On our way to Chile?

Friday 30th December

Dave with the replacement passport, hurray & smiles all round!!

We are ready to leave our Hotel in La Paz after Dave returns around 10.30 with the bike document, Felix at the Hotel has been a great help to us on both our visits here.

Our destination in Chile is Arica on the Pacific coast at a distance of approximately 500km making it a challenge, the road however out of Bolivia across the altiplano is straight with good tarmac so we initially make good progress.

How people manage to eke out an existence in these remote locations still surprises us, it looks like this family manage to run a bus & do a bit of farming from their adobe house.

The weather is throwing everything at us today including some snow making riding difficult.

 

We reach the border around 2.00pm & it still looks good for time until we see the line of trucks!!

 

Then there was the line of people at immigration, we also meet the lady from the Embassy who sorted Dave out, she had left La Paz at 7am & was still in the queue just in front of us.

After a near punch-up at immigration due to several coach parties trying to push in we enter Chile at around 5pm, our destination looks a long way but still possible we think? We then come across this, road works for the next 23km!!

This quickly turns into a standstill as when we are given the go-ahead we find trucks coming the other way blocking the road, the construction operatives controlling the traffic are hopeless, luckily a young Police officer with some sense & a gun gets things moving, off-road riding with gravel & 3ft pot holes full of water in the dark is no fun, our destination is now Putre, 65km from the border.