Need advice from riders who have crossed South America

[tyson]

My friend and I have been riding since June 2nd, 2007 when we left Toronto, Canada on a pan-American trip (if you´re interested I have been blogging the trip at www.tysonbrust.com). We are currently in Cusco, Peru. We plan on visiting Machu Picchu on August 16th and then departing for Lago Titicaca and Bolivia on the 17th. We need to be in Buenos Aires by August 31 (give or take a day or two) so that we can fly back to Canada in time for classes (which start in early September). We want to know if we have time to go to Salar de Uyuni.

If you´ve ridden from Peru to Argentina via Bolivia and Paraguay, I'd love to hear from you. How long did it take? If you´ve gone to Salar de Uyuni, how many days did the detour eat up? We don´t mind putting in long days if it means we can squeeze Salar de Uyuni into our trip.

Any comments/information would be much appreciated.

[MichelleS]

We have just finished the Pan American trip (South to North). Although we didn't go to Paraguy, we did come up from San Pedro de Atacama across to Uyuni. We rode our bikes and it took us 2 1/2 days of very tough riding to get there, but well worth it (I can say that now that I've stopped crying about it ). When we got to Uyuni, the Salar was underwater so we opted for a day trip in a jeep to Isla Pescadora. The Salar was a highlight of our enitre trip. As another idea for Bolivia, we went from Uyuni to Potosi rather than straight up to Oruro, which is a very rough road, and it was a great ride.
If you can afford the time you can ride down to San Pedro and cross over to Argentina from there, and riding would obvioulsy be much more satisfying than taking a jeep tour.
If you get to Lake Titicaca, make sure you visit Isla Taquille and stay the night. You can catch the locals boat which stops at the reed islands for about 20 minutes (about 18 minutes too long) and then on to the island. Whoever is on the boat will find a family for you to stay with, they take it turns so all of the locals get a fare deal.
If you want to check out some photos of the Bolvian scene, my blog site is Trans Am Upside Down, a link to the photos is in the menu to the right. Mike's Travels (link also on the right) also has some great photos and link to his diary.
Good luck with whatever direction you take.
Michelle

[tyson]

Thanks for the info Michelle. Your pictures look amazing. What a trip you and Mike have just finished. It must have been hard to re-enter the real world.

Take Care,
Tyson

[quastdog]

Originally Posted by tyson

If you´ve gone to Salar de Uyuni, how many days did the detour eat up? We don´t mind putting in long days if it means we can squeeze Salar de Uyuni into our trip.

Any comments/information would be much appreciated.

Its 3 days to do the Salar - a bit over 100 miles of hard-ass riding each day. You follow tracks, rather than roads, with a lot of soft stuff (not so much sand as fine gravel).

One day into the Salar then south to San Juan where there's housing/food for the night (no gas unless you can talk someone out of their personal stash).

Another day down to Laguna Colorado where there's housing - primitive, but definitely better than the alternative. Also, no gas.

Third day, you can get to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Then one more day to get over to Jujuy/Salta, Argentina where you can figure the rest to get to BA.

For gas purposes, its just over 300 miles from Uyuni to SP de Atacama - similar distances from the towns on the north side of the Salar.