Onwards to Chile! I will miss Bolivia, the country provided me with some of the biggest highlights of my trip. I will not miss the gas station scamming that goes on in this country though.
The 223 km trip to the border would be 95% off-road, with stops along the way in San Cristóbal (where you must get gas) and swept along high altitude valleys for most of the way through mainly sunny but freezing cold conditions.
Thankfully there was little to no traffic on this road as I was able to go pretty fast most of the way on the hard packed surface. The only time you need to take care is through towns, which often turns the road into a bog. I would not like to ride this road when it was wet though as it would be as slippery as hell.
There were also only a smattering of towns along the way, Culpina K, Alota and Cerro Tomasamil, the border town is called Estacion Avaro (Border Town), Ollagüe (Border Town Chile), Lasana, San Francisco de Chiu Chiu, Calama and onto my final destination in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
Although the trip total was 340 miles (545 kilometers) and took me over 12 hours including border time. It was a little exhausting, and I was looking forward to a nice ride into Chile.
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
San Pedro de Atacama is a town set on an arid high plateau in the Andes mountains of northeastern Chile. It has dramatic surrounding landscape incorporates desert, salt flats, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs. The Valle de la Luna in the nearby Los Flamencos National Reserve is a lunar-like depression with unusual rock formations, a huge sand dune, and pink-streaked mountains.