To start today’s post I must tell you that it was planned. Google or Komoot did no not lead us astray. This route is copied from one of the big touring companies.
We left Salinas Garcia and headed 38k to Coqueza, Bolivia, which should have been easy. The route was on 630, the same highway as yesterday but the first half had no roads only tracks across the desert floor. It was fun riding and following our blue gpx line as tracks cross-crossed all over the place. The vistas were spectacular.
Sometimes we had to plow through deep sand and more than once the front tire caught and the bike tried to buck me off. I always got my foot down in time. However once I got foot down but lost my balance and tipped over in the soft sand. Several times we had to walk our bikes through the sand.
At the halfway point the route turned to a double-track road which was very rough and filled with large rocks and a couple of steep climbs.
We persevered and reached the tiny town of Coqueza and our accommodation for the night. Once again it was a place built from local items, mostly salt. This place was very different than last night as it had a very rude lady who did not want to go out of her way to help us. They did not supply toilet paper, towels, soap, and no wifi. We could charge our phones from 6 to 10 p.m. We had to limit the time in the shower.
On the good side, the main area was nicely decorated with posters and Quinoa plants. The walls were made of salt, the floors in the rooms were salt, the tables and beds were salt. Dinner was fine and consisted of soup and spaghetti.
The ride had everything from awesome mountains to our first sighting of the world’s largest salt flats sand and rough roads. The salt flats cover 11,000 square kilometers and are 130 meters deep.
The photos will tell the story better than I ever could.