From Arica to Oruro

We spent less than 24 hr in Chile which meant we crossed 2 borders in 2 days.
Our choice was determined by various factors:
1) Over the last few weeks we had tried to book our flight to Easter Island over the net with no much success. Our understanding was that the prices would be cheaper once in Chile, therefore we made the decision to head to Arica as quickly as we could.
Early in the morning we went to the LAN offices. They initially raised our expectations by telling us that seats were available for mid November at £350 (normally it's twice as much if you book from abroad).
We got our card out ready to seal the deal just to be told that in actual fact only 1 seat was available.
We argued for 30 minutes then we left empty handed.
2) We were not too interested in visiting La Paz as everyone we met that had already been there told us it was rather disappointing
3) We thought that the pass from Chile to Bolivia was a much better route since it would allow us to visit both park Lauca in Chile and park Sajama in Bolivia.

And so we packed our bike soon after our visi to the LAN offices and we left heading up towards the border.
The first warning we can give to bikers out there that are interested in doing this road is that there are no petrol station between Arica and Oruro. That is over 500 kms with no available petrol.....do your maths.
The road from Arica to Putre climbs up rapidly, with long straight cuts in the side of the mountain.
I have to say that looking up above us I was often thinking that land slides could easily happen since there was no trees holding the ground together.

We make our first stop in Putre where we negotiate with a member of the local community the purchase of 5 litres of petrol at a price double of the official one....beggers can't be choosers!

We press on towards the border but soon after Putre the road becomes unpaved for a good 50 kms.
Our average speed drops from 90 to 25 kms per hr.
We are not big fans of gravel, in particular when we cross path with huge trucks going at an unbelieveble speed and raising huge clouds of dust.

And yet there are 2 things that cheer us up and make this paine more bearable:
One is the majestic sight of snow topped twin vulcanoes far in the distance.

The other one is the knowledge that there is always someone who is in a much worse position than you.
Half way through the gravel we met a couple on 2 push bikes panting their way to the top.

Lets remind ourselves why these people are TRUE HEROES:
They climb for over 200 kms from 0 to 4000 meters of altitude, with no much oxygen, breething dust raised by the on coming trucks, cycling on gravel road with no accomodation, electricity, running water for another 250 kms, cycling under the scorching sun during the day and sleeping in tents during the freezing nights........got the picture?
Finally the road turns back into asphalt.
The pleasure of riding through the Lauca park is now to a pick, only a clear lagune under the vulcano would make it perfect...

Carlsberg doesn't do border crossings, but if they did this probably would be the best in the world.
Snow topped twin vulcanoes, blue lagunas, pink flamingoes festing in the laguna at 4000 meters and most importantly clearing all the paperwork for both sides in 10 minutes!!!

As we enter into the Bolivian side we find a petrol station that obviously is NOT selling any petrol.
At the end of the day what is a petrol station there for?!
The Sajama national park stetches itself for hundreds of kms. This is the home of the highest forest on the planet.
The road is actually in very good condition and we can cruise at 100 kms per hr.
My concern is the petrol tank that is emptying fast (otherwise I would drive much faster).
The road is empty, absolutely empty to the point that we do not see anybody else for over 1 hr.

Finally at Km 94 we spot a white house with a restaurant sign on it.
Surely they have some petrol here, not like at the petrol station........

We fill up, pay 3 times the normal price, give few sweets to that friendly kid and leave.
Now with a full tank we can press on across few canyons, next destination Patacamaya.
The town is an oasis in the desert and as such it has a working petrol station with a 2 kms queue of trucks all waiting to fill up.
In Bolivia petrol is clearly a precious commodity. But for us time is more precious.
It is now half five, the sun is coming down and we still have 130 kms to do to get to Oruro.
A nice one toothed lady sells us 5 litres for the usual "off the counter price".
We get to Oruro just when the sun is coming down and our shade is elungated over the desert.