Uyuni, Bolivia

After a pleasant dinner at our small but charmingly simple and friendly hotel in Ollague last night, it was decided that an early start was needed 7.30am to get to the Bolivian border and get through quickly as, being Easter Sunday, there may be busses at the border early. We got to the Chilean side quickly, no one else there, not even staff,so we wait until 8am until office slowly opened. All good , although it is bitterly cold at around -5c. Next , the 2-3 km crossing of no mans land to the Bolivian checkpoint. No staff there as yet but about 3 busses on the Bolivian side of the gate and only us on the Chilean side of the gate. Bolivia has a 1 hr time difference so we must wait an hour in the cold with no toilets or cafes or shelter for the office to open. We have 2 offices to go through, the first was immigration and the second was customs for the bikes and truck etc. Must be in that order. So when office finally opens an hour later, our small group must wait fir the three busloads to be clearer as they were there first. Plus another bus turned up coming from our side and its driver tried to queue jump. So we waited till nearly 11am before getting past immigration. We next went to customs and yes there was a problem, despite all the work that went into getting it right at the consulate in Santiago. The problem was the paperwork we got from the Chilean side that morning was missing something, so Hugo, our team leader went back through no mans land to the chilean checkpoint and emerged about an hour later with the corrected paperwork. After processing this we got away about 1pm Bolivian time.

I had decided yesterday that I was not going to ride today as it was a border crossing and around 300k in dirt, which frankly I did not want to risk any injury through tiredness or skill lack in riding on dirt, so I went in the truck. A wise choice after a 6 hr border crossing and we did not get to Uyuna until around 5pm. The road was pretty ordinary, lots of soft stuff, which I don't like to ride in and heavily potholed and rough in other spots.

The road was pretty with lots of llamas, some sheep, Quinoi growing (i think) and much greener than the Chilean landscapes of previous days. We stopped  for lunch  in a small town called San Cristobal outside a nice old  church. I saw a few women with classic Bolivian hats and costume on but did not get any pics. More time yet. By the time we got to Uyuni it was nearly dark. Everyone was stuffed.

Uyuni is on the edge of a big salt lake (which we will visit tomorrow) as well as a graveyard for old railway engines and carriages. That should be good. Tonight we all had nice Pizza for dinner at the hotel and early nights for all. Wi Fi here is slow and crap.