Banjo Tours 'Andean Trail to Sajama National Park' tour was absolutely the highlight of my wife's and my three week visit to Bolivia. We loved La Paz, Sucre, Potosi, Tupiza, the four - day 'salt flats' area tour and Titicaca but most of all we were captivated by the rarely - visited - by - foreigners areas that Banjo Tours founder, Ben Montevilla, arranged for us to discover over four truly fascinating days. Quite incredibly, we were the only tourists to be found when we hiked to the ruins of the Eagle Men, the City of Stone and to the base camp of Mt Sajama, Bolivia's highest peak. We even had the geyser field and hot springs to ourselves. In addition to all this off the beaten track enjoyment, we even had a night in an altiplano village ..... with not a single other visitor within miles. All in all, it was a most enjoyable grand finale to a memorable visit to a country that we found to be truly enthralling.
Sajama National Park is amazing. It's totally off the tourist route, very undeveloped, offers spectacular scenery and lots of outdoor adventures. As I was travelling on my own I decided to do a tour offered to Sajama by Banjo Tours, and this made the experience even more wonderful. Ben, who owns and runs the company, has put together a great tour to this part of Bolivia. He is meticulous at planning and organising and has included visits to the quaint village of Rosario, the City of Stone and the Ruins of the Eagle Men as part of the tour, which are all worth a visit. The tour allowed me to take time and explore each of the sites that we stopped at, rather than just having a 20 minute photo stop. The area is also not sign posted, so it was a great relief not having to worry about getting lost. Climbing up to 5300m on Mount Sajama, followed by a swim in the thermal springs was just awesome. Lots of alpacas, Vicuñas and viscachas and I even got to see a condor gliding on the thermals in the sky above us. So if you like visiting places far from the tourist crowds, then this is a must do, and doing it with Banjo Tours made it a much more fun and enjoyable experience. This was definitely the highlight of my visit to Bolivia.
Good national park to stay a night (or two) if you like mountains, hiking, beautiful scenery, alpaca's and/or geysers.
We had such a great time in that village. We spend three days at Sajama hostal where we had our little home. Our host was really helpfull. We visited all the mains points : lagunas, geysers, thermes. We were only four tourists in the village at that time. The sajama national park should definitly be part of a travel in Bolivia. Peace
It seems that we visited at the coldest, windiest season just over a year ago and found it a bit of a struggle!The surrounding area is just beautiful and it's amazing to see the alpaca strolling past so casually. We walked to the thermal springs which had that distinct eggy smell but it was amazing to have such a great view whilst relaxing in the hot water.We arranged accommodation (from the little office as you arrive into town on the bus) with a local woman who had a room with a few beds but unfortunately it was a very cold walk to the outdoor toilet at night! We had about 5 blankets on our bed and struggled to find anywhere to eat! In the end we found a hostel that gave us some food and coca tea to help with the altitude sickness.We left within a couple of days as there didn't seem to be anything to do other than visit the hot springs (unless you're a well-experienced climber!) There weren't any guides and it's a very remote place so it felt lonely very quickly as everything appeared to be closed!Going from the other reviews, I think perhaps we just went at the wrong time of year (July 2012) when the wind made everyone close up business. The altitude sickness set in with the cold weather and made it hard to stay here for long!
Fantastic landscape! Very dry but absolutely unique whith all the volcanos and lamas. The hot springs are about an hour away from the village and very(!) nice. The road which continues to Chile is really beautiful as well.
We found ourselves unexpectedly in Sajama after seeing a photo in a tourist office, and hopping on the first bus (many buses/minivans) to get out there. How can this place not be in the Lonely Planet South America book? When there are more llamas than gringos you know you have found somewhere special, and even the locals agree that Sajama is another planet. We tried to find the thermal pools, just ended up getting sunburnt and tired trudging through the grey silt, but returning back to our very basic accommodation that afternoon we were happy with finding absolutely nothing.This place is one to remember, one to write home about.
I don't understand why tourist don't go to this place !It's absolutely worth it, we booked the trip with a good agency, which is necessary to avoid the hassle of the transport and time loss, they gave us a guide in the process, it was one of the best visits in BL.the valley is so beautiful, the volcanoes majestic and moreover, there was no tourists, we had the hot springs just for our selves and the geysers too. A good company to go with is Inca land tours, but if you have more time you can do it by your self, two days in the parc are sufficient.
Very nice unspoiled National Park on the Bolivian highlands (Altiplano). Stunning views, nice geothermal areas and lots of Alpaca's.
We went to visit Sajama and the plan was to spend the night there and leave the other day. We were surprised how calm and peaceful the place was and ended up staying for 5 days. If I didn't have to travel to La Paz to renew my visa we would've stayed much longer.We stayed at Hostal Sajama right beside the main gate of the park, the hostel is clean and cheap and you get your own private bath and room if you want. All travelers we met spent more than they planned and the reason was always because of the nature of the place and how calm it is.Food was part of the deal with the hostal, for $2 you get your breakfast and same (add $0.5) for lunch and dinner and you get your tean and coffee for free. You can also use the kitchen if you wish.There are plenty of things to do in the park and one of them to see the flamingos or swim in the host springs.