Following two days in the Chilean desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, we are cruising back to the base of Licancabur Volcano. Its ashen flanks are our signal to turn north, drop from the asphalt, and begin our ascent into a land like no other. At an elevation of about 13,000 feet and occupying 10 percent of the country, the Bolivian Altiplano is the second highest plateau in the world, the highest being Tibet, and an incredible place to ride a motorbike.

"Welcome to Coca Country" could well be the most fitting name for the Bolivian exhibition hall at the next World's Fair or maybe for some future installation at Six Flags over South America. Admittedly provocative (unless the soft-drink giant underwrites its construction), nevertheless the hall might tell a very different story from the tales of torment so often lived in the fast circles and inner cities of the U.S. and elsewhere.