Safety in Bolivia

Altitude sickness. This is the main threat to your health and ignoring it in the Andes can kill you. For the first days drink a lot of water and avoid exertion and alcohol while your heart and lungs adjust.
Fake police. In La Paz, con artists pose as officers and demand to see your passport or wallet. A real policeman never searches a tourist in the street without cause; insist on going to a station.
Protests and roadblocks. Bolivians frequently close roads in protest, which can wreck a schedule. Build slack into every intercity leg and follow local news before you travel.
Pickpockets. In markets and bus stations keep valuables in a money belt or a backpack worn on your front. The chaos of El Alto is prime working ground for them.
Water. Never drink from the tap, and do not use it to brush your teeth. Buy bottled and check the seal and packaging before you pay.
Insurance. Take a good policy that explicitly covers extreme altitude. Without one, any treatment or private hospital admission costs a fortune.
Advisories. Check your own government's travel advisory before you go, particularly for road blockades and demonstrations, which come and go with the political calendar.

Bolivia is one of South America's most underrated countries and also has noticeable street crime in the major cities.

Fake police. The classic Bolivian scheme that every embassy warns about: a man in uniform or with identification stops you, sometimes with a "tourist" who vouches for him, and demands you come to the station or show your money. Real police do not inspect cash and do not put you in a private car. Insist on walking to the nearest station or calling the tourist police.

Express kidnapping. Hailing a taxi in La Paz and Santa Cruz is a risk. Use radio taxis ordered by phone or through your hotel.

Currency exchange. Official and parallel boliviano rates have differed. Change at licensed offices.

Uyuni tours. Three-day tours are sold by a dozen outfits with enormous variation in quality: drunk drivers, unroadworthy vehicles and crashes on the salt flat have occurred. Choose an operator with reviews, and ask about oxygen and who is driving.

The "Death Road". The bike descent from La Paz. Operators vary and tourists have died. Only with an established company and good bikes.

Cocaine. Bolivia is a producer and offers to sell occur in La Paz. It is a set-up and a criminal offence, and Bolivia's San Pedro prison has a grim reputation.

Coca leaf. Legal and ubiquitous, with mate de coca served everywhere. But exporting it is prohibited in most countries: at home it is treated as narcotic raw material.

Blockades. Road closures are a common form of protest in Bolivia. Roads, including the airport route and intercity highways, can be closed for days. This is a logistical risk rather than a danger: leave slack before a flight.

Photography. Military installations and police are off limits. Always ask people in traditional dress at markets; payment is often requested for a photograph.

Drones. Permission is required.

Antiquities. Exporting artefacts is prohibited.

Roads. Mountain hairpins; nobody drives at night.

Altitude is Bolivia's main subject. La Paz sits at 3,600 metres, El Alto at 4,100, Uyuni at 3,650, and route passes above 4,800. These are altitudes at which most visitors develop altitude sickness. Flying into El Alto straight from sea level is an abrupt four-kilometre ascent.

The rules. No exertion or alcohol on the first day, plenty of water, and coca chewed or drunk as tea. With headache and vomiting, confusion, or breathlessness at rest, descend rather than "tough it out". La Paz has the advantage that its lower districts sit at 3,200 metres: you can drop 400 metres by taxi.

Vaccinations. Yellow fever for the lowlands and the Amazon, plus hepatitis A and typhoid.

Water. Bottled only.

Sun. UV at altitude is extreme, and the Uyuni salt flat doubles it by reflection. People burn in half an hour, the underside of the nose and chin included.

Cold. Nights on the altiplano are below freezing year-round. Uyuni tours sometimes overnight in unheated buildings.

Healthcare. La Paz and Santa Cruz have private clinics. The routes have none. Insurance naming your altitude is essential.

Bolivia sits in the lower part of the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Tourist police. Operating in La Paz, Sucre and Santa Cruz. This is who you approach over "fake police" encounters and thefts.

Real versus fake police. The key skill in Bolivia. A real officer is in uniform with identification, does not ask to see your money, does not put you in a private car, and does not object to you calling the tourist police.

Reporting theft. Reports are taken and certificates for insurers issued.

La Paz. The centre and Sopocachi are fine by day; the cemetery district and the bus terminal in the evening are not. El Alto is not a place a tourist needs.

Protests and blockades. An ordinary part of life. A foreigner should walk around them and plan with slack.

What actually matters. Bolivia's main risks are altitude and roads, and among criminal ones, the fake police scheme and hailing taxis.

Emergency numbers: 110 police, 118 ambulance, 800-14-0081 tourist police.