San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina

San Pedro de Atacama is a tourist town to the north of the the Salar de Atacama. There are many tours you can take from here to see the fascinating geology and geography of the area including volcanoes and hot springs. The way the layers of the earth are being uplifted here makes it seem as though it's happening while you watch.

We got up early on Saturday morning to complete the exit formalities at the Chilean border post right in town. You actually exit Chile at San Pedro; 160 km before the frontier. There was already a line-up and we were in time to hear the news that the Paso de Jama to Argentina was closed due to snow but that it may be open by noon. We went for a relaxing breakfast and came back at 10:30 hoping to be close to the the front of the line. As usual we ended up talking to a few other travelers including a guy from Germany who was motorbiking his way around South America on his older BMW 1000. We ended up waiting in line until nearly 1 pm before we got word the pass was open. By this time the crowd was getting impatient and there was lots of "closeness" as we tried to hold our place in line. Long line-ups seem to generate the worst qualities in people.
We ended up being nearly the first to leave for the pass and we found the road to be bare and dry as we climbed to the 4200 m pass. It was awesome but a bit chilly at about 0 deg C. We had expected the worst conditions but found a very nice road under blue skies with fresh snow on the peaks. We even saw herds of guanacos near the summit of the pass. They are the wild ancestors of the llama. They may have been vicuna (ancestors of the alpaca) but I don't think so. Someone can correct me if I'm out to lunch on this. Sorry, no pictures.
Because of the late start we were in a bit of a rush as we had a border crossing to do and we were hoping to make Jujuy before dark. It's too bad as this was one of those days where I could have taken about a thousand more photos.

Looking Northeast from San Pedro just after dawn.

The Chilean border post at San Pedro de Atacama

Somewhere on the Chilean side of the Paso de Jama up around 4000 m asl

Still on the Chile side of Paso Jama

More of Chile west of Paso Jama

The Salinas Grandes in Argentina

 Because we got such a late start we ended up staying in Purmamarca about one hour from Jujuy. It was a cool town and we ended up seeing another of the bikers here that we had met at the border in San Pedro. He was an Argentine who had been to Ecuador and had stopped to get a photo of himself in front of El Cerro de los Siete Colores. The Mountain of Seven Colours is one of many colourful mountains around the Purmamarca area.

El Cerro de los Siete Colores

It was in Purmamarca that I finally got in touch with my daughter Kirsten, who is in San Salvador de Jujuy on a Rotary International Student Exchange. I hadn't seen her for about six months and was really looking forward to seeing her. We got into Jujuy around 10:30 am the next morning and rode to the house of her present host parents; Ivanna and Hugo.

Neil, Me (actually smiling), Kirsten, Ivanna and Hugo. Kirsten's good friend Carley took the photo. Carley is on exchange to Jujuy from Pennsylvania.

 We had coffee and cakes at Kirsten's house then Hugo helped us find a hotel. After we got changed we headed across town to the home of Kirsten's original host family. We had been invited to attend a birthday celebration for the Grandmother of the family. We got there just in time for asado and an awesome lunch. There was a large gathering and I can't hope to remember everyone's name. We were treated like family and it was good to know that Kirsten had been taken care of so well. It was a lot of fun with lots of music, dancing, laughter and good conversation. Thanks Nanci and Family.

A large happy family.

I did say large family didn't I?

Birthday dance with Grandma Catty

So much for good clean fun.

Here is a lot of trouble in a small package.

Muchas gracias!

Today we had a relaxing day getting a tour of San Salvador de Jujuy from Kirsten with a great lunch and more good conversation at the home of Hugo and Ivanna.
In the afternoon we met with some members of the local Rotary Club at our hotel and we had a nice visit and chat while we heard a few stories about the girls and we told a little of our trip so far. I can't say enough about Rotary International and the great opportunities they provide for kids to go on exchange visits all over the world.

We had a nice meeting with some of the members of the Rotary Club of Jujuy. From left to right are: Marta (Youth Exchange Officer), Hugo (incoming Club President), Neil, Carley, Aida (Club President) and Kirsten and I

Kirsten, myself and Carley, my new daughter.

They say that once you've been to Jujuy you'll always come back. I think I understand why.
That's all for now.

