1

LLamas, alpacas, vicuñas are all over the the country (Bolivia, Peru and Chile), but rarely in flocks, unless temporarily in paddocks.

2

Near La Paz, you can usually see a number from the road up to the Zongo pass (base of Huayna Potosi), also on the way to Condoriri. Thing is, they are out grazing during the day and spread out across the hillside. Overnight they are corralled, so the best times to catch a large group together are either just after sunrise when they are being let out, or in late afternoon when they are being herded back down to the corral.
You say you are going to northern Chile. Turning off a few kilometres before Tambo Quemado, you will see llamas and alpacas along the track leading to Sajama village and Tomarapi, and if you had time you would almost certainly see a herd of vicuña in an area a bit farther along.
One place where there are always many llamas to be seen is on the road between Oruro and Potosi, on some pampas about an hour to the east (Potosi side) of Challapata.

3

They are everywhere, literally. At lower altitudes you find llamas, as you go higher you find alpacas. There is no special tour or place to go to see them - it's like taking a tour to see cattle if you go to Texas :) And most restaurants have them on the menu, too.

In wilderness areas you might see wild relatives of llamas - vicunas and guanacos, but I think there are more of them in Chile and Argentina. I went to Lauca national park in Chile - a daylong bus ride from La Paz - and there were plenty of them there, including llamas and alpacas, as well as other types of wildlife.

4

You'll mostly see llamas in rural areas in the Altiplano. If you plan on doing a tour of the Salar and the Southwest Circuit, you'll see thousands of them. That was where I saw the largest herds.

5

If northern Chile includes the Atacama Desert you will see vicunas, guanacos/llamas and other wild animals on the way to the El Tatio geyser. In Peru around Cusco/Sacred Valley there are alpaca farms.

6

Some good info in the above posts, but

I have asked several tour operators and they have all looked at me oddly

just proves the point that most of them don´t know their arse from their elbow, as far as Bolivia and South America in general are concerned.

7

Hi all,

Thanks for all your help with the llama spotting!

8

One my Salar trip (from Tupiza till Uyuni with La Torre tours) we saw quite a lot of them and also stopped at a llama farm.