The easy way to do it is to clip yourself to one of the dozen or so of daily 4WD tours that take 4 days to go from Uyuni to San Pedro or reverse. Slip them some cash and go along vaguely with them. They will do your navigation, take all your luggage, cook your meals, carry your fuel, and have pre-arranged accomodation. Leaving you free to have fun, zip up ahead, tag along well behind, and take a lot of fotos.

If crap happens, your jeep driver becomes your breakdown and recovery service as well.

From memory its not that seasonal ... its only 20 degrees south, about the same distance from the equator as Townsville mate. Its cold cause its all 4000 - 5000m up (so thats cold to start with) and then the night time factor ... the thin air does not retain heat at all when the sun goes down. By 6 in the morning its insanely cold

You'd have to ask the guys who drive the 4-wheel vehicles about other "seasons". For those of us on the HUBB, its a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, so we're not "experts" except for the couple days we spent there. My experience was in mid-August (winter/dry season).


Well, I didn't see any other people traveling the altiplano, except when I passed the occasional bus. The few people I did see out there, looked like they lived there.

So yes, most people travel town to town (most travelers you see are backpackers traveling by bus!). You see the altiplano and you'll understand. You'll have to carry all your water, nights are long even in summer [its the latitude], its cold and windy much of the time, and no fuel for fires. International moto travelers - the ones you must be picturing traveling across the altiplano - are rare here. If you see any, its a rare sighting - not like you're going across the altiplano and there's this pack of bikers parked near the road, pitching tents.

Did you camp on the side of the road there though, or time your ride and stay in accomodation?

Never camped - went town to town. Its easy to find inexpensive (<$10USD) accommodations with secure bike parking.

Really? I always imagined the Altiplano to be a reasonable un-inhabited place similar to Kazakhstan. We struggled to fine any accomodation in the regional areas.

Well, you got the reasonably uninhabited part right, but I'm guessing you'll find the altiplano a more harsh environment than Kazakhstan. Let me know, I'm curious to find out. For me, Kazakhstan is a couple years away.

Will do. I won't be there untill start of next year. I'm flying into BA on the 6th of November and will be heated towards the south from there.

Talking about distances than, what are the rough distances between accomodation on a day to day base?

San P.De Atacama to Yuni
 

Hello,
My boyfriend and I are thinking about taking the route from San Pedro de Atacama to Yuni in a few days. Sounds like maybe you have taken the road recently? and sounds like you had some GPS coordinates? We have a GPS, but no cable to put maps on it, so we are just hoping to find some coordinates.
We were wondering if you could share your coodinates, or know where I can find them...
Also do you happen to know if there is another gas stastion other then the one on the island? Would you happen to know the distances from the Atacama to Yuni? and how it worked out for you?
Thank you very much,
Jola and Brad
jolaglabek@hotmail.com
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I added GPS coordinates to another posting (see above, or below, depending on how you display thread messages).

AndyT posted a message on the very beginning of this thread about gas on the island. I spent a couple hours hanging out on the island - its a stop for all the 4-wheel vehicles. Its a "ranger station" - they charge to walk on the island, have concessions, toilets, maybe even a small overnight sleeping facility. I did not see any gas there (the facilities are up on the island - everyone parks down on the salt and you walk up to the facilities).

A lot of motorcyclists are doing this ride with inadequate gas to do the distance between San Pedro de Atacama and Uyuni (via the salar, San Juan, Lago Colorado), expecting to be able to bum it off the 4-wheel tour vehicles. The tour operators realize that its dangerous to leave someone stranded, so eventually you'll find a 4-wheel that will provide you with a bit of fuel to get to the next "place". Other travelers have reported (in blogs and guide books) that the 4-wheel vehicles sometimes run out of gas, which is why they are reluctant to provide you with their limited supply. Don't be surprised to hear "no" when you ask.

Your best bet for gas may be to ask in San Juan. I was told there wasn't fuel there, but there's a bunch of hospedajes and hostels, a few tiendas and bars - maybe someone will sell you gas (and don't be surprised its at a ridiculously inflated price).

Not exactly, since I didn't ride to S.P. de Atacama - I had enough gas (37 liters) to make it to Argentina via Paso Jama. But its roughly 375 kilometers S.P. de Atacama to Uyuni via Lago Colorado --> San Juan --> the Salar.

Its not easy riding on the washboard tracks, and the loose gravel is soft and thick when you try riding out of the ruts. Not something I'd suggest trying two up but I suppose its possible. Its an incredible landscape, definitely worth seeing.

Keep in mind, there's not "one route". There's lots of routes, and lots of different 4-wheel tours you can do that go different ways to different places, so you can hear different things, depending on who you talk to, where they went. The route I described is basically the "main" route the majority of the 4-wheel tour groups take.