More Decisions and off to Chile

When we were in Ollantaytambo we talked to some other bikers who had advised us that the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia was under water right now. Apparently their friend had taken five days to travel across in a foot of water. It would still be nice to see it but coupled with the weather (lots of rain) we chose to forgo traveling to Bolivia. We are down to about six weeks left of available travel time and we would rather save a bit of time for Patagonia side-trips.
So after Puno we traveled along the shore of Lago Titicaca to Desaguadaro which is the border entry point to Bolivia from Peru. From there we planned to head for Tacna on the Pacific coast for a border crossing the next day into Chile. There was a lot of traffic and people around the actual border crossing and we idled back and forth a few times through the crowds trying to find a gas station. We finally decided to head towards Tacna hoping one of the small towns along the way would have gas. We had already been side-swiping some heavy rain showers and the mountains ahead weren't looking too friendly with the look of snow showers. It was also getting colder. We eventually stopped to put on more clothes and I even put on my heated vest. I'm glad I did as soon after that we hit the rain. It kept getting colder and when we crossed the 4800 meter pass we were just below the snowline. Through the mist we caught a few glimpses of the terrain around us and it was very barren but colourful. Kind of like the pictures you see of Mars. This is when it started getting really foggy and we were soon down to about 40 or 50 kmh with eyes straining to see the road. The fog continued for a long time and we didn't really get to see a thing for many kilometers. When we did break out of the fog it was short lived and we were back into it thicker than before with the road now slippery with mud and sand. On top of that the wind was pretty gusty. We never did find a gas station either but the long descent from the pass added quite a few kilometers to our tanks and we rolled into a gas station in Torata after about 420 km showing nearly 100 km remaining on reserve. On level ground we probably would have had about 75 or 80 km left in our tanks.
We got back on the Pan American and made it to Tacna about 5 pm but took nearly two hours to find a hotel and arrange parking. While I was out looking around for a room Neil was back at the bikes. As I crossed the street headed back his way I could see a police car parked near us and a policeman talking to Neil. The policeman was taking Neil's documents and threatening to fine us for parking in a yellow No Parking zone. The cop in the car looked like he was writing a ticket. Neil and I both questioned why no one else around us was getting a ticket. Everybody parks wherever they feel like. They were also only going to fine one of us. I think the young cop was trying to shake us down but the older guy in the car wasn't into it and they eventually let us go.

Lago Titicaca

The lines on the hills in the background are stone walls or fences. Miles and miles of them.

We saw lots of llamas and alpacas. We even saw a few vicuna (I think) but didn't get a photo.

Looking toward the pass in front of us.

The view from our first stop out of the fog with the road unwinding below us.

It was very barren and dry on the Pacific side of the pass near Moquegua except for these very green valleys. Some weren't much more than gullies really but very lush.

Looking back towards Moquegua

We had a bit of a slow start in the morning due to a language problem. My grasp of the Spanish language prevents me from detecting the subtle difference between "you can stay until 9 am" from "we don't open until 9 am".

Waiting for the gate to open.

 The border crossing into Chile was a breeze and we met some nice people in the line-up. There were a group of bikers from Brazil on their way to Mach Picchu so we exchanged road information. After some hugs and handshakes we navigated through Arica and were into the desert for a short but windy ride to Iquique. Iquique is a fairly large town in a pretty dramatic setting on the coast and there are lots of tourists there. It has a huge sand dune for a backdrop that looks about as big as the city. It has very nice beaches with huge waves pounding in from the Pacific. It would be a nice place for a holiday but it's kind of expensive.

I think this trip has been good for Neil. He's looking younger every day.

I'm no expert but I'm calling this a desert.

Getting the idea?

The beach at Iquique. Awesome waves.

In order to hit the border right for the crossing to Argentina we figured we had two short days to get to San Pedro de Atacama with one night in Tocopilla. We planned on a relaxing start so Neil went for a walk on the beach before breakfast and I was going to work on the blog. I went down to the lobby and noticed a lady cleaning up breakfast dishes. Hmm...what time is it? We'd had a two hour time change without realizing. No problem. We got away well before 11 am and had a beautiful ride on good pavement along the Chilean coastline. The contrast between the huge sand dunes coming down onto the surf pounded rocky shoreline is beautiful to see. We did get pulled over by the cops again though. And again, all they wanted to do was ask where we were from, where were we going and take pictures of us and the bikes. Pretty easy.

Between Iquique and Tocopilla on the Chilean coast

Chile

More Chilean coastline. It was a nice day.

Tocopilla looked pretty industrial and unattractive so we got gas and kept going. Apparently, it's the site of a very large coal powered generating station with ships delivering coal and leaving with loads of iodine, phosphates and other minerals I think. We followed 5 sets of transmission lines across the start of the Atacama desert as we headed for Calama and San Pedro de Atacama. They take away from the scenery for sure. There isn't a lot of traffic here and it seems pretty lonely and desolate with some very long straight stretches of highway. Okay, Tocopilla to Calama is lonely and desolate. After that it got better.

Southeast of Calama headed for San Pedro de Atacama

At the eastern edge of the desert towards San Pedro the geography gets pretty interesting

Dinner in San Pedro started with some kind of crushed tomato salad. It was good.

That brings us to San Pedro. I'll get back to you later today. I have something else to do right now.
Chau

Wow!

