So, as I had mentioned before, my computer pretty much broke down somewhere half way, which makes that only now can I post the updates from some weeks ago, but just imagine it is around the first week of April now 😉
And, I’m back with updates on the second week of cycling and one of the most amazing, beautiful and physically and morally challenging cycling experiences in a long time.
So I left you all from Uyuni, after the camping experience. Because I couldn’t enter the salt flats but still wanted to see what they call ‘ the world largest mirror’, I had to go on a tour. The jeeps I had been laughing about the day before, now I was in one of them. It was a bit of a strange experience and in the beginning a bit disappointing as it was quite windy and thus no reflections. But as the sun set, everything became magical and we saw the most amazing reflections ever! It’s all about patience 
After this I took, what I knew to be my last shower in a while, packed my bags and mentally prepared for what was to come. I knew this route would be a rough one, I had heard and read all kinds of stories and was a bit nervous really. Was I up for those kind of challenges? By myself? I also knew that after Uyuni it would be dirt road all the way to the border with Chile. Luckily I have a mountainbike, but still.
So there I went, And indeed.. dirt road it was. Pretty good one still, but also very dusty which meant I would be covered in dust every time a car or truck passed. And this went on for 180kms, which I split in half by staying somewhere in a little town. (The only one on the way) and where I did my food shopping for the days to come. Stocking up on pasta, oats, canned tuna, mayonnaise (to give it some kind of flavour) and chocolate for moral support . I got to Alota and was hoping on finding some final lunch here to not have to start using my supplies yet. But Easter Friday meant everything was very closed. Except for one little place where some jeep tourgroups were having lunch. After looking quite hungry, I got all the left overs. Yeay with that I wanted to cycle the last 30kms to the entrance of the craziness, but a massive head wind came up and whether it was the well intended lunch or the altitude but my stomach went completely crazy and after having had to sit behind a rock for 5 times my energy was gone and I had to set up camp behind some rocks. With my little warm oats and my two sleeping bags it wasn´t too bad at 4300 meters high.
The next morning I felt a little better and was ready to get off the ‘international’ road and enter this famous area connecting Southern Bolivia with Chile. The Lagoon Route. Right away it turned into a pretty bad road, but with snowcapped mountains and lagoons I wasn’t complaining. I had a specific point in mind to get to and I knew it would be a total of 40kms. Because the battery and thus GPS of my phone had died, I was going on the directions of the different jeep tour drivers I found. They all kept on pointing in the same direction, but around 60kms later no lagoon was showing up. I held up one more jeep and asked and he told me that to reach that point k would have to cycle up the mountain back for 30kms and take a right. By that time it was 4pm and a massive wind had come up. There was no way I could cycle those 30kms back, but also no way I could camp out in that unprotected part of the dessert. The wind would take me and the tent at once, not even talking about the cold. So I asked the jeep if he didn’t have a little space for some kms to take me and my bike. And after the tourists very much said that he had to, they took me and dropped me in a more sheltered area that was on their route as well. So there I got to put up my tent in between rocks at 4600 meters. Good thing because temperature would drop down to -13 degrees celsius at that point. I knew I was completely alone in that dessert with no one around at night, yet I woke up a couple of times hearing strange sounds of what I thought could only explained by metal things appearing and disappearing. You can take your own conclusions 
The next day I knew was ‘only’ 20kms but with roads as terrible as there, and my belly still not doing great I also knew it would take me three hours. However, my destination for the day was the Laguna Colorada, the famous red lagoon with pink flamingos. And I knew there was a little hostel there where tour groups would stay. And yeay, when I got there, there was indeed a bed free. I got adopted by this older French couple with their guide and we shared a nice meal and stories. The guide told me he would be in Wi-Fi reach again the day after and I asked him to drop my dear boyfriend a little message, telling him I was fine but without phone coverage for at least a couple of more days , and so he did. The electricity in the hostel went out by 9pm and with no heating and temperatures again dropping below zero everyone went to bed nice and early at 8.30.
Me too, as I knew the next day would be a challenging one in which I would have to climb a pass of almost 5000 meters. I also had noticed the head winds would for sure come up after 1 pm so I wanted to take as much advantage of the morning as possible.
So there I was on my bike at 6.30am with still very much below zero temperatures. I cycled and cycled, had to stop every once in a while to catch my breath, drink water, continue, and stop again. The altitude was a hard one right now. But still.. After climbing up 600 meters, 40 kilometers and 5 hours later, I had made it!!! Now it could just go down the rest of the day!
