Bolivia Logistics Support Advice

[shredthegnar10]

A friend and I are planning a trip to the Cordillera Real for mid-late June of this year and wondering if anyone here has experience with hiring logistical support (we are not interested in doing guided climbs) and could recommend companies or individuals that provide this. My understanding is that permits aren't required in Bolivia (from Alan Arnette's site), so this would mainly be organizing transport to/from the trailheads, finding us a place to buy fuel canisters, and providing us with whatever "invitation letter" is required for the visa to visit Bolivia.

Thanks!

[Scott P]

I'd suggest just contacting one of the local guiding companies and telling them what services you want. Even though they might advertise fully guided trips, in that part of the world most of the guiding companies will let you cherry pick what services you want (such as just transport) without going fully guided.

Tips:

Even though you're going unguided, it might be worth hiring a cook so he/she can also serve as a guard for your gear back at camp. Theft is a problem at some of the camps on the popular mountains.

As far as the visa goes, they don't recognize "camping in the mountains" or "camping on mountain ____" as a valid accommodation address. You're supposed to list your accommodations on your visa request, so you may need a guide service to provide a "dummy" accommodation reservation. It is my understanding though that if you don't have all the accommodation reservations for your trip, you aren't denied the visa, but you have to pay a fine. (Although this info might be outdated so make sure to research it before hand).

[desertdog]

Hi

I’ve been down to Bolivia a couple times. Check The Adventure Climbing and Treking Company of South America 591 2 24141197 newhorizons20@hotmail.com Grizzel Sainz is the owner. I looked and their webpage is gone but they have a FB page so I think they are still operating
.

A couple things

Some of the areas the locals require an access fee.For example the Condoriri Group. It’s a non issue but you should pay it. Supposedly this covers keeping the camping area clean, but it wasn’t very clean. Great area for climbing by the way.

Watch the hygiene. We got very sick on both of our trips and felt like we were careful. Maybe just bad luck.

Bolivia is a really interesting country and it’s worth doing some tourist stuff too. Very exotic culture.

Good luck.

Richard

[Craig Barlow]

I'm headed down there in July and am also just looking for logistics. I contacted Eduardo Mamami at Bolivian Mountain Guides. I didn't get a response when I sent a query through their website, but he did respond to a direct email and was happy to provide logistics only without guides. His e-mail is eduardo@bolivianmountainguides.com.

[MyFeetHurt]

I used www.bolivianmountains.com. Jon Cassidy ended up as the actual contact. I’ve heard Eduardo mentioned above recommended many times over the years though.

Like Scott mentioned, I think you have to show your hotel reservations or something to get your visa when you land. We got hassled for 10 minutes then they let us through (and we did have a print out of the reservation). Not really sure what happened but apparently it worked out.

Might be worth hiring a cook, the camps are pretty chill. However, as you probably already know they love to haul up potatoes galore and giant 2 liter coke bottles. They work hard for the money.

Gondola in La Paz is cool, death road is cool except for the tourist company wanting you to stop every 30 seconds to take pictures. I told them to pound sand, they agreed to leave us alone after that. La Paz is awesome, its like San Francisco but probably less homelessness. Can be rough around the edges.

Eventually all the ATMs failed me and I ran out of money, don’t rely on them.

[ltlFish99]

i went a Long time ago.
We had no issues entering the country with just a passport.
We were there for 24 days, and had a wonderful time.
The village of Sorata was great, and very beautiful.
i agree with the hygiene comment. We were all very careful, but near the end of the adventure, 2 of the 4 of us got sick. One worse than the other.
it is a great place to adventure.
Enjoy your time there.

[kushrocks]

We used Bolivian Mountain Guides for Pequeno Alpamayo and Illimani. They were awesome! Edwardo the lead guide and owner helped the Bolivian government map that area. Highly recommend