We had thunderstorms and heavy rain most of the night in Huancayo so it was nice to listen to while I digested my Cuy (guinea pig) dinner and worked on the blog. In the morning there was fresh snow quite low on the mountains but it looked like it was going to be a nice day so we headed for Huancavelica and hopefully the high pass towards Ayacucho. Because of the rain there were lots of slides that had come down on the road. It's amazing how fast the road crews here get on the job as we had only minor delays and made Huancavelica in good time. When we were getting gas in town there I asked a policeman about the road we were headed for. Basically he said its okay unless it rains then it's really bad. It only looked like it might rain so we thought we'd go for it. The policeman even had another cop jump on the back of his bike and they escorted us through town to find the road. It's a good thing they did. It would have taken us at least half an hour to figure it out. After they said goodbye and left us they turned around and came back to tell us that it could get really bad if it snows.

South of Huancayo and the weather was getting better.

Weird rock formation.

I snapped this from the edge of the road while we waited for crews to clear a slide. That road is down by the river. The farms go way up the mountain. I'm pretty sure people have to walk up there because we couldn't see any roads, only trails.

Our helpers in Huancavelica.

We started climbing (getting the idea? it's always a climb or descent) out of Huancavelica on a pretty good road but we could see a storm brewing ahead so we were laying on the throttle pretty good. It didn't matter. Pretty soon it was raining and hailing. It was nice there wasn't much traffic. That should have been a hint. We only saw buses and trucks and not many of those. We crossed this altiplano near Pucapampa that's supposed to be the highest (4500 m) habitable altiplano in the world. There was a small village there but we didn't see anybody and didn't stop for pictures because it was hailing way too hard. There were hundreds of llamas grazing here in the open range and the guidebook said we might even see the rare and highly prized ash-grey llama. We saw quite a few of them. We went through the main Abra Chonta pass (4853 m) but the goal was to turn off here and hit another pass. Our guidebook said this was the highest drivable pass in the world at around 5059 meters above sea level. At the turn off to the pass we stopped to confirm directions from some truck drivers. They thought we were nuts but we headed up there despite the crappy road and the fact that it was now snowing. It was only a three kilometer detour but it was a bad road and we met three trucks coming out of a mine somewhere. Neil went right to the pass but I found a good spot to turn around about 300 meters before the summit and waited. The lightning on the ridge above the pass also influenced my decision. Actually, my head was throbbing a bit too. From the altitude I suppose.
We got out of there and headed toward Ayacucho. The road continued to get better but there were heavy thunderstorms with rain, snow and hail. We went over yet another pass, the 4750 m Abra de Apacheta, and the rocks were all kinds of amazing colours. A sunny day to come through here would have been awesome. Even though we got rained on pretty good, we were very lucky to avoid the worst of the storms. Somehow the road always turned down a different valley just as it looked like we were gonna get it.

Our first llamas

Approaching the altiplano near Pucapampa.

Approaching the Abra Chonta pass (4853 m) and between thundershowers

This was the highest drivable pass (5059 m). Neil was just around the corner with the lightning.

Headed for Santa Ines and another thunderstorm.

Dodging another storm.

When I first came around the corner I thought this was a waterfall. It was some huge mineral deposit. It looked like it was all formed by a little spring coming out of the ground near the top center. Pretty cool.

We kept at it and eventually hit pavement which was nice as we now had to make a little time. It kept raining until just before Ayacucho where it cleared up and was absolutely beautiful. Back in the film days we called it a Kodachrome day. I was wishing I had my old film camera. The sky was so blue and the mountains were so green with these really dramatic and brilliantly white clouds. Pretty awesome. I just couldn't capture it on the digital camera. On the last ridge before we descended into Ayacucho we could look back and see the blackness of the storms we had left behind. It was a good thing to leave behind.

Coming down the hill into Ayacucho.