And so I did, with the nice natural hot springs of Polques in mind as my destination for the day. However, that unmistakable sound of your tire going completely flat is something I did not want to hear!But.. I had spares. So while the wind and sand flew around me, I took of all my luggage and took off the wheel. But then… it appeared my spare tubes did not have the right size of valve and where thus completely useless! I couldn’t believe it! Here I was with all my preparations and when I finally needed it, it was wrong!!!
I still tried to find the hole in my current tube, but with such a strong wind and no water around that was an impossible mission. Nothing left to do but pushing the bike. A car that passed from the opposite side told me that it was only 1 or 2 kms. (It turned out to be 12kms.. I still wonder how Bolivians can often be so wrong with their understandings of distance). Three tour jeeps passed me, but all had different excuses why they could not take me.. going from no time to no space. So in the end I pushed my bike for 3.5 hours, into the wind. And my morals where as low as the lowest point of the Netherlands (far below sea level) and I was disappointed in myself, thinking that indeed I wasn’t made to do these things alone, disappointed in the jeeps that just let me walk there, and worried how I would get to Chile without spare tires and this terrible dirt road.
Finally I had made it to Polques, when I heard a voice from a hotpool yelling, ´come here, we are also cyclists….!´
It turned out to be two French cyclists going into the opposite direction and also having chosen Polques as their destination for the day. I left my bike for what it was, stripped down in underwear and only thought about the hot water. And then everything became ok again!! With the owner of a little restaurant in the pool as well he told us we could sleep inside on the floor and he would give us free dinner and breakfast! Watching an absolutely beautiful milky way and a falling star as from an animation movie, while sharing bike stories from the road, everything became great again!! When later we used that same pool to find the hole (there where 3 in the end) in my tube and fixed it, I remembered right away how somehow someway everything always turns out great (despite the fact that as soon as I got the tire out of the water it froze right away, indicating some quite low temperatures, once again).
After a wonderful breakfast the next morning we parted our ways and again I had to cycle up another 4700 meter pass. Going down on the coca leaves I made it and decided to sleep one more night in Bolivia before crossing the border into Chile the next morning.
The highest border crossing in the world at 4600 meters and the last kilometers of dirt road, as I knew it would become asphalt in Chile, I found my last energy (which was very low by now since it was now 7 days of demanding cycling, altitude and still massive belly problems). But as I made it to the Bolivian migration, the tour groups waiting for their stamps as well all applauded and jelled ‘you’re awesome!’. nice motivation haha.
It seems like there are lots of tour groups around by the way, but they kind of come all around the same time of the day. So I would see 15 jeeps in the time span of an hour and then be mostly alone in the dessert the rest of the day
Anyways, Bolivian migration was messy as expected but I got my stamp and crossed into Chile! And there was asphalt!!!!!
Going up some more towards the Chilean border I noticed a massive change in attitude right away. I had liked the Bolivians despite their reputation of being unfriendly. I saw them more as veerryyy introvert and shy. Which became a little annoying after a while though!! Especially since I’m used to the veerryyy outgoing Colombians, I sometimes really didn’t know how to deal with this shyness. When crossing the Chilean border, the people working there noticed my Colombian accent and right away put on some Colombian music on their phones and started dancing. At 4600 meters! See.. this is what I know how to deal with!!!
Also, from here it was 42kms and 2200 meters down towards the valley in which San Pedro de Atacama was located. I was looking forward to oxygen:)
And here I went, though I had to stop every once in a while to warm up my hands on the brakes a bit but it went great. Until the last 15 kilometers in which the sound I had been fearing all day, came again. Another flat! And with now so many holes in my tire I knew it would be difficult to fix. But as I was giving it a try, a van with two Argentines stopped and asked if they could help me. So they ended up giving me a lift down to the town again, saved by kind people!!!
Atacama is an oasis in the dessert. Very touristy, compared to what I’m used to, ridiculously expensive. But I found a nice campsite, a hot shower and a place to wash my clothes. And though everything is expensive, the wine is cheap. So going great on that one, while figuring out my next plan.
I really want to cycle more in northern Argentina, since I was there with my sis in 2009 I loved that area. But there is just some very high Andes in between again. So I’m considering taking a ride up the first pass now to the border. There are still enough passes to take but I am getting kind of done with the very extremely cold temperatures.
So, I’ll be back to you hopefully from Argentina soon
Mil besos and Abrazos!
