We’ve done a bunch in the past few weeks. We finished out the last of the Salta region in Argentina, moved to Chile to explore San Pedro de Atacama, spent a week in Bolivia (to be continued) and are now back in Chile. We’ve had so many highlights.
I’m always dying to take the packrafts out. But logistically, it can be hard to do. So we scoped out a river canyon in Salta province that has white water rafting and then launched our rafts just downriver from the take out point for the rafting companies. That meant we would float down class I/II which is what our lightweight rubber duckies are made for. It took a bit to stage our truck and Ivan’s van but it was worth the effort because the river was fast and pretty, sometimes bumpy which is good practice, undeveloped and with some wildlife not the least of which were pigs!
In sailing, you never know what distant shore you’ll see your old friends wash up on and it’s the same with overlanding. We hadn’t seen our friends Linda & Sandro and their truck Howis Web since BC, Canada but we finally crossed paths in the cute little town of Yala, Argentina. It was so nice to sit around in our chairs in the park catching up and eating empenadas together. We also did an awesome 50km bike ride up in to Park Provincial Potrero De Yala. A dirt road climbs 3000 feet up and then hugs the cliffs for a long while before descending back in to town to make a loop. I really loved that ride and seeing Linda & Sandro was a long time in the works but it finally happened. Maybe on another continent someday…..
Once we said goodbye, we moved up toward the town of Purmamarca with it’s colorful hills, Tilcara with it’s old fashioned tilled farm fields and then Humahuaca, which was my favorite town. It had a really cute town center and traditional market with lots of color. It feels funny to be up in this part of Argentina where the indigenous people dominate which is much different than further south. We hadn’t seen markets and much for trinket sales until now. Fake Columbia clothing dominates an overwhelming number of stalls piled high with so much merchandise that it makes me claustrophobic in a way. It reminded me of all the “North Face” gear in Nepal. We stopped at the MEC Museum in Tilcara where they exhibit works of Argentine photographers. They had a cute little library and a nice building to house everything in. It made me miss museums in general because it was so nicely done.
Just outside of Humahuaca 25km UP is the Serrania de Hornocal, a set of toothy rock formations in a myriad of pastel peach colors. It was really cold and windy but we spent some time up there looking at that landscape and breathlessly walking around among the grasses up there.
We headed up to the furthest north we would go in Argentina to Tres Cruces specifically to do a hike to the Punte del Diablo- a natural bridge up at 13,250ft. We were working on getting acclimated to the higher elevations ahead and this was a beautiful hike. The geology of Argentina is striking and over this past year, we have come to know that it is our favorite country down here. The colors, the laid back style, the friendly people, the freedom to roam, the spectacular places we can visit, it all adds up to something really special. It was hard to say goodbye but we started marking our way back down to Purmamarca to head up to the Yama Pass and cross to Chile.
There sure are a lot of remarkable roads in the world and the Andes pass roads have to be among the best of them. Over 2 days we climbed to the Salinas Grandes salt flats and spent the night and then continued on up and across the pass the following day. In preparation for crossing in to Chile, we had to cook all of our meat & produce as usual which is always a pain but it seems a shame to waste good food. You do get to feeling bloated from eating a whole cabbage in 24 hrs! But we got across the border without too much hassle and the border officials are always impressed when they see a fridge full of cooked produce. Then it was a fantastic afternoon driving down to San Pedro de Atacama, a place we’d looked forward to seeing for years now. The Atacama Desert is supposedly the driest place in the world and sports high altitude lakes, geothermal geysers, hot springs and rock formations. As we came downhill for all those miles, it was nice to finally see San Pedro come in to view with dirt devils dancing across the desert.
We explored some of the parks like the Valle de la Luna & Tatio Geysers and found others that were less popular where we could be more on our own. When we first got back to Chile and it’s cordoned off areas and many restrictions, we felt a little annoyed. At Valley of the Moon park they have a driving route to the trails. First we were told we couldn’t take our truck in, then we could, then 2 minutes later we couldn’t again. So we rode our bikes with required reflective gear in case we didn’t stick out enough in that lunar landscape and it turned out great since we were early enough to beat the afternoon crowds and we prefer exercising more anyway. I did notice that there were more “No Pasar” signs on the trails than people in the park!
We hiked up a canyon to sit in hot springs, had an incredible couple days at the Tatio Geysers with more wild hot springs, tons of animals and beautiful scenery. Vizcachas are sort of like a chinchilla and on one walk there were tons of them!
We biked in a red canyon, hiked, hung out in downtown and when we were done exploring, we made the decision to head to Bolivia via the Laguna Route. Having reached elevations of over 14k feet and being able to hike OK, we were feeling relatively acclimated although we did go around like fish out of water at times trying to suck in more air. Both Ivan’s and our truck were running fine.
