Chiu Chiu (Chile) to Uyuni (Bolivia)

An exciting few days over this leg of the trip with me finally crossing the border into Bolivia! I started out from Chiu Chiu after a great relaxing day spent there and back in Calama. The riding was great with not too bad roads and minimal traffic but as the day progressed so did the climbing!! I again got up to 4200m before dropping back to 3900m where I spent the night at a place called Cebollar. A really odd place as no one was there!! There were a few houses and a mining camp but after knocking on all the doors etc I just decided to pitch my tent in the middle of town. No one came during the night so it was all good! Next day was a short one to the Chilean border town of Ollague. I just wanted to stop for some lunch then carry on into Bolivia. The border guards didn´t seem too keen to stamp me out and told me to come back tomorrow. I thought it was a bit weird but hey it is South America! I got a hostel and had a shower before wondering what the hell I was going to do as the town was tiny with no one around. I decided to go for a walk to check the place out and get some supplies for the coming days. I ran into a group of locals who were preparing for the annual carnival and they invited me to join them by wrapping streamers around my neck and spraying me with fake snow!! Well that was the start of a great night as after this the beer started to flow along with the wine, shots and of course loads of coca leaves to chew on! All the locals thought I was mad cycling but they had plenty of laughs about it during the night. Carnival de Ollague wasn´t like the one in Rio but it was heaps of fun all the same. The next day I got up early as promised the day before the border would be open at 8am to let me through. The old lady running the Hostel wouldn´t let me go until she had made me breakfast so I didn´t get to the border (just across the street) until about 8.45am. I waited and waited until about 10.10am when a very hungover border guard finally stamped me out!! 3-4km down the road I did the same thing on the Bolivian side where the friendly border guard only charged me US$4!! Oh well it got me through plus I was carry lots of fruit, meat and coca leaves so all good in the end. Due to the late start I only cycled 72km......in the wrong direction (!!!) before camping in the desert for the night. I didn´t feel that safe in the Bolivian desert at night but it worked out OK just bloody freezing at -10 degrees!! The next day I thought I would hit the next town by mid morning but I rode into a totally different place. I was sratching my head thinking this town shouldn´t be here before I figured out that I wasn´t on the road I thought I was!! I´d been travelling south east instead of the north east I thought I was. I blame it on the altitude as it was very high through this section!! Anyways, it worked out to my advantage as the road was fairly good and it only took me two days riding to reach Uyuni when I thought it was going to take me three!!
Bolivia is certainly a lot different from Chile with the people being extremely poor. It will take a little getting used to as Chile was so relaxed with no real concerns about crime but here I think is a little different. We´ll see as I have a lot of riding to get through before hitting the capital La Paz in about a week or so time. I can´t wait but first a couple of days in Uyuni checking out the salt lakes and other amazing scenery. Tonight I´m heading out for some Tortilla´s but I hope they aren´t dirty like the ones I had the other night!! Anyways, the food here is a bit dodgy so we´ll see.

Riding Stats
- 4th Feb - 120km
- 5th Feb - 49km
- 6th Feb - 72km
- 7th Feb - 161km

Total - 2375km