Chile to Argentina

look at the high deserts here

and don't forget to look at the pictures from La Paz to Potosi that we finally were able to upload here!

After a short break of one night in Chile in the warmness of the Atacama desert oasis it was time to get back up into the cold, high Andes to cross to Argentina together with our Swiss friends Christelle and Manu. We had to get back up to over 4000m and climb the 2000m altitude we had rolled down the afternoon before, but quickly decided to stop any available transport to get back to the point we had been at yesterday, as it would have taken us whole day riding back the way we had come. We got lucky with a ride and little later started cycling again up at 4000m.

For 4 days we didn't pass any village, no houses, just deserts in all its possible shapes, forms and colors: sand, stone, rocks, canyons, in red-orange-gray-brown-yellow. It often looked like photos taken on planet Mars, or a painting from Salvador Dali. But it was incredible – every few kilometers, every curve in the road brought new surprises and beautiful scenes to admire, it kept on getting better and better. It was still very windy, especially in the afternoons, luckily it wasn't always headwind!

The forlorn border post of Argentina half way was the only human sign of life we saw, and we were greatly admired by the border officials for coming through here by bike. The winds were very strong the whole way, but luckily mostly from the back. One day the back wind was so strong that we broke our speed record going down a long straight slight downhill: we went at 101km/h (65mph)!!! The same day we reached a new maximum altitude as well: 4830m (14,500ft). However finding a campsite with some sort of wind shelter was difficult – we tried to find little ditches or holes on the side of the road, anything to get out of the wind and cold. But this part of road led us really through some of the most impressive landscapes we have seen since the beginning of our trip – so out-worldly and different! Just look at the photos...

Finally we had reached the eastern edge of the Andes, and dropped down 2000m (6000ft) in just 30km down into the valleys of Argentina. We stayed for a night in the small touristic town of Purmamarca in a hostel, surrounded by the colorful rock walls that make the village a tourist destination. From here the road followed river valleys, dropping further down towards San Salvador de Jujuy and the village of El Carmen, were we got for the first time into the comfort of using the famous and bike-traveler-loved municipal campgrounds that abound in Argentina. We were the only guests on the huge campgrounds, enjoyed sitting on tables for cooking and eating dinner under the large trees, and not freezing while doing so as temperatures were again like summer! The climatic changes we often rapidly go through on this trip are really extreme...

One more day of cycling finally brought us to the big town of Salta. We are lucky to be hosted here by a nice Argentinian family in the “Casa de Ciclistas”, where we can relax and enjoy being back in a developed country and its luxuries and pleasantries. We enjoyed two good bottles of Argentinian wine last night with a pizza to celebrate our arrival in the last country on our trip, and thus leave you all with a big CHEERS till we reach Kat's aunts in Mendoza in a few weeks!!