Ernesto Cavour, who is to the charango in Bolivia what Chet Atkins is to the guitar.

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review