The journey to San Antonio de los Cobres was just the prelude to a bigger challenge: the Paso Sico. The challenge lies, on the one hand, in the altitude (over 4,500 meters), and on the other, in the road (practically all unpaved) and the lack of infrastructure (there’s practically nothing for over 200 km, and not much at all for over 350 km). But we’d somewhat overlooked the main challenge: the wind (which almost always comes from the west—meaning headwinds).

We stocked up on supplies in San Antonio so we’d have enough food for a good week.

On top of that, we had water for two days (about 12 liters). So we were loaded down, but in high spirits, when we set off from San Antonio.

On the first day, we had more than 800 meters of elevation gain on the itinerary. It was exhausting, but by the afternoon we reached Alto Chorrillo at just over 4,560 meters.

D After that, the route was mostly downhill. Unfortunately, the west wind picked up, so we had to struggle quite a bit before finally reaching our first stage destination just before sunset: the town of Olacapato at just over 4,000 meters. We spent the night at the local comedor (restaurant) and enjoyed Argentine cuisine one last time.

The next morning, we set off again in sunny weather. And there was practically no wind. We continued westward, riding along the Salar del Rincón for a long stretch. At first, the route was easy to ride, but then it got quite sandy. And in the afternoon, the wind picked up again. This time it was stronger (about 40–50 km/h) and didn’t let up until we reached the border that evening. There, we had the option to spend the night in a building used by the Argentine border guards. We were very glad not to be exposed to the wind, at least during the night.

After a restful night, however, we were very frustrated when the wind picked up again early in the morning (until then, it had usually only started in the afternoon). So we weren’t particularly motivated to set off again. In the end, though, we pulled ourselves together. At least the scenery was beautiful once more.

Early in the afternoon, we reached the Argentine-Chilean border and Paso Sico.

The road continued to climb. And the strong headwind slowed our progress quite a bit. We had actually planned to ride all the way to Mina El Laco that day. But the strong wind forced us to set up camp before we got there. After a cold night (about -10°C), we waited until the sun came up before having breakfast, packing up the tent, and setting off again. First, we climbed a bit higher (to 4,458 m) and then descended into a valley (4,250 m).

In the meantime, the wind had picked up again in full force, and the climb back up took a correspondingly long time. Eventually, though, we reached the highest point of this route: 4,578 meters. From there, we headed back down, and we were very happy when we reached Mina El Laco that evening. The only person there was Javier. He spends his 10-day shift there alone and wasn’t exactly unhappy when we showed up and chatted with him a bit :-). And we were glad to have a slightly warmer bed for the night :-).

The rest of the trip took us past several beautiful lagoons. In the end, however, an old acquaintance (the wind) forced us to camp once again. It was very cold again that night (-15°C). But the night sky was beautifully clear.

And thanks to the moon, it’s not too dark either.

After six days, we finally returned to civilization in Socaire. We made a rapid descent down to the Salar de Atacama.

A few more donkeys followed,

a few (awake) vicuñas

and the smoking volcano Lascar.

But after seven days, we finally arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, where we met up with Heidi and Jeremias again. They, however, set off for Bolivia the very next day.

We were pretty traumatized by the constant headwind, so we needed to take some time in San Pedro de Atacama to really recover and recharge our motivation.

We didn’t go on practically any excursions, since we’d already seen quite a bit or, hopefully, will see it later. The only exception was a two-hour horseback ride. It was the first time Susanna and I had ever ridden a horse. Definitely something different from a bike. Although I personally prefer my bike :-).

We had actually planned to set off toward Bolivia on Wednesday morning and tackle the Lagoon Route. But last night there was a severe thunderstorm in San Pedro (in the desert!) and it snowed in the mountains. It looks like the same weather will continue today (apparently El Niño is to blame). So we’ve postponed our departure until Thursday. After all, the Lagoon Route is almost certainly not going to be a walk in the park, even if it’s hopefully quite beautiful :-).

Thanks so much for reading, and warm regards from San Pedro de Atacama,

Stefan and Susanna