Some new stuff.

Feb 21 San Pedro to Tilcara

Our travel plans to meet with Armando at 10am go as scheduled and we could not have timed it better. The late morning departure has allowed the temperature to climb a bit from the overnight low of 2C to a balmy 10C. We still have to wear an extra layer though as we will be climbing to an elevation of 4800meters in the pass. This route is paved all the way so we do not have to worry about the condition of the road, we have heard of recent snowfall though and that is of concern. Paso Jama itself is somewhat uneventful as far as scenery and such.  The highlight of the ride is at a Flamingo nesting area and we get to see the big pink birds in their natural habitat.

There is no snow today so we are thankful for that and once at the border station it is a quick process to enter Argentina once again. There are a couple of Brazilian bikers at the border as well, Armando talks with them and finds out that one of the guys has lost his pack containing all his documents, money, camera, phone, everything. He is basically stuck in Chile until he can get new documents produced, which will involve a trip back to Arica and the Brazilian Embassy. We are unsure what they were trying to do but at one point both of them rode through the border station onto the Chile side, only to be turned around by the officer at the checkpoint 100meters down the road. Well the guy without documents got turned around, his buddy was fine, now he had to talk his way back into Chile without any documents. I assume the guards knew that he had just made an error by driving through but in any case he was allowed back into Chile. At this point we left, we did not want to get sucked into some vortex of illegal paperwork or some other involuntary action.

East of the border the route was not any more eventful than the West side initially, long straight sections with the occasional curve to keep us awake. We came across a smallish salt lake that the road went straight through. It was very similar to Uyuni in Bolivia but much, much smaller. There was even a salt harvesting operation in the middle of it. We could see piles of salt and backhoes working to pile the stuff up. There were also some tourists enjoying the reflection of the flooded areas as well as the illusion created by the dry white areas. We all agreed that driving on the salt was not a good ideas as it is very corrosive, much more concentrated than the ocean spray along the coast.

The next portion of the road was highlighted by some switchbacks down from the high plains to some very scenic canyons and rock formations. These roads are always fun as it give us a chance to use the sides of our tires instead of just the center strip. But alas all the twisties come to an end as does our time with Armando. 

He is heading south to Jujuy and we are going north to Bolivia. We will finally be able to get there without torrential rains and flooding as the last few days have been dry and we are now  farther south and at a lower elevation. Our destination for today though is Tilcara, a touristy town in the foothills that is popular with Artisans selling all the usual Incan arts and crafts plus the Argentine Gaucho crafts which usually include leather goods, silversmith items, saddles, knives, and of course mate cups.

The town is also celebrating Carnival, which seems to be a good excuse to drink, play loud music and spray each other with aerosol foam. The tradition is in celebration of agriculture as much as anything else and there are some very elaborate costumes depicting different folk lore characters. We are entertained by this until the wee hours of the night, finally dampened only by ear plugs allowing for us to have a restful night sleep.