'El Cementario de los Trenes', Uyuni "asi es la vida/this is the life!"
the Uyuni central mercado...almost everything a bike tourist could want!
Weaving on the salar, Carolin
Nori giving us an impromptu in camp, sunset, japanese folk guitar concert in three languages!
Keiko and Nori, our Japanese musical friends at 'Playa Blanca' the Salt Hotel
Nils and Carolin enjoying riding the 'salt highway' to Isla Incahuasi
'It's evolution baby!'...
Arriving once again on the rocky cactus filled shores of Isla Incahuasi
This time 'camping' behind the glass, out of the wind and enjoying the sunset, Isla Incahuasi refugio
"Now this is what i call 'comfy camping'!"...very civilised camping indoors at Incahuasi
Heading south for dry land again...
"My girlfriend is hardcore" part I... 'hiking and biking' up really unrideable terrain on the way to San Juan. "Pretty though!"
"My girlfriend is hardcore" part II... still 'hiking and biking' (and amazingly still smiling!)
...and then 'sand hiking'..."where's the beach?"
Lunch break on the 'wrong side of the tracks'...(escaping the wind), Salar de Chiguana
John from Italy and his overland vehicle after helping us out getting a very sick Carolin to the main Alota - Ollague road
the A team with Volcan Ollague smoking away in the background...mmm 9km of good international road
...after 9km of good road we turned off into this 'beast' of a sandy climb
Anna descending to the flamingo filled Laguna Cañapa
curious Mr Fox came to check us out
Ahhh... another day on the ´Lagunas Route´another potential Hilleberg ad!
Anna trying out a ´real bike´of our Argentinian friends on a shotgun 10 day moto tour...the night before they shared pizza and palm heart salad and loaded us up with water for the next 2 days riding. !Gracias a todo!
Nils approaching Laguna Honda
Flamingo flight, Laguna Honda
and then into the barren, sandy and unforgiving Siloli Desert, still rideable at least in the beginning
Too much for a day, pushing uphill through deep sand for hours, we seek shelter from the wind late in the day behind the only rock we have seen for kilometres
...and still pushing in deep sand and extreme washboard, Siloli Desert
'Stone hut camp'...the only protection from the wind out here
Underneath the 'rocky tree' for morning tea break, once again any shelter from the unrelenting wind is used when possible, 'Arbol de Piedra'
Laguna Colorada
'A mans work is never done' - Nils doing some stove maintenance thanks to the dirty Bolivian fuel we are using, Laguna Colorada refugio
...'and a womans work is never done too', baking bread for the days ahead
..."well the road is much better", but straight into a raging headwind from Chile we couldn't ride 5km or so of the steep climb from Laguna Colorada
"toughest hill ever" we agree, Anna is having a little less fun than before!
Highest camp ever!
Anna riding 'the highest road' perhaps of our whole trip...4900m!
the steep rocky decent to Salar de Chalviri took its toll...
"mmm...that's gotta hurt!"...2km short of Termas de Polque one of my panniers was hanging a little strangely....a broken Tubus swing was the culprit but nothing a bit of car inner tube and some Bolivian 'bush mechanics' couldn't temporarily fix!
38 degrees of bliss after some tough days hiking and biking through the desert...Termas de Polque
another 4100m pass on terrible gravel and into a raging headwind...not that we're complaining!
Anna has had enough...exhausted in front of Volcan Licancabur, 15 days since leaving Uyuni, time for a 'power nap'
...in fact we both take one, right there in the gravel on the edge of the road! luckily all the jeeps are passed for the day!
Laguna Blanca from 'Refugio Colque'
the final climb in Bolivia to the border at Hito Cajones
"Adios Bolivia! you've been beautiful and kind to us...but the Lagunas Route...never again!" After all, bikes are meant to be ridden not pushed!
