Salar de Uyuni
to Rosario.

It’s a riding week, heading across the Uyuni salt flats at 3000+m, into Chile, across the Andes into Argentina and a long haul south.

Goneriden

This week’s route

Salar de Uyuni - San Pedro - Salta - Cordoba - Rosario

1Uyuni
2San Pedro de Atacama
3Salta
4Cordoba
5Rosario

Week 31 routeArgentinaRegional context

Approximate route using modern roads · OpenStreetMap contributors · route via OSRM

Memorable moment

Memorable moment.

Once more we were a little late leaving town, but hey, this late in the trip a 500km afternoon ride from Chile to Argentina over the Andes is just child’s play. Maybe.

With 70 kms to go until we reached the 'pass' there was more and more snow we could see on the hillsides. Still clear weather though, so we pressed on, not really absorbing the fact that there was not much other traffic. The first couple of snow drifts were fairly tame, but when we hit the deeper ones the bikes were sliding all over the place. Back on clear road as we picked up speed, the snow which had built up in the wheel spokes flew out and whizzed past our helmets. No turning back now: as a small 4WD in front gave up due to snow too deep on the road, we went off the road and made our own track. Being bogged in snow is quite amusing, the first time.

The wind by this time was approaching gale force, but the valley ahead looked clearer and maybe the last section would be easy going. Halfway down the road we stopped at the military check point where the road was blocked. The older officer who came out asked us where we were from, then guided us inside. What we proceeded to find out (with lots of hand signals and a dictionary) was that the pass ahead was covered in 1m of snow; we had no time to go back as it would be dark in an hour, and we were lucky we didn't get stuck and freeze to death. Our response was to help the guy gather some wood, sit by the small pot belly and gladly accept the cup of coffee.

We spent the night and, with the help of two more junior officers, convinced the old guy that we could get around the snow, bought some extra fuel and left for the pass. What we found was no snow at all and an easy run to the border, as it would have been the night before. Maybe they just wanted company.

Original Week 31 account

Pictures of the week

Three moments from the road

Quote of the week

"Gibberish, gibberish, gibberish........." — checkpoint guard on the Chilean border.

We translated this to basically mean "You two are clowns".

"I left Jamie on the side of the road 10 km back; he has a flat tyre and doesn't have a pump." — Chris, an American rider on a Suzuki DR650 who joined us across the Salar de Uyuni.

Competition

Armed with two sticks of dynamite each, we competed to see who could make the most impressive explosion. Both were pretty good, and the final consensus was basically that 'dynamite is fun'.

Highlight

Meeting up with 7 other motorbike travellers in Uyuni.

It's great to be able to talk the same 'bike' language for a while. The trip across the salt plains and through the mountains with 4 other bikers was excellent, as the pictures try to show.

Risk activity

Riding around for 3 days with 8 sticks of dynamite in your backpack.Risk factor2/10

Lowlight

Getting up at 6 in the morning to sub-zero temperatures, needing to pour hot water over the ignition switch to defrost it, and then riding off with numb fingers and toes.

It was this morning when Cris from Ultimatejourney was not accused of being soft for having heated grips on his BMW.