Good-bye Argentina, Hello Bolivia!
La Quiaca at the border of Argentina and Bolivia
After more than 5000 km I finally reached the Northern end of Argentina in the little town of La Quiaca on May 1st. The last two provinces, Salta and Jujuy, have displayed an impressive variety of scenery, just a great area to travel by bicycle. That said, there was a lot of climbing involved in the last three days, up from Jujuy (at 1300m) to the altiplano of Abra Pampa (at 3500m) over a pass at 3780m. I took my time over three days to complete that climb, also to acclimatize a little bit.
Few countries have such a geographic extent and so many different landscapes to offer as Argentina. Due to the two mountain expeditions on Aconcagua and Ojos de Salado, as well as two trips back home to Florida I spent almost 3 1/2 months since leaving Ushuaia. The road North went back and forth between Argentina and Chile, but after the long hard road of the Carreterra Austral and incessant rain of South Chile I decided to stay on the Argentinean side of the Andes ever since Bariloche.
I enjoyed riding the long, mostly flat roads between Bariloche and Mendoza, San Juan and then Salta. I didn’t have a single rainy day the entire way; this is quite a dry part of the country. There were also many Quebradas (gorges) with beautiful sandstone formations along the way. The Ruta 40 (see previous Blog post) offered up a few more challenges with some unpaved sections, but for the most part the roads were paved and the traffic little or moderate.
In La Quiaca there is a border crossing to the Bolivian border town of Villazon. I enjoyed a last lunch in Argentina prior to crossing the border. A very busy place, like most border towns, with lots of little dealerships and street peddlers – all of a sudden I am everyone’s friend or amigo! But I didn’t bother with those people; instead, I went straight to the train station – after going back and forth a few times to find it. I wanted to board the train to Uyuni, a very scenic train ride and a way to avoid some 250km of gravel road. But first I needed to get some Bolivian currency (Bolivianos), as they wouldn’t accept US dollars. Finding an ATM in Villazon also wasn’t easy, but eventually I succeeded. Then back at the train station I bought the ticket, checking in the bike and trailer separately and started to relax as the train wouldn’t leave for another 1.5 hrs. (Since there are only two trains per week I needed to build in some sizeable buffer time!) When we finally left – 1 hr later than I thought due to timezone change – it was a great ride initially with some stunning scenery. It was, however, also quite stressful, with 3 Bolivian babies crying throughout the night, a bunch of tourists from Isreal who were also loud and not very respectful, several movies played with loud audio, a 45-min stop near midnight on the sloped tracks to “fix some issues with the engine” – not very confidence-inspiring. We got to Uyuni at last, at 1:30am, it was very cold, and I was intercepted by an elderly woman dressed in typical Bolivian wool garments, guiding me to a hostel. My first night in Bolivia…
Add comment May 6th, 2010