day 5 and into chile

Day 5
Starts out with dropping the bike when crossing rocks to get back on road…..aaahh!
Instant frustration lasts thru day….more sand. Come to a red valley that lifted spirit’s because of beauty…still sand though….paths start to get a little better…gravelish. Ride up to lago verde (green lake) with huge volcano behind it….very cool…but to cold to enjoy…get some gas from a tourist expedition truck. Keep going at other side of lake pull over to park like building, talk to an attendant who tells us only 5 miles to border and into chile!
YES!!!! Press on were almost there. Ride up mountain sand road and there it is….border immigrration building in the middle of nowhere…..finally made it. Get stamped out and ride into chile…the second you cross road turns from gravel sand to hard paved red dirt….F Ya!
Then few miles and its regular solid pavement going down the mountain range 25 miles about 14000ft into the desert, feels like you can actually see the roundness of the earth. Turned off engine and coasted the whole way down to take it in silent as reflect on absolute didn’t know these road conditions existed, riding ever. Thinking how Bolivia make Alaska roads like a babies butt…Morocco a cream puff. and how easy it is to coast at 60mph..temperature rising until reaching hot desert floor. stamp into chile at immigration…two bus loads of tourists there… strange feeling being back in civilization from where I just came and sorry for those around smelling me.

was ultimately rwarding knowing very few...maybe 10 bikes a year do this crossing and having made it thru with little damage

crash totals

me--5

dan--7

simon--6

martina and didi--0 ( and they were two up)

as the crow flies the ground covered was only about 400

miles that took 5 days 9hours a day excluding breaks etc...break that down and you got about 10mph avg.