We found a good hotel right near the town plaza in Ayacucho and listened to more thunderstorms while we ate dinner. It rained most of the night again. In the morning we hunted again for the road out of town toward Andahuaylas and Abancay. Did I mention that you need to be a clairvoyant to find your way around down here? There are very confusing road signs and almost no street signs. The easiest way is to just ask someone on the side of the street. They are usually very happy to help as long as you engage in a little small talk about where you're from and where you're going. The road started out not too bad but eventually deteriorated into a quagmire. I dumped my bike on a slimey corner coming up the hill out of Ayacucho and pulled the mounting bracket of one of my sidecases. I'd already figured this might happen and used a ratchet strap as a temporary fix to get us going again in quick time. The road continued to get worse and the construction crews along the way found us a little entertaining although they gave us a lot of encouragement. It took us a 9 hour day to do the 250 km to Andahuaylas and we crossed over two 4200 meter passes enroute. We were both bagged at the end just from being so totally focused on not falling in the greasy mud of the road. I was kind of ticked off too because I'd fallen again when my wheels went on opposite sides of a log that was buried in the mud. It was all funny after but I was pretty much covered in mud from the tuck and roll. We went for Chinese food that night and I could barely finish my beer I was so tired. Unfortunately, for some reason, my camera didn't record any of the pictures I'd taken that day.
On Saturday morning we got up to the sound of more rain. For some reason we thought is was paved road from here but Ohhh No. We had about 138 km of gravel to get to Abancay and the kid at the gas station said that takes about 6 hours. Awesome. We took a wrong turn out of town and it was super greasy and slimey and I was starting to think about staying put until the road dried up a bit. Luckily we sorted it out and the road wasn't too bad for the first while. Then of course it got really foggy. I may have mentioned before that people like to drive on the wrong side of the road at blind corners. Well, they do that in the fog too. Not too sure why but it definitely adds a twist to the ride.
At one point I looked back in the mirror and Neil wasn't there. We had just crossed a creek so I figured something must have happened there. I pulled over to run back to the creek and realized we were at about 3500 m ASL or so. About halfway back to the creek I was huffin' and puffin' and couldn't run anymore. Luckily, a local had stopped to give Neil a hand with his bike. He'd bumped up against a rock during the crossing and couldn't hold the bike up and it settled into the creek.
In general it wasn't a bad ride but it took us about four and a half hours to do the 138 km to Abancay. From there it was an uneventful but nice ride to Ollantaytambo. The climb out of Abancay was pretty cool though with all the switchbacks. I didn't count them but if you have a look at Google Maps it will give you some idea of how twisty the road is. When we parked in the town plaza in Ollantaytambo some people gave us some advice where to stay as it was the only place they could find with parking for bikes. It turned out 3 biking couples were staying at the same hostel as us. It was kind of cool because we got to exchange stories from the road and where to go and where not to go. Except for us, everybody was headed north. One couple from England (who had sold everything to do it) were in their second year of travel and had shipped their bike to South America after traveling through Africa. It might be cheaper to send the bike to South Africa rather than Vancouver when I'm done. Wouldn't it? Hmm...

Almost needed a bath and it got worse.

The road was awesome until the fog rolled in.

On the road to Abancay. You can see a farmer working his potato crop.

It's almost perfect now. Foggy and muddy.

I had stopped to take a picture and this Toyota truck stops. These guys pile out and want pictures of themselves sitting on my bike. The guy with the camera wanted to know if my bike was for sale. If the road was any worse it would have been.

A typical house for this area.

One of the very many villages we passed through. I still can't get over how populated it is here. Everywhere.

Abancay is the brownish area near the top center of the picture.

Rio Apurimac between Abancay and Cusco

Ollantaytambo is a very small town 90 km by road northwest of Cusco. We chose to stay here because it's a convenient place to stay before heading to Machu Picchu. We actually took Sunday off because we were so tired from the previous 5 days riding. I know... Booo Hooo! Anyways, it was a good place to hang out. I got some Christmas shopping done and there was lots of ruins right here in town to look at.

This is a typical street in Ollantaytambo.

Above Ollantaytambo looking across from some ruins to other ruins on the other side of town.

Ruins overlooking Ollantaytambo.

This is really someones front door in Ollantaytambo. The stone is Inca original and it's very common in town.

More Inca handiwork.

On Monday we took the train to Machu Picchu. I don't even know what to say about it. It's incredible. You just have to go see it. It's not just what the Incas built, it's where they built it. It's amazing. We hired a guide for two hours and it was well worth it. He said it may have only taken 90 years to build what we see. If you go, take the train ride. It's a pretty cool way to see the dramatic drop of the gorge of the Rio Urubamba and the transition from the semi-arid Ollantaytambo area to the cloud forest around Machu Picchu.

This was stonework on the royal buildings. They got the best. Naturally.

Someone advised us to walk up to the Sun Gate for the view and put everything in perspective. I'm glad we did.

You can walk to the top of the pinnacle in the background to see more ruins. It usually takes about an hour. The record up is about 30 minutes. The record for coming down is held by a German tourist: 12 seconds. It's pretty steep.

On the train ride back to Ollantaytambo.

Some entertainment on the train ride.

In comparison to the previous week, today's ride was pretty boring. We followed a wide river valley past Cusco to the 4312 m Abra La Raya pass southeast of Sicuani. From there we continued to the city of Puno on the shore of Lago Titicaca at 3800 m above sea level.. The scenery was still beautiful, just different. It kind of reminded me of the Alberta foothills. It was a 500 km ride in the rain and wind and hail with temperatures around 4 deg C. It seemed pretty easy compared to what we'd been doing.

More of Neils' friends.

See you in Chile.