immediately became dirt. Bolivia is a
much poorer country than its neigh-
bours Chile and Peru and as such the
infrastructure, including major roads,
are not well maintained and the local
drivers also seem less well main-
tained along with the roads.
In saying that, if you don’t mind a
well packed dirt road and can learn
quickly to adjust your riding style to
“defensive mode” then you will soon
begin to enjoy the ride in Bolivia as
the scenery just kept getting better.
There was only one section of road
works that saw us diverted onto a
temporary track. Deep sand is al-
ways a concern on a large adventure
bike and doubly so when you have
not had much off-road experience or
are carrying a pillion. A bruise here
and a scrape there, a little cosmetic
damage to a couple of bikes and an
adventure to discuss over Pisco Sours
that evening was the worst of it.
The off-bike day in Uyuni was an-
other gob-smacking overload to the
senses with a 4x4 tour onto the larg-
est salt flat in the world, the Salar de
Uyuni. We visited a hotel made com-
pletely of salt, including the rooms
and the bar, the giant Dakar Rally
monument (also made completely of
TRAVERSE 45
salt) and had one of the most surreal
lunch stops that could be imagined.
The salt flat is 11,000 square kilo-
metres so it did not take long for us
to be out of sight of all other people
and even the shore of the lake. With
a 360-degree view that showed almost
no visible horizon, due to the reflec-
tion from the salt, we sat in a row on
small plastic stools and ate local fried
Chicken while staring into a most
disquieting void. The light and the
reflections of sky, salt and water play
tricks on your eyes and I am amazed
that our local drivers did not get diso-
rientated while barrelling across the