Sounds fun
 

THank you for all the advice. Hopefully we will not run out of water or fuel or freeze to death..but it does sound like fun.
I just found your coordinates too, thank you!

Had a question what does L. Colorado (So huts) mean?
THank you!
jolanta
p.s. Luckily we are not two up anymore, I bought a Suzuki DR 250 in Santiago and have been learning how to ride since, so this should be fun ;), but I did get to practice going down to Ushuaia and back up.

Salar de Uyuni (island) S20.24091 W67.62763 3672m
San Juan S20.89965 W67.76643 3700m
Arbol de Piedra S22.05193 W67.88298 4588m
L. Colorado (No huts) S22.16737 W67.82033
L. Colorado (So huts) S22.26378 W67.82033 4346m
Mine/Aduana Office S22.44164 W67.80683 5035m
Geisers S22.43438 W67.75760 4860m
Hot Springs S22.51405 W67.64818 4419m
Border (Hito Cojones) S22.88102 W67.79839 4487mates

At Lago Colorado, there's housing for the tour groups on the southwestern (So) end of the lake, and then again at the northwestern (No) corner, where there's a gate/fee station for entry into the park . When I came from the north, at the fee station they told me to go to the south housing - don't know if the north end was full or not - I just did what they said. So coming from the south, you may want to stop at the So unit and find out if there's space available before heading to the north end.

Essentially the huts/beds at both ends are there for the 4-wheel tour groups - bikers are unscheduled extras. Beds are 30 Bolivianos ($4 US) - essentially concrete platforms with a foam mattress on top, with about 6 heavy wool blankets. At that altitude (and being the old-ass I am), I couldn't breath under the weight of the blankets - had to sleep on top in my sleeping bag.

There's a park entrance a short distance from Hito Cajones if coming up from the south. I don't remember what the park fee was (50B?).

There's a small "store" at the So unit with some basic canned goods, pasta, drinks (cerveza and vino along with water and sodas). Its essentially a room with shelves where some woman lives with a child so don't look for a sign - you'll have to ask. I thought the fee I paid at the north gate included my lodging - so I tried to spend all my Bolivianos at her store for some beer, water and cookies that night since I knew I was leaving Bolivia the next day. The next morning when she came around to collect for the bed, I only had about 20B remaining. She wasn't thrilled about being 'stiffed' out of 10B.

There isn't any kind of currency exchange at the border near Hito Cajones - its simply a "middle of nowhere" immigration post. You probably want to try to find some currency exchange in S.P. de Atacama - get some Bolivianos for the park and the housing - and gas? Dollars are also accepted - can't say about Argentine or Chilean pesos.

THank you, but now we have a small DR 250 problem
 

THank you for the info,
Hopefully we will still be able to go

We have ran into a bit of a problem... We were coming to San Pedro across from Argentina, just north of Salta...Maimara I think was the town name. Anyhow my little Suzuki DR 250 has never been at that altitude (4700m or so), with me anyway. Anyway it went fine with just a few farts over the first 4100m pass, but then once we came down the pass a bit and all the way to San Pedro it ran like crap. We took the air filter out and it helped a little, but still in places going up the hill my boyfriend had to push it along with his feet to get it to move. So little by little, very slowly sometimes 30km per hour we just made it right before dark. Man it was cold up there...

Anyhow we were talking to someone about putting a different jet in the carborator, but we don´t have a jet...Think we´ll go to Calama, a bigger town 100kms from here and see what they have....any ideas?
Help...
THank you,
jola

Yep, Calama is your best bet as they have some mechanics there.

Sorry but can't remember any names/addresses but if you see any cops on bikes, maybe ask them as a couple of them were hanging out at the bike mechanic I found. We were looking to find some valve shims for a KLR and after being told by several places we'd have to order them from Santiago, the guy in the bike mechanic place I found told me where I could get the originals ground down (!)- Well they actually worked out great and I even got my own police escort to the metalwork shop!

Thank you, Jet size?
 

THank you,
My boyfrind just came back from Calama yesturday and we managed to get our carborator part fixed, and we were also looking for a smaller jet, but all they had was a size 108 and ours currently is a 115...not sure if this would be too small? ANy ideas?
Thank you,
jolanta

we tried putting a wire into the jet and it helps but still does not run that great so we thought we{d look for a smaller jet.

We made it..
 

Hi there,
Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips everyone and we made it to Uyuni....We did not find a battery in SPDA, so we push started my bike all the way to Uyuni, i would not recommend it...
We had a great ride to the hot springs where we stayed the night in the hut above the hot springs and the next day went to San Juan, which was another story. We underestimated how long it would take us. I had a couple of nasty falls, broke the rest of my windscreen off and broke my clutch, while Brad got a flat, so we rode two hours in the freezing air trying to get to San Juan, me without a clutch and Brad pumping up his tire every 10 minutes. But we made it.
Thank you again,
jola
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