Chile

Santiago Chile and arriving in Buenos Aires

Santiago Chile and arriving in Buenos Aires

After leaving Valparaiso in the rain and driving the short express route I arrived in Santiago easily and checked into the ChileInn.  The two ladies who run the place insisted my bike would make it through the 3 sets of doors into the courtyard – they were right, even though I bumped the television and [...]

Conservative Mendoza to Dilapidated, Intellectual Valparaiso

Conservative Mendoza to Dilapidated, Intellectual Valparaiso

I don’t think I saw anything at all really of Mendoza.  I drove into it at night and left it in the morning.   I didn’t find the people as friendly as other places in Argentina but I’m sure it was worth at least two nights stay.  However, now that I’ve booked a flight (Buenos Aires [...]

San Pedro De Atacama to Salta Argentina

San Pedro De Atacama to Salta Argentina

After the rain finally stopped in Ollague on the Chilean-Bolivian border I left on a sunny morning for the drive through the Atacama Desert (one of the driest places on earth) to San Pedro De Atacama, Chile.  San Pedro is an oasis in the desert that is quite overly touristy. Before arriving in town I [...]

Miners as KLR650 mechanics in Ollague, Chile

Miners as KLR650 mechanics in Ollague, Chile

I awoke to the sound of rain falling on the fiberglass roof. Stiff from yesterday’s marathon ride from Uyuni I entered the hotel’s dining room already full of miners sitting in the half-darkness.   Electricity apparently is only available from dusk until sometime in the early morning.  Grumpily I accepted the offered breakfast of stale bread, [...]

Failing in the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and crossing to Ollague, Chile

Failing in the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and crossing to Ollague, Chile

After leaving La Paz mid-morning I arrived at a hot-springs hotel that had been suggested to me by Phillip (a German driving a Land Cruiser around S.A.) as a way to avoid staying in Oruro (a “shithole” in his words).   I didn’t spend the extra $25 to have a room with a private hotspring so [...]