San Pedro de Atacama to Puerto Chuvica - Banning our bike onto the roof of a 4x4

The 10^th of June it was time to say goodbye to Chile as we’d definitely leave for Bolivia. As agreed on, at half past seven a van came to pick us up at the hostel. However, the driver knew nothing about our bikes, so after some phone calls a pickup was organized that would take the bikes to the border… After a pretty good breakfast and all the paperwork at the Chilean border we were driven to the border, where we accommodated our entire luggage as well as our bikes on top of a Jeep.

Loading our bikes onto the Jeep...

Our Jeep taking us through the desert

After a short drive we reached Laguna Blanca, where we took a short walk on the ice before we continued to Laguna Verde.

Frozen Laguna Blanca

Laguna Verde

Our Jeep group: Two Chileans, a South Korean, Stefan and I

A few km further, we passed all the cyclists we knew from the hostel in San Pedro and who decided to cycle to the Salar (however, seeing them assured me that it wouldn’t have been a good idea…). Soon we reached some hot springs which we enjoyed for quite a while: It was just great to sit in a pool with water heated to 38° C by nature if it’s freezing cold outside! After that we continued to the geyser field Sol de mañana, which to me looked a bit like a destroyed industry neighborhood…

Blubbering mud at the geysers

Yeah, from time to time it even spits mud...

And lots and lots of vapor...

From there it wasn’t far (at least in a Jeep) to the Laguna Colorada anymore, a red colored lagoon where we watched the sunset and observed lamas and flamingos.

Wildlife at Laguna Colorada

Laguna Colorada

Looks like we trained them... ;-)

Back at the refugio we got some hot tea and later on we were served Spaghetti, and as some of our group got acute mountain sickness, there was even too much food for Stefan… ;-) The night was a lot warmer (okay, less cold would probably be more appropriate) than expected and in the morning our whole group was ready at the time agreed on, but our driver wasn’t anywhere around… It turned out that he simply slept in, and after waking him up he was ready pretty soon. Our first stop that day was the Arbol de la Piedra, a rock in the middle of the Siloli desert that has an astonishing similarity to a tree.

Arbol de Piedra in the Siloli desert

I had to play a bit... :-)

When we then crossed the Siloli desert, I was more than glad that I was in a Jeep and not on my bike, as I would definitely not have enjoyed it!

Siloli desert - No streets, no water, no nothing...

When we then drove through a narrow valley, we could observe several Vizcachas, some kind of mixture between a rabbit and a kangaroo.

A vizcacha!! :-)

Passing some more lagoons, we made our way to Villa Alota for lunch and then drove through many tiny Bolivian mountain villages until we got to Puerto Chuvica short before sunset.

And another lagoon...

There we stayed at a salt hotel where we even got a hot shower and a pretty good dinner.

The salt hotel we stayed at in Puerto Chuvica