After one too many pisco sours to wrap up our time in Chile for now, we departed in the afternoon to make the climb back up the Yama pass to meet up with the border of Bolivia. The climb was 6000 feet and the wind was behind us. The engine was getting warm but still in the acceptable range and we’ve found that with the turbo Jon installed, the truck is fantastic with power since it has that extra grunt in the lower gears. He just needs to drop to 3rd on the steep parts to keep the coolant circulating well. We noticed the air pressure in the braking system was slightly elevated over 8 and we started releasing air from our air seats to lower it. It probably had to do with the rate of climb to such a high elevation. At one point, we did pull over for a second and at that point we heard a sudden air release. We had lost low range and lockers and also the ability to turn off the engine without tipping the cab. The air would only come up to 7 bar instead of 8 now, which was a problem. We aren’t in love with tipping the cab because it can be a bit hard if we’re not level.
The Bolivia border crossing into the park involves 4 stops and it was getting late in the day as we had paused for a bit for Jon to suss out what was happening with our brakes. We got checked out and in and into the park at sunset and called it a night. I’m not sure what the USA did to Bolivia but it costs $160pp in US cash to get into the country whereas for most other nationalities it is free. We pretty much flopped around in bed that night trying to sleep. In the wee hours it got really cold and our furnace stopped working close to morning. No problem because our box is so well insulated. But we do use our heater to preheat our engine so it starts as if it was a summer day. As with Ivan, we had to wait till the sun warmed things up before starting our engines and setting off to explore the first 2 lagunas on the Laguna Route. That morning, we all looked for the air leak with the cab tipped and Jon found an o-ring on the air pump that was leaking and replaced it, but it wasn’t the cause of our low air pressure.
We headed out having a fantastic day exploring Laugna Blanca and Verde, bumping across incredibly beautiful, lonely scenery and ended up at our own private hot spring that looked out over a flamingo filled lagoon. Sitting in that warm water with an infinity pool style all just set up for us to enjoy was magical. For some reason, all the tourists went to the other pools just down the road. That night, we tried our heater out and it worked again as it wasn’t so cold.
The following morning, we could preheat the engine so that was good and after a morning hot spring soak, we then tipped the cab again and Jon went about looking for the leak and spotted it- the secondary air line that ran past the turbo heat shield had blown a hole from the heat of the engine on the climb up to Bolivia’s altiplano. A union of the air hoses meant we had our capabilities back and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
The washboard road rattles your teeth out and makes you wonder why it should be that bad. Every now and then we would see graters but nothing much was happening to improve the road. Instead, they just make other sand roads beside the main one, and then others such that at times there were so many sand roads paralleling each other you didn’t know which one to take! Still, the scenery was impressive. We stopped at the Sol de Manana Geysers which is a field of steaming fumaroles, noisy vents, mudpots and colorful craters in a fog of fumes. We could still feel the effects of altitude and I had a pretty good headache that day which could easily have been from the washboard on my neck. Bolivians chew coca leaves to combat mild elevation symptoms and Ivan had gotten a bag so he gave me some to try. I couldn’t tell a difference but it was the first time I could tell what it was like to have a lip full of chew.
After the geothermal show we contined along more beautiful scenery to over 16,000 feet before descending a little to Laguna Colorada. It is also another flamingo filled lagoon but it has a pink color too. We visited a couple of viewpoints, walked along the lake and took it all in. There are several outfitters that come from San Pedro de Atacama in Toyota SUV’s, mainly in packs at certain times of day bringing handfuls of tourists. Outside of these times we are all alone. It does make you think about breaking down and the stress that would cause in such a place.
And at the same time, the solitude is what gives us a huge buzz. I often think about how for me, nothing is often everything. I guess that’s why I love backpacking so much.
The air system was fixed but then the switch on our electric entry steps broke and our heater called it quits again. It was full of soot from improper burning at elevation. Plus, Ivan’s van starting acting up because newer Sprinter vans have an exhaust system that can’t take elevation. Because we had to move so slow on the washboard roads, his exhaust was sooting up. On our last day, he was consumed with monitoring error codes and we were all making our way toward the last highlight on the Laguna Route- the Italia Perdida rock formations. What a crazy maze of towering rock formations in a pretty setting. The sandy path to get there was the best road we’d encountered that day, so smooth.
The final day of driving had some crazy parts. After leaving the park, the road got even worse and went through a mining area where you couldn’t quite tell where to drive for a while. We are a little rusty with this kind of thing coming from Argentina & Chile. It was fun to see so many llamas hanging out on the shoreline with their little red ribbons and sometimes a shepherd herding them. We’re out of goat & sheep areas now- it’s llamas! We stopped and took a walk at the Valle de las Rocas, another collection of interesting rock formations, before continuing on to Uyuni, a milestone of sorts. We’ve anticipated arrival at this town for years now, ever since we contemplated shipping our truck here. It was a little stressful as Ivan’s exhaust issue was just getting worse but still, good to be there.
I have sometimes heard that when you’ve seen a lot of spectacular things, you start getting numb to them or it takes more to impress you. For me, it is far from the truth. I think there are endless extraordinary things left for me to see on this planet, this past few weeks have been just a few more in my pocket. It’s funny how just like with sailing, you have to get your sea legs again and again. Being in Bolivia, we get twinges of that feeling we sometimes get during travel where it can be shocking how many ways there are to live. It is both a little scary and at the same time moving.
I think I will stop here because this is already way too long!
