Customs officers don’t usually care what you take out of the country, it’s what you want to bring in that sets them off. Fruit is a big no no for Chile, hence the early morning banana.
It was cold, just above freezing but there was no wind so it was bearable and Rusty loved it.
There are mines around here and there is a certain amount of related traffic.
Don’t trash the place is the message and no one does.
The snow covered volcano is the highest in the world at 20,615 feet and it’s called the eyes of the salt flats. Ojos del Salado. We spent the morning driving around it.
Julia and Konstantin caught up to us in their Sprinter van with exit papers for their two cats and we drove on together.
The border post is about thirty miles from the border itself so this is one of those crossings where the two countries aren’t sharing one building. This fox might be scavenging around them.
As always park and walk to the buildings. Immigration, customs, agriculture for Rusty.
The road across the pass and on to Chilean customs is paved.
Fuel is at Copiapó about 200 miles away. Chañaral is the area on the beach we are aiming for after that.
A few miles on we stopped to empty the second jug and Konstantin stepped in to help an arthritic old man. It went faster.
The border. Chile uses winter time so we set our clocks back an hour. Chile and Argentina use the same time in summer but not in winter. This does not suit us as we get less daylight in the evening. Now it will get dark at 6:30.
Laguna Verde is one of those turquoise reservoirs filled with glacial water. It’s in Chile but before the border and we didn’t want to stop until we were checked in to the country.
After the border post we got back on a dirt road. Hooray! Highway 31 was dirt for 17 miles but the dirt wasn’t too bad actually. It was compressed and smoothed and not the usual gravel.
It climbed up to 14,000 feet again. We passed this mining contraption. They waved, we waved back.
Strange black gravel masquerading as asphalt.
Back winding through the Andes at twenty miles per hour on a warm sunny afternoon.
This couple from Uruguay are taking a vacation circuit through northern Argentina and Chile. We chatted briefly at the border and waved as we passed each other on the road.
And eventually we got back on pavement.
I still like pavement.
And then hit the next piece of dirt. We were tired and ready to stop but there were no decent places to pull over. iOverlander was letting us down as badly Chile’s toad department. We were a grumpy crew all told.
On and on.
Konstantin spotted this disused quarry at 7200 feet which felt like sea level. Very good enough. We had ramen for dinner. And white wine. Rusty pushed me aside to get to his kibbles with added cow intestines that Layne had saved from our last grilled meat meal we had in Argentina.
We went to bed exhausted but content.
