Day43-Adios Bolivia, Adios Rain, Adios Altitude, Tue, Feb 8, 2001

Border Crossing #12 Bolivia/Chile

Start & Stop: Oruro, Bolivia to Arica, Chile

Mileage: 330 miles

Hotel:  Hotel Plaza Colon, San Marcos 261, Arica, Chile

Fuel: $716 Chilean Peso /l liter ($1.51/1 liter) or $5.72 per gal!

Currency Exchange: $1 USD = $473 Chilean Peso

Lisa: We are so excited to finally have some pavement to look forward to!  As we headed out of town, I got to the last roundabout and things were crazy.  Cabs we going the wrong direction, lots of people standing around – just strange.  So I headed toward the exit we needed and it was blocked off by rocks and a huge crowd of men standing on both sides of the street.  I veered away from there and heard lots of yelling.  Looking back over my shoulder, it looked as though they would let us pass so I circled around and sure enough, we could pass through.  It was like being famous or something, everyone waving and yelling and cheering us on.  Ooookay. We have no idea what that was all about but it was fine with us.

We gassed up and headed north to the cut off.  I haven’t counted yet but i think we’ve been over 12,000 feet for over 10 days and I am so looking forward to something closer to sea level, hopefully to shake this cough bug once and for all.

Dean: I knew that we were in Bolivia in it’s rain season.  I really had no idea how much rain that really meant.  Overall, Bolivia was a lot colder than I originally thought.

We retraced our route back north on the PanAm Hwy to Patacamaya (60 miles short of La Paz) and hung a left on a fairly straight well paved road to Chile.  Avg speed was 65-70 mph.  The ride to the border was mostly overcast with occasional sprinkles.

Dean, Lisa, Steve Spence & Davis Henley

Seafood soup! This was very good!

Lisa's salmon & shrimp was just OK.

A chicken Mac cost $890! No we didn't eat here but the place was packed.

Lisa: Pretty uneventful, mostly all nice pavement but rain and cold.  Again. the pass at the border crossing to Chile is over 15,000 feet and DANG it was cold up there.  Super simple border crossing with Aduanos and Federal Police who – get this – spoke English.  Oh, and were quite friendly.  What’s up with that?  I thought it was the Twilight Zone or Candid Camera or something.  It was just too easy and quite pleasant.

While we were there, we parked next to a couple of riders with Texas plates but they were busy trying to get out of there so we didn’t get a chance to say more than Hi.  They left about half hour or so before we did as we all were headed down the hill toward the coast.

As we got below 14K on the Chile side, the weather closed in big time.  The fog was so thick, we probably never exceeded 30mph.  And the the rain started.  Hard.  At one point we reached a very unfriendly looking water crossing – dark brown nuddy, very fast moving and probably 40′ across with large rocks in the mix.  Oh joy.  I watched Dean cross and while he made it safely, it wasn’t pretty and I was NOT looking forward to this.  Mostly I didn’t want my bike swept off the edge if I went over.  Ahead about 1/8 mile I could see a very large truck headed my way.  So I just sat there and watched very intently as he made his way across.  I immediately headed as close to his track as I could and it was relatively painless.  Nice.

About the time the weather broke we were about 3,000′ and came around a corner to see the two Texas bikes, BMWs, parked in front of a roadside restaurant as the riders emerged.  Davis Henley and Steve Spence had tried to eat there but not having Chilean dinero was problematic.  So the 4 of us decided to head into Arica together and get rooms at the same hotel.

We’ve been on the road more than a month and this was our first encounter of any length with other riders.  It was a very enjoyable evening, walking the promenade and going for a nice dinner and good conversation.  They are headed to Ushuaia as well but are on a much extended time schedule.  We hope to connect again on our way north as they go south.

Dean: It was good to talk to someone other than Lisa.  It is good to look at someone other than Lisa.

Gas just got very expensive in Chile!  Cost me $61.63 USD to fill up 40.712 l (10.75 gal).  Yea, I was running of fumes.

Oh, by the way, I lost my CB antenna during the truck scramble.  Left it on the bike and it was sideways when we arrived in Oruro.  Now we must stay together visually which will complicate things.  The J&M CB wasn’t workin with all the rain/moisture over the past week.

Lisa: Arica is just a great little beach town – not too large but clean and fairly sophisticated.  Food is quite a bit more expensive than Bolivia but oh well.  We wished we could stay a couple more days but gotta move.

Dean: Tomorrow Iquique, Chile.