An early start this morning and a pick-up time of 7.30am where we joined several others in a transfer coach which took us up to the border with Bolivia. When I say ‘up’, I do mean up, as it was a constant climb all the way to the border. Despite it being hot when we left San Pedro, within the space of little over one hour, it was already much colder.
The drivers prepared breakfast of fresh bread, cheese, jam and hot tea which we enjoyed as much to keep our hands warm as we waited for our bags to be loaded onto the awaiting Land Cruisers and the instructions for leaving Chile, driving across a patch of no-man’s land and then lining up to pass through immigration into Bolivia.
Breakfast and immigration probably took a couple of hours and as Bolivia is one hour ahead of Chile, it was soon mid-morning before we had made any real progress.
We loaded ourselves into the cars, 7 seater Land Cruisers, which is technically correct, although the two rear seats do leave the passengers a little cramped, the middle seat in the middle row, may or may not be comfortable depending on the car, but that is only the beginning! Nevertheless, we are all in good spirits and getting to know each other: a young couple from Netherlands, another couple from Italy, one of whom was a medical doctor who had packed (fortunately as we were to discover) a fairly decent pharmacy with him.
The first stop was lunch time where we had the opportunity to take a dip in a naturally hot spring, spring, changing room and use of toilet all for 5 Bolivianos.
The drivers and others at the rest stops get the lunch together and serve this up, enjoyed by most. Although at this point we already have one woman from one of the other cars, who is breathless and is in need of oxygen, which the crew had on hand to administer. By this time we are already at about 4800 metres, the highest point we reach, but we seldom drop below 4000m for the duration of the trip.
We head off after lunch, stopping on numerous occasions to look at the scenery, the lakes of different colours and hues due to the different mineral deposits: copper, lead, borax. The only wildlife seems to be a few flamingo picking their way daintily across the shallows of these lakes.
We continue on until quite late in the day, around 7pm when we finally arrive at our stop for the night – a village called Villa Mar. We paid a little extra for a private room over a shared room and it was worth it just for the peace and ability to relax. Its been a long day, everyone is feeling it in one way or another, the drive continuously on rough tracks, the rooms are cold, but the company is convivial, tea and biscuits on arrival, dinner at 8, the vegetable soup is hot accompanied by fresh bread. Some of us were up for the spaghetti bolognaise and a few beers from the shop next door, although others, myself included, ducked out after the soup, put their thermals on and headed for bed with a headache. No internet here and if you are lucky you manage to get the shower to produce some hot water.
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