PowerCycle

10/04 I’m finally out of Chile but it put up a good last minute fight. At El Laco mining camp I stopped in to fill up on water which the guy working there gladly helped me with. We had a little chat and he happened to mention that there was no place in the direction I was going to get your passport stamped either for the Chile exit stamp or to enter Argentina. This freaked me out a little because the thought of having to hitch back to San Pedro (there’s an immigration office there) and possibly enter Argentina via a more common crossing wasn’t appealing. I didn’t believe him though. Another bicyclist rode through this way in June and mentioned customs on both sides. He wanted a “tip” for the water but I didn’t catch that until after I left. Oops. I wouldn’t have given him one anyway. He tried to over charge the other cyclist for food (that he’s not supposed to be selling anyway) and he lied to me about the crossing.

The climb after the mining camp was easy enough. The descent was straight down and steep enough that I was giving thanks for not having to ride up it. The Chile customs office was near the bottom and the guys there were cool. They offered me a Coke and water and were very friendly. After a brutal ride on more washboard next to a salt lake there was a nice climb up to another pass followed by a bumpy ride back down again. This area was stunning. It looked like a scene from another planet. One of my favorite areas of Chile for sure.

The border was 12 miles from Chile customs. At the actual crossing there was nothing but a few signs. It was another 7 miles to the Argentina customs office. The dad is the customs guy and I guess his 2 sons live here too. After spending a considerable amount of time checking out my passport and making sure his stamps were in order I got my 90 days.

Looking down the road I didn’t see much in the way of places to camp so I asked if I could pitch my tent out behind the customs building. It wasn’t a problem and they hooked me up with some water. They also have fast wifi that’s open.

It’s been 5 days since I left San Pedro de Atacama. 5 days with no beer and no shower. The shower I can live with but this beer drought is killing me. This week has been through some of the most desolate stretches of road that I’ve ever been on. I didn’t see a single car today and the only 2 buildings were the customs offices. No houses, cows or stupid barking dogs. My XTG solar charger has been doing a good job of keeping my iPod Touch charged up. Even after typing for a while every night and saving pictures I still have over 2 hours left on my laptop.

I’m really glad I stocked up on food because there’s nothing out here. I’ll have enough gas for cooking so that worked out OK. I ran out of cookies yesterday and have no more snack food for tomorrow. There’s a community about 23 miles away that I’ll hit up. After that I have another 15,000 foot pass and then maybe 2 nights until the big city of Salta.

GPX track