Volcanoes Anyone?

Today was one of those rare occasions where I rode the bike without any purpose other than pure sightseeing. Calama is about 200 kms from the Bolivian border and I have heard great stories of that route. It also gave me a chance to bed the new tyre in.

Although I am probably going to take a different path (via Argentina) I wanted to see the sights so took the road out of town towards Ollague. It starts off as decent tarmac but just after a nice little town called Chiu Chiu. (I am delighted to tell you that it is pronounced Choo Choo as in a steam train!) it turns in to a rather rough road, mind you it was still better than a lot of roads I had seen. I decided to savour the delights of Chiu Chiu on my return as that would be about lunchtime.

This was the first time I had the sense of isolation that I got every day in Patagonia and I enjoyed feeling a bit more adventurous. I took these next 4 pictures from the same spot.

South

West

North

East.

After about 50 miles you get these views:

This is San Pedro & San Pablo Volcanoes standing at 5074 and 6092 meters respectively, I may have got Pedro & Pablo mixed up as we weren't properly introduced.

There wasn't a lot to be gained by going any further as I didn't have my luggage, if I had I would have seriously thought about continuing on to Bolivia. That would have meant missing San Pedro de Atacama which is a "must not miss".

I back tracked and apart from about 6 trucks in the 4 hours I was out there, I had the place to myself.

As I  headed back in to Chiu Chiu (a small village), there were 4 guys on motorbikes sheltering from the sun under a tree. I pulled up and had a chat with them.

 They were 4 Chilean guys out for a blast on their bikes but one of them had a problem with his handlebars. Did I have any tools? I was delighted to be able to get my toolkit out! It is about time I did something for someone else!

All fixed and lots of "Suerte" (good luck) and off they went. I went in to the village and their centre piece.

This is reputed to be the oldest church (still standing) in the whole of Latin America, built by the Conquistadors 600 years ago. Well this is what a local chap came up and told me!

I was disappointed in my expectations of any lunch, nowhere was open! So there was nothing to do but head back to Calama and a very indifferent steak and chips!

At the risk of acting like Wilks, on my way back from the volcanoes i noticed them in my rear view mirror so stopped and took a picture. Not a great picture but it reminds me of riding back with them constantly looking over my shoulder! Certainly no traffic to look out for.