Ollangüe, Chile
A hotel in San Juan built of salt blocks, sort of like the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palaces.
Now the roads are really bad. We ate a second breakfast at a nice hotel in San Juan, a stop on the tourist circuit, then dropped onto the Salar de Chiguana, which has a better surface. A late afternoon headwind slowed our progress to the Chilean border. We’ve been pushing hard for the last week in order to Skype our families on Thanksgiving, and even altered our route from Argentina to Chile to do so. The sun set as we cycled the 5k between border posts, and the Chilean side was just closing as we arrived. But the officials here stayed open to let us through. I looked out the window for Julie to arrive and saw a young immigration agent fall while taking a joyride on my Cruzbike. Our only two time zone changes this trip have been into and out of Bolivia. Central America and northern South America are on Eastern Standard Time, which was the same as Central Daylight Time. Bolivia is one hour east (ahead) of that, and though Chile is west of Bolivia their time is one hour east of Bolivia. Chile and Argentina are in the same time zone, so for the rest of our South American adventure we’ll be three hours ahead of Central Standard Time. We spent only 17 days in Bolivia, cycling 1,000 km in ten days of travel.
Eating lunch in the only shade on the salar.
Rainbow reflections in the clouds.
Sunset between the border posts on the Bolivia/Chile border.
