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Bolivia is one of the most adventurous countries in South America for motorcycle travellers – from riding high in the Northern Mountains to the Uyuni Salt Flats, the infamous Death Road and legendary Ruta de las Lagunas… Here’s the story of our mad ride…
This travel blog recounts our motorcycle adventure through Bolivia in 2025 as part of our round the world trip. To read more stories from our travels check out Our Adventures
Bolivia Motorcycle Travel Blog
By Andy Davidson
Mad or Nomad: Round the World Motorcycle Traveller
Welcome to Bolivia
Our rocky trail rolls over foothills and disappears into the mouth of a snowy mountain. Icy blue lakes shimmer in the green valley below, encircled by cold grey ridges. Llamas chewing dewy grass lift their heads to look at us, their jaws working slowly, deciding if we belong here.
It takes our breath away. Literally. We’re at 5,000 metres in the north of Bolivia and struggling to swallow enough air – and so are the bikes. Our Honda CRF300Ls are overloaded and being worked hard. The altitude coupled with the weight of 20 litres of extra petrol strapped down in water bottles, as well as two days’ worth of food and water supplies, is making them sweat.
We’re heavy on the gas too, fighting to keep momentum as the track climbs rapidly, switching between sand, muck and rock. So, we wring the throttles and squeeze every drop of power out of the single-cylinder motors to reach the top, where the view and our lungs finally force us to take a break.
I recheck our fuel supplies and make sure we’re not missing any precious plastic bottles. I know we’ve got enough, we calculated, but I can’t help checking and recalculating as the bars drop on the dash. This is not where we want to run out.
But the route is hypnotic, luring us in as deep as we dare risk it with fuel. It feels like we’re on top of the world – just us, our motorcycles, this vast beauty and the llamas. We flick the ignitions back on, take a couple of shallow breaths and edge forwards on our trail over the mountains – fuel dwindling, lungs burning, the llamas watching. We can push further. We should make it…
READ MORE: The Best Riding Routes in Bolivia
Searching for the edge
We crossed the border from Peru to Bolivia just days ago, heading straight for the lakeside town of Copacabana to rest, resupply and prep our bikes. The next morning, we crossed Lake Titicaca on a rickety wooden ferry, reaching the start of our trail by evening. A gravel path hidden by overgrown shrubs split from the main road, leading us towards deep black clouds covering the northern mountains.
An hour before the clouds burst with thunderous rain, we tucked ourselves away in a homestead and warmed up on alpaca stew around a fire with a welcoming family. They waved us off with a packed lunch the next morning and pointed at the snowcapped mountain in the distance when we asked for directions. A few hours later and we’re here – on top of the world and out of breath. But it’s not just the top of the world we want, we’ve come to Bolivia to search for the edge of it…
Death Road
Eventually our trail takes us back down towards the capital, La Paz (the highest city in the world). But we’re still riding on a high, so we hook a left and head for the infamous Death Road. Built by Patagonian prisoners of war, hundreds lost their lives to its treacherous cliff edges before a safer route was carved through the mountains in 2006, linking La Paz to Yungaz. Since then, the Death Road has remained a relic of its grim past – and a must for motorcyclists and downhill mountain bikers.
The gravel road is rough and covered in rocky sections, but because it’s downhill we can click into second and third and roll down while feathering the brakes. The route starts high in the mountains and plunges 3,500 metres into Bolivia’s steamy jungles. The green thickens the further down we go until jungle blankets the cliff faces and waterfalls spill onto the path. The ground slickens and slippery mud pulls at our TKC80 tyres. It wouldn’t take much to send a bike sliding sideways off the edge.
At the bottom, drenched in sweat, we turn around and head straight back for the cooler altitude air along the new road. The few empty fuel stations we pass have signs reading “no hay gasoline”. We use the last of our 7L water bottles of petrol and recalculate. We have a full 5L jerry, and if we really need it, a 1L MSR fuel bottle left for cooking. It should be enough.
READ MORE: How to Ride the Death Road
Finding fuel
We push straight through La Paz because the queues at the petrol stations stretch endlessly along the clogged city roads. Bolivia has a serious fuel crisis. Most of its fuel supply is imported, and a foreign currency shortage has thrown its imports into chaos. Political tensions, logistical delays and fuel smuggling only adds to the mess leaving massive queues and empty stations throughout the country.
