Best route: Santiago - Mendoza - Salta - San Pedro de Atacama - Bolivia
 

I am in Santiago on my wee-Strom and would like to visit Mendoza, Salta and San Pedro de Atacama before heading into Bolivia and Peru.

I am planning first to travel to Mendoza and then north on Ruta 40 to Salta. I was looking at then heading over the Sico Pass to San Pedro de Atacama and would ideally like to head back into Argentina via the Jama Pass. Before heading up to Bolivia.

I would welcome any suggestions or comments regarding this route.

Viajero Mapas
 

Hi Paul,

I´m sending you the VIAJEROS MAPAS website:

ViajerosMapas - Actualizaciones

http://www.viajeros.freeservers.com/..._V20080301.zip

Till saturday I´m going to send you all information!

Have a nice ride, :scooter:

Reginaldo Rohden.

Paul.

I researched the Paso de Sico from Salta because I wanted to go that way to get to San Pedro de Atacama, but we were stopped at the Brazil/Arg border and turned back thru Bolivia. I spoke to folks at the 'backpacker hostel' in Salta and they said: Yes, it goes thru, but it is more desolate. You want to take the Paso de Jama!". I said: "Thanx, but no, I wanted the more desolate." :D

Gas wise it should be no problem, there are towns along the way. But look it up on Google Earth. Just after you pass a large flat wash, there are some AMAZING lakes of purple and blue and green, surrounded by old volcanoes; some with snow on them (depending on the time of year I guess). THAT'S what I wanted to see! :eek3:

Toby (charapa) Around the Block 2007 |

Hi,

I did Salta to San Pedro over the paso Chico in 2005. It was easy to do. When you arrive on the altiplano, after Salta, there is a village called San Antonio de los Cobres. It has a hotel. I recommend you to stay there for at least a night to accomodate a bit to the elevation. For some pictures of the altiplano look at my website Welcome to Wonderful Travels

Have a good trip.

I rode San Pedro de Atacama to Jama on Wednesday a week ago. It ws very cold in the morning- about minus 5. There is snow on the peaks. It is 100 miles to Jama and there is no real town, just an Argentin border post and a few indians. It is about 100k to the next gas.

It got warmer during the day. I had the opportunity to ride it three times, because I did not get checked out of Chile in San Pedro. There is no Chilean border post at Jama. The Chileans will let you leave Chile, but they promise you will not be allowed back. Ever. Argentina will let you enter, but they will warn you that you will not be allowed back into Chile.

Watch for those big wild ostrich things.

There were no flamingos in the lakes. The lakes were frozen. I saw flamingos in Peru at 5,000 meters, but it was not below freezing there.

Adding Viajeros Mapas to existing maps on GPS?
 

Quick question about loading these Viajeros Mapas maps onto a GPS. I'm on the road at the moment (Cusco) (on a bicycle... sorry). Mine's an Etrex Vista Cx, though I don't think that matters much. I loaded it up with tons of maps before I started this trip (just the Worldmap stuff for South America, better than nothing). I've got the Mapsource software with me, but I put all the map data on a dual-layer DVDR, and now I see there's no way in hell I'll find an internet cafe in South America with machines with drives that can read dual-layer DVDs, not until about 2015 at least.

That means that in an internet cafe, I can install Mapsource software, but not the map sets that I have loaded on the GPS unit. When I install Viajeros Mapas on the computer, they are the only maps that show up in Mapsource. If I then select all of the Viajeros Mapas maps, and transfer them to the unit, does that wipe out all the maps I had previously loaded on the unit? I don't want to lose the Worldmap stuff for the rest of South America. I can't seem to find a quick straight answer on Garmin support or anywhere else, they just assume you're sitting at home on your own computer with all the maps you own installed. And of course the Viajeros Mapas website is all in Spanish, which I haven't really mastered. Thought maybe somebody here might have experience.

Hi Paul,

My Honda NX 350 Sahara:
rohden : photos : Moto-Viagem: Atacama Uyuni // Motorcycle travel: Atacama Uyuni- powered by SmugMug

rohden : photos : Moto-Viagem: Atacama Uyuni // Motorcycle travel: Atacama Uyuni- powered by SmugMug

Chile road map surrounding San Pedro de Atacama:
Turistel Chile - Mapas - Mapas Ruteros - II Región

Surrounding La Serena northward:
Turistel Chile - Mapas - Mapas Ruteros - III Región

All Chile roads:
Mapas Ruteros de Chile - Mapas de Ciudades de Chile - Cuadros de Distancias

Lagunas Miscanti/Miñiques (Chile) - road from San Pedro de Atacama to San Antonio de Los Cobres by PASO DE SICO.
Laguna Miscanti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

El Tatio Geyser (San Pedro de Atacama - Chile):
El Tatio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laguna Colorada/Verde (Bolivia):
Laguna Colorada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Distances in Argentina:
Rutas Argentinas - Buscador de rutas y mapas

From San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) to San Antonio de Los Cobres (Argentina) it´s about 350 km by PASO DE SICO.
About 250 km on unpaved road (good conditions) and 100 km next to SPA on paved road.
Villages on the way, next to SPA there are: Toconao and Socaire.
In Argentina there is only one village called: Olacapato Grande.
There is gas station only in San Pedro de Atacama (01 gas station) e 01 in San Antonio de Los Cobres.

In Nicaragua, you can talk with Salvador Carlucci (salcar - HU travellers list)

Best wishes,
Have a nice ride,

Reginaldo Rohden.

Jkruys: I have a Garmin Zumo 550 and have found that MapSource will often delete existing maps on the card when trying to install new maps. You might want to consider buying a new micro-SD card and trying to upload the maps onto this. Regarding MapSource not reading your disk, you could manually transfer the maps into a folder under 'Program files' on your PC as this is where MapSource looks for maps when it is started. Good luck.

Reginaldo: Thanks for the information. Following our chat, I have worked out a route and will be taking the Paso Sica across to San Antonio de los Cobres. I am considering changing my part-worn Bridgestone TrailWing for something more suitable, such as a Pirelli MT60 which I believe is made in Brazil. Any suggestions on where I might be able to buy one.

I am presently in La Serena and am hoping to be joined soon by some American friends on a BMW1200GS which broke down in Argentina with a faulty fuel pump, which has no been temporarily repaired.

Hi Jkruys,

I thing that the GPS only does not erase the BASEMAP (the map that comes with it from Garmin). So you have to buy more than one memory card.

More maps from South America (mainly Argentina) you can get here - Proyecto Mapear:
</title><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Proyecto Mapear - to this website you have to register to it.

From Brazil:
Projeto Tracksource - it´s not necessary to register to it.

In Iquique - Chile - is a duty free shopping zone - (it´s called ZOFRI) probably you can find memory cards, I stayed there last october 2007 - where I have seen some shops selling Garming GPS.


Have a nice ride by bike!
Best wishes,

Reginaldo Rohden.

Hi Paul,

About the tires, probably you can get them in Salta, downtown there are some motorcycle shops. I have this address:
Motomax
Calle San Luis, 951 -tel. number (0387) 431-4770.

Probably Pirelli MT 60 and others tires sold in S.A. are made in Brazil, unfortunatelly they are cheaper outside Brazil!!!

Enjoy Paso de Sico!!!

Have a nice ride,
Best wishes,

Reginaldo Rohden.

Jama Pass Customs Location
 

I'm in Susques, Argentina, prepping to cross over Paso de Jama once the snow clears. I've read that the Argentine customs is at Jama...right on the border...and I've also read that it is in Susques. Which is true?
Thanks.