Hi,

I crossed the Salar this time last year (beginning of October) to San Pedro de Atacama so here are my thoughts and advice on the trip.

When you get to Uyuni I would recommend going out on the Salt Flats for a day to take photo's and visit the island in the middle, then return to Uyuni for a night and prepare for the three day ride. This will mean that you can get the obligatory shots of holding the bike in your hand etc without the pressure to make up riding time. Remember to have sun block on your lips and forehead; the sun beats down on you and I suffered badly.

The journey after the Salar is tough but it is clearly possible. Be aware that the 4x4's make much easier work of the terrain than you will so when on the road there will be no-one behind you until the next day - make sure you have everything you might need to survive a night out in the desert.

There are plenty of tour operators in Uyuni, we paid one to make two drop off points along the way for fuel and food - we them paid $20USD. Drop one was at San Juan, drop two Laguna Colorada; these are the logical places to stop and both have BASIC hostels. However make sure that the tour operator is stopping in the same town as you on the same night, that way you're not waiting for a 4x4 to drop food and fuel for you in the morning and thus making you lose precious journey time. This is particularly important at San Juan because day 2 is the toughest ride (it was the toughest ride I've ever made - approx 10 hours) and you'll want to set off early. We had to wait for our 4x4 and so didn't end up leaving San Juan until after 10am and arrived at Laguna Colorada well after dark when temperatures had dropped below zero :-(

The tour operators can tell you distances between stops but you will probably need up to 10 litres of fuel at San Juan and a further 10 litres at Laguna Colorada. You might calculate that you don't need this much fuel but it's better to be safe than sorry. We had food and water dropped for us too to save us carrying more weight. There is little chance of purchasing food and fuel on the road and be aware that you may need to pay someone to prepare food for you at a hostel, or cook it yourself on your own stove. Make sure you have food like energy bars/banana's with you for the ride.

Passport control is right next to Hotel Avenida in Uyuni - which has secure parking for the bike.

Aduana is sign posted close to the border with Chile at a whopping 5100 metres above sea level!.

Passport control and aduana in Chile are just outside of San Pedro de Atacama - you can't miss