7338 km Uyuni

Hi everyone,

Leaving Antofagasta went very smoothly. Despite climbing up again from sealevel I managed to cycle 154km on the first day sleeping on 1200m. Not a bad start of this leg of the trip. Of course the nice little tailwind I had, dit not hurt. Expecting a nice night of sleep after a long day of cycling, I got a nice little surprise at night, when my hotelroom started shaking. It seems I got caught in an earthquack (terra mota) of 5.3 on the richter scale. The Chileans did not seem to impressed however, they don't really care much for anything under 7. This was earthquack number 93 in Chile this year, so it seems to be fairly common event.

Due to the nice start I had only 70km more to go to Calama. Unfortunatelly the wind did a 180 on me so the easy time was over. Luckily it was just 70km, so not to much of an issue even with a headwind. The next day I had 100km more to go to San Pedro de Atacama and a nice little 3450m mountain to climb over before getting there. The day started out slow with the headwind and climbing and I almost felt it would be to much for a day. Luckily I made up for lost time in the long descent, plunging down with around 70km/h San Pedro suddenly was is reach again. 

After arriving in San Pedro I treated myself to a nice long 5 day break. Partly to see the sights around San Pedro, but also to give the legs some well deserved rest and get used to the altitude. With 2450 meter San Pedro is not crazy high yet, but I knew I had to go up a lot more heading into Bolivia. 

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about the next leg in this trip, cycling from San Pedro to Uyuni via the lagunas on the altiplano in the South West of Bolivia. This trip is no joke. You have to cope with extreme temperatures, altitide sickness, lack of food and water, no roadsigns or even roads for that matter.

After the 5 days of r&r in San Pedro I left for Uyuni. The first day I cycled only 27km up to an altitude of 3500 meter and camped along the road. I felt a little dizzy at times and got some minor headaches too. It was clear this altitude requires adjustments from your body. I felt pretty ok the next morning. No headaches or dizzyness, so I continued further up to the border at 4600 meters. My legs were incredibly weak however. It took me more then 3! hours to cycle the first 9 km. Of course the bike was a lot heavier then normal, but this was a little crazy. I was clearly struggling. 

After crossing the border and having a good lunch at Laguna Verde in Bolivia, I felt much better . From that moment on the altitude has been less and less of a problem. Cycling has been really tough though. At times you can only walk due to the soft sand or the ridiculous amount of pointly rocks in your path. I even had to fight myself through stretches of ice on a number of occassions. Camping has been quite cold. One morning I could not open my eyes in the morning because my eyelashes had frozen together. It took some hours as well before I had all feeling back in the points of my fingers. luckily I persevered and after 5 days I reached the first road again. It felt great to ride on something decent again and eventually I made it to Uyuni in 7 days. It's all worth it though because the landscape your cycling in is absolutely stunning. Beautifull vulcanos, rock formations, flamingos, it's a real special place here.

From Uyuni I will head north in the direction of Oruro and La Paz, but of course not before taking my bike for a little spin on the amazing salt flats near Uyuni.

Feeling pretty good right now, a very tough section of this trip has now been completed without any serious problems. Time to head into town and celebrate!

Erik