Bolivia

One of only two landlocked countries in South America, Bolivia is a country that scales great heights in the mountains of the Andes below which rest the high, desolate plains of the Altiplano and the Atacama Desert before plunging through almost vertical valleys and canyons to a sub-tropical lowland plain and onwards to a blanket of untouched jungle rainforest – a country of astonishing landscapes that includes the largest saltpan in the world , which when flooded becomes the world’s largest mirror!

From La Paz, way up in the Andes, the highest capital in the world to Salar de Uyuni, a spectacular 4000 square mile expanse of glistening salt flats, and from the white-washed houses of colonial Sucre to the absorbing history of Potosi, once South America’s wealthiest city, Bolivia is a gem for the intrepid explorer.

The lifestyle of the indigenous people has changed little since the time of the Spanish Conquest. Their haunting panpipe music, colourful costumes and the ubiquitous llamas are immediately recognisable, but equally worthy of discovery is the blanket of pristine rainforest, the most bio-diverse of any similar jungle on the planet, the ranches of the friendly lowland oriente and the subtropical valleys brimming with citrus orchards.