The inbetweeners : Asuncion to La Paz

WilcoOut

Im planning on traveling from Asuncion to La Paz later this year.

in order to save time, i was going to fly and thus by passing 1900km of paraguay and bolivia in one fowl swathe

however, whats in between thats worth stopping for or unmissable!

any help would be great. i dnt want to miss out on aything but i cant seem to find anything worth stayin for......

gudwan

This isn't in between, but when you're in La Paz you might want to try getting into this place: San Pedro. A friend went and it sounds amazing, so don't miss the chance if you can.

WilcoOut

cheers dude!

as you can tell by the number of replies iv gotten here, i dnt think theres much to see haha!

sarkozy

Also, if you've time, Coroico is only 2 hrs from La Paz.

imme

how long do you have.
I went in the other direction last year, Bolivia to Paraguay, overland. To get from Asuncion to Bolivia you'll have to go through The Chaco, it's pretty big. (check it out in the internet)
When I went through it (by bus, without stopping) in June it looked like Africa.

It's jam packed with wildlife, birds mostly, some as tall as a human.

Bolivia and Paraguay fought a mutually destructive crazy war over it in the 1930's when Paraguay was convinced Bolivia was moving in on their territory.

Of course both countries were bankrolled by oil companies as they thought the place rich in oil. Many died and it destroyed both countries, made them poorer than they were etc etc.

One of the first cities you get to in eastern Bolivia is Santa Cruz, it held no particular attraction for me.

It's a stronghold of rightwing politics in the country, so the lifestyle for the wealthy is different for the poorer sections of the city, ice cream parlours, 4x4 vehicles, fatter people -US style.

After that you get into different roads that you can take to Cochabamba, Uyuni for the Salt Flats, Potosi (highest city in the world) for the mine, Sucre (The White City) for the architecture and chocolate shops and preserved dinosaur footprints.

In the northwest you have river trips.

Then you have La Paz itself, one of the highest cities in the world and the highest capital city.

Past La Paz and close enough you have Lake Titicaca.

Enjoy.

WilcoOut

cheers!

welli have to be in cusco in the first week of november and i leave rio on the 26th of september. i plan to see sao paulo and iguaza falls and asuncion so i have 2.5weeks to make up the time?

flighs from asuncion to cochabamba or santa cruz vary between 85 and 125euro. id be inclined to fly as it gives me more time around titicaca, cusco, lima and a jaunt up to quito

however, i dont want to bypass anything interesting! how long did it take to bus from la paz to asuncion overall? would you be inclined to do it again or would you fly, given the chance?

imme

WilcoOut wrote: »

cheers!

welli have to be in cusco in the first week of november and i leave rio on the 26th of september. i plan to see sao paulo and iguaza falls and asuncion so i have 2.5weeks to make up the time?

flighs from asuncion to cochabamba or santa cruz vary between 85 and 125euro. id be inclined to fly as it gives me more time around titicaca, cusco, lima and a jaunt up to quito

however, i dont want to bypass anything interesting! how long did it take to bus from la paz to asuncion overall? would you be inclined to do it again or would you fly, given the chance?

from La Paz I went down south to the salt flats and Potosi and then up and east to Santa Cruz to catch the bus to Asuncion.

Bus from Santa Cruz was overnight, about 20 hours. I don't like the idea of flying as you can lose out, even if you are in a crappy clapped out bus on crap roads, sometimes.

Took me a couple of weeks, La Paz to Paraguay.

Did you check out The Chaco.

WilcoOut

we'll deffo be heading to the salt flats etc i just want to avoid extensive bus journeys if i can (im prob going to the wrong continent so!)

chaco looks interesting! is the bus journey through that?