Do
- be careful at all times, Bolivia is a beautiful country but not always that safe,
- check up to date travel advice (www.minbuza.nl or www.fco.gov.uk);
- keep informed about strikes, they will screw up any tight schedule;
- visit the high city of La Paz. If you want to book a tour or trainride to Uyuni we
- can recommend Turisbus (www.travelperubolivia.com). Nice places to drink or eat
- are Pepe's Coffee Bar,Alexander Coffee and Cafe Sol y Luna. Go to the Coca
- Museum in La Paz, it is very informative (www.cocamuseum.com);
- walk the Choro or Takesi trek when you have enough time, we didn't walk the
- treks but heard great stories about them. Be careful if you walk them alone!

- visit Salar de Uyuni and the Southern Circuit. Take plenty of warm clothes and a
- good sleeping bag (imagine any cold whether and double the freezing feeling).
- Book your tour ahead, we went with Andrea tours and were pleased (not to
- expensive, good food and the cook and driver were not the same person);
- sleep in hotel Julia, across the trainstation, they have the best hot showers ever!

- go with the Dinotruck if you want to visit the mines in Potosi but not too deep.
- They offer a tour of 3 hours and they leave two or three times a day from the
- main square;
- arrange a long-distance taxi, at your hotel or a touroperator, from Saimapata to
- Santa Cruz or Potosi to Sucre. Quick transportation and not too expensive;
- spend a few days in the lovely city of Sucre and check out Joyride cafe: a great
- place to eat and the food is very good (including Dutch food);
- take time to relax at Finca la Vispera in Samaipata. Friendly owners, nice rooms
- and splendid food (www.lavispera.org);
- make a day trip on the river Mamore and see pink dolphins (we booked at Paraiso
- tours, 6 de Agosto 138 street, Trinidad) but afterwards don't stay too long in
- Trinidad there's not much to do. If you want to fly out book in advance, airplanes
- are small (19 persons);
- stay at the nice hotel la Cúpula in Copacabana (www.hotelcupula.com) and book
- a trip to the Island of the Sun where you can make a great day hike.

Don't
- underestimate the high altitude: take a few days to adjust and drink coca tea
- (mate de coca);
- go out late at night, take a cab;
- step in a cab with only 2 doors, already one passenger, no signs or when the cab
- driver approaches you. Ask around in your hotel which ones are safe;
- ignore police precaution advice (we didn't experience any kind of trouble, but
- heard many stories of robbery, theft and kidnapping, mainly in / around La Paz);
- sit in the front cabin of the train from Oruro to Uyuni, you will eat sand and get a
- facial scrub;
- sleep at Avenida Hotel in Uyuni: no service, unfriendly people, they cancel
- reservations without notice and the rooms are extremely cold with bad showers;
- expect to sleep on night buses, most chairs are only for sitting even when the
- are '(semi) cama';
- book your buses at tour operators if you want a cheaper ride. Go to the
- busstation, preferable the day you arrive at the station;
- visit Tihuanaco ruins if you have already seen ruins for example in Peru, Mexico or
- Guatemala;
- expect cheap internet at Copacabana;
- visit the dinotracks near Sucre if you want to see them up close. We were the
- last lucky ones,now you can't walk close to them anymore. Take binoculars or ask
- for them.

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