While Bolivian citizens receive subsidised fuel, foreign travellers must pay the full rate – but only certain petrol stations can sell at the unsubsidised price, as they require a specific computer system to process passport details. And finding one that will sell to us isn’t easy.
It’s starting to get close. The jerry can is now empty and the petrol station we pinned on our map that might sell to foreigners says no (even with a big sly tip). In goes our last litre from the fuel bottle. The next four stations turn us away and we reach the fifth running on fumes. They agree to sell, but only enough to fill our tanks. The jerry cans stay empty.
READ MORE: Motorcycle Travel Guide Bolivia
Uyuni
The Uyuni Salt Flats are the largest salt flats in the world at just over 4,000 square miles. We’ve arrived in rainy season, where large expanses of salt lie under a sheen of water, creating a stunning mirror effect. While it looks beautiful, we decide against riding through it. The salt is incredibly corrosive and we know too many fellow travellers with bikes wrecked by the salt’s bite.
Our motorcycles still have a long way to go – the rest of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe – before they finally make it back home to the UK. It’s not worth the risk. We dip our tyres in at the salty edge and explore the expanse in a jeep instead.
In the nearby town, we meet two Colombian motorcycle travellers. They ask where we’re going and we tell them we’re heading for the Lagunas Route. They’re surprised. “Don’t go,” they warn – it’s too remote, too many horror stories of riders stranded, injured and lost…
But it’s the edge of the world and the reason we came here. We roll out of Uyuni, aiming for the Lagunas, passing petrol stations with mile long queues, some with cars left overnight, their owners returning half-asleep in the morning to move them forward a few metres.
READ MORE: The Uyuni Salt Flats Guide
The Lagoons
The Ruta de las Lagunas (route of the lagoons) is an off-road route connecting the town of Uyuni, Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It cuts through the heart of the Bolivian Altiplano – one of the highest plateaus in the world. The Altiplano is a vast, elevated tableland stretching between the eastern and western ranges of the Andes, hidden away in the empty south of Bolivia.
We pitch our tent as the wind whistles through the barren land. We check our fuel, estimating it’ll take four days and 270 miles to reach Chile and the next petrol station. We also account for the petrol needed for our fuel stove as we light it up to boil water.
We sit under the night sky, staring south into the darkness – into the start of the route – eating noodles and pouring over maps. There are no roads here and no lines or directions on Google Maps, only hundreds of tracks etched into the ground to choose from. So, we join up the lagoons by plotting rough pinpoints on our map.
READ MORE: The Ultimate Lagunas Route Guide
Chasing trails
We’re faced with a thousand trails leading in different directions across the plateau. They eventually vanish and we have to find our own way across the open lands. We spot faint tracks here and there, lines disappearing in the sand. But by now our navigation is dialled in and we fly across gravel stretches until we spot and pick up a new line. We feel like trackers in the outback. The CRFs are no longer weighed down by extra fuel and make light work of the terrain.
Then, we enter the sand world. We know to lean back, go loose on the bars and gas it, but out here, miles from help, caution wins so we dial it back and slow down. Two long days tick by and our lips are already cracked and our eyes burning. The wind whips away tears before they fall, leaving them red raw with a gritty mixture in our eyes.
We stop to drink water in the baking sun. Mini clouds of dust follow us as we move around the bikes, escaping from our jackets like a flogged thousand-year-old carpet. By afternoon, the sand has disappeared, replaced by jagged rocks and a sharp hail storm. Freezing cold, we stop to scramble inside our waterproofs and push through a thick mist. Lightning rips through the sky ahead.
The edge
The Altiplano stretches endlessly, its flat expanse hides the sheer altitude and we barely notice how high we’ve climbed. At 4,500 metres, we’ve ascended a staircase we never saw and are now riding through a forgotten land existing silently above the clouds.
We keep going, exploring and linking blue lagoons as they sparkle in the dusty grey landscape. Thousands of pink flamingos stand on one leg, dipping their beaks into mineral water. But between the lagoons it’s desolate.
We can see for miles ahead – into pure nothingness. Everything is still and empty – except for a little black ball tearing across the plains in the distance. We squint our tired eyes and watch the wild ostrich running full pelt past us until it vanishes into the horizon.
The Lagunas route is one of the most remote places we’ve ever ridden. It’s a vast, isolated and surreal moonscape shaped by volcanoes over millions of years. It’s as if our planet stops here and merges with another. If the world has an edge – we’re riding in it.
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