April 17, 2005
Day 56
Volcan Licancabur
The temperature was -13 inside the tent last night. Yet, for the first time in a while, I've slept the whole night through.
We pack up amid bright sunlight, giddy at the day's prospects. We will cycle down to Laguna Verde, at the foot of Volcan Licancabur, and from there, up and over the pass into Chile.
Laguna Verde
Volcan Licancabur
We reached the far side of Laguna Verde, with some tourist facilities and a store. We bought enough food for the afternoon.
Laguna Verde
The road from here began to climb out of the basin. It crossed a newly constructed building where park rangers hit you with a park fee.
A kilometre or two further on you hit the border post. We took a final picture of the Laguna Verde basin, and asked the border official to take a photo of us under the Bolivian flag.
We are in no mood to climb today, but damned if this road doesn't do just that. Up, up and more up. It seems you have to buy your way out of the altiplano with unending effort. And there is no sense of 'payback' -- i.e. getting to go down after going up. You just kind of always go up.
Once on the Chilean side, we climbed up a bit further to a ridge, where we joined a brand-new tarmac road. To the left, the road would go all the way to Paso Jama and the Salinas Grandes area we'd been in several weeks before.
To the right, the road slides away to San Pedro de Atacama, some 40 kilometres and 2000 metres below us.
Volcan Licancabur
Volcan Licancabur
Volcan Licancabur
This beautiful road just plunged and plunged. There was so much speed on tap. Ocassionally a sign warns you that the road is about to become steeper -- just when it seemed steep already.
We arrived at San Pedro de Atacama, went through customs, and cycled into town.
We found Casa Corvach, the hostel where we'd sent our package from Santiago.
From the journal:
Nearly two months after we left Santiago, I rest here in San Pedro de Atacama. So glad to be down here. -13 inside the tent yesterday. But I slept well. Hustled down to Laguna Verde but -- surprise! You need to climb! Bolivia: You can come in but you can never leave without climbing. Maddening, hateful climb out even beyond the frontier. But alas at the top you hit tarmac, sweet tarmac. From there 42 kms of descent, all the way in. So happy. So bloody happy.
Great trip, about 1000 kms more than it should have been. Great finish. The road from Tupiza is mind-blowing. I won't recommend it, though. Just too difficult.
| Landmark |
time |
temp
(°C) |
odometer
(kms) |
altitude
(m) |
(Google Earth) |
| Basin above Laguna Verde |
10:30 am |
-13 (7 am inside tent) |
0 |
4300 |
4374 |
| Border |
1:50 pm |
11 |
21 |
4490 |
4483 |
| Pavement |
2:45 pm (Bol. time) |
15 |
27 |
4615 |
4594 |
| Casa Corvach, San Pedro de
Atacama |
6:00 pm |
WARM! |
71 |
2280 |
2439 |