Tupiza Passage

The road followed a washout lined with fiery red stone pitched upright to the earth.

The road began climbing a ravine.

Brice drinking from a Camelbak in the pannier.

And climbed above the ravine.

Before long the switchbacks began.

An hour of this and we thought we were closing in on the top.

The saddle which we took for the top revealed ... higher ground and more switchbacks. This section is called El Sillar.

And climb again we did.

Looking back on El Sillar.

The road reached a small plateu from which we could see a higher pass yet. You can just make out the road scaling the mountain from left to right in this photo, and then switching back left again. Seeing this, we decided to stop for lunch.

An hour after lunch we felt we were closing in on the top (again). The small plateau where we ate lunch is down to the right of Brice's cap in this photo.

Keep your head down and climb.

Sailei Pass

Voilá! Day One's pass is reached. No adornment here so we took the liberty of naming it.

We were well chuffed to be on top.

The road dropped into a pueblo called Nacimiento. Here we found some Tupiza officials getting tanked. The more fargone ones were a little overzealous in expressing fondness for their newfound best foreign friends.

We drew water from a barrel behind the tienda, bought some sardine tins and cookies, and cycled another kilometre up the road to set up camp for the night.

Landmark	time*	temp (°C)	odometer (kms)	altitude (m)	(Google Earth)
Tupiza	10:30 am	39	0	2800	2967
El Silar (saddle)	1:30 pm		15	3600	3774
Intermediate Plateau	3:10 pm		20	3815	3962
Sailei Pass	4:45 pm	20	27	4216	4351
Nacimiento	6:11 pm	17	35	3718	3846
Camp	7:53 pm	19	36	3746	3884

* Times were usually recorded upon leaving the landmark, hence they include rest periods.
Read the day's journal entry.