[24.01.2024 :: 31.01.2024[

Susques – San Pedro de Atacama

Well now, that was not a good night. Neither Stefan nor myself slept overly well. We had no cash and not enough gas to reach San Pedro de Atacama. So after morning coffee, the first course of action was to check if the gas station 2 km west of Susques accepted credit cards. They did not but they did do accept Chilean Peso of which we had some left. A full tank of gas makes for a much relaxed start into the day, so we did search for a proper breakfast spot.

Breakfast took us quite a while :-).

To the border, the scenery got enriched with a salt flat and of course more mountains. The border crossing was not a problem even though I pissed of some SAG officers due to me making a strike through on an official document. Honest mistake won´t happen again.

Border crossed, up there in the Atacama. Yes we did drive that particular road – actually 3 times – we were stunned yet again, by the scenery.

The descent into San Pedro is always strange. You loose 2300m vertically on a more or less straight road down. Accommodation was not a problem even though we actually had to go through booking.com to get the room we wanted. We thought, by going directly to the location, they could save on the booking.com fees, but oh well.

San Pedro de Atacama

So two nights in San Pedro. Get prepared for our move into Bolivia, do video/image editing, write a blog entry, go running and have some down time. Well down time is not that big, when doing all of the above. Anyway it was yet again a lovely stay in San Pedro and we had renewed energy for Bolivia, or so we thought.

San Pedro de Atacama – Bolivia

We crossed into Bolivia via the Hito Cajon border crossing wich brought us immediatly into the “Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve”. The border crossing was uneventful, but the entry into the National Reserve was a bit more tricky as credit cards were not accepted, and idiots that we are we had to use the money exchange at the border, which well felt like a bit cheat, so be it. The entry into the national reserve is 300.- BOS for two persons.

Now the fun began, as the road was gravel mixed with deep sand, which was often not really discernible until such time you were in the middle of it and the bike heavily swaying. Stefan tumbled his bike twice and later said it is better to ride behind me then in front as I seemed to have lost my cold bloodedness, at least on that day. Well overall we did 100km before stopping at Laguna Chalviri.

We decided to make camp here – which is basically not allowed as we were told later, but due to the rain around the Laguna, and the approaching dusk and us being a bit winy they gave us till next morning 07:00am. Best night of the trip, but see for yourself.

All of a sudden at 10pm the wind stopped, just like we experienced in the past. An hour later nature called, and oh boy the full moon night sky did not dissapoint. I woke up Stefan to show him and and after the first annoyance of being woken, he was kind of astounded that I did not had the most obvious idea of them all. Enjoying the night sky while skinny dipping in the hot pool.

National Reserve – Uyuni

Sunrise coffee in the pool ( again the pool ) and off we were at 08:30 am, well actually 07:30 am as Bolivia is 5 hrs behind CET. Another 210km to San Cristobal, and a 170 of those with the same varying road surface conditions then the day before, added to that was a hailstorm we passed right behind. The hail was actually quite good as it made the sand harder and thus easier to ride.

The last 40 km to San Cristobal were paved and we were really grateful, both of us could feel the exhaustion of the past two days setting in. Once we arrived in San Cristobal we realized that there was no money to be gotten as the only ATM did not accept other cards then the ones of the bank he belonged to. We got some snacks, as the minimarket did accept our cards, and decided to finish the last 90km to Uyuni with the thought in mind to stay two nights.

Money and accomodation were not a problem and we could loosen up a bit. Two challenging riding days for our welcome to Bolivia, but the night at the hot spring made it definitely more then worth it.

Uyuni

Early morning, but the sleep was sufficient and the breakfast was actually amazing, fresh waffles, proper coffee no excess plastic, self made marmalades and fruits. After breakfast we took the short walk to the “cementario de trenes”, which reminded me about a discussion i had with a colleague a while back, about trains not necessarily being the most efficient way of transport. I wonder why the railway system around Uyuni was abandoned.

We enjoyed the Sunday market and did some grocery shopping there including some prickly pears (kaktusfeige), and later I went for a run. Stupid idea but my pride wanted to run at 3700m altitude. Yeah i could feel the lack of oxygen.

Getting gasoline in Bolivia, we were warned, will be a challenge. So here we were at the end of a line of 20 cars. After about 15 minutes we were called upfront, as all the cars in front of us head the gas intake on the left side, and well we have motorcycles. First question was, if we needed a receipt, which we declined. It seems the unofficial international gas price is at 6.- BOS where the official national gas price is at 3.70- BOS. But to be honest, we do not need the Bolivian tax payer to subsidize our trip and 6.- BOS is about 0,80.-€ so still crazy cheap compared to home.

Uyuni – Incahuasi

The next day we set of for Incahuasi island which is amidst the Uyuni salt flat. The ride itself was rather uneventful. The salt flat however is not. We had been in flat parts of landscape before, but you still have structure there, on the salt flat you have no structure. The mind, well my mind started playing tricks on me. There was something up front, like kilometers ahead, and i could not make it out 15s later it turned out to be a 2-by-4 and the distance i first noticed it more like 50 m or so. Quite an interesting experience.

We saw the island like 30 km away and you drive drive drive and it you do not seem to get any closer to it. Finally we reached it, payed our dues and even got offered a place to sleep in the abandoned restaurant they had on the island. which was actually quite cool as we only needed to unpack our mattresses and sleeping bags. We took a drive around the island and then settled in front to watch all the day tourists come by have lunch or dinner, or to watch the sunset. At peak times we counted 14 4×4 parked in front of the island. For the night there were three of us. Two French Camper Vans, and the two of us.

Stefan made proper dinner, and we drank the last of our Argentinian Malbec which sat in my suitcase for like three weeks but the occasion felt right, and in the late afternoon we had sun halo like i had never seen before.

And then of course there was a spectacular sunset.

Sadly the night for me was equally as spectacular as the day and the evening , as i spent it alternating between sitting on the throne and in front of it. The assumption is that the run the day before, the few days above 3500 m, and the afternoon spent in the sun (not much shade on the island) was too much for my body and he rebelled, oh yes not to mention the alcohol and cigarettes.

Incahuasi – Salinas de Garcia Mendoza

The next morning came, and Stefan prepared coffee at like 06:30. i only drank half of my cup, gave the rest to Stefan and moved on to herbal tea. After three cups of that stuff, some more rest (not sleep) we started our engines with the next bed and shower as destination.
Well the first two villages were a bust, no rooms available, because there just simply were none, so we ended up doing another 40km of Bolivian sandgravel, which amazingly brought me back to reality more, then the other 40km on the salt flat. I guess it is the need for concentration, that let´s one forget about the other stuff that is going on, around or within you. Salinas is not an overly exciting place, but the bed was definitely spectacular and i had the best night in about two weeks or so.

And this concludes week 09
Till next time,
Happy Hacking everyone

Here some drone shots from the week before, on our way to Susques. I was not able to upload earlier, as i reached the Youtube daily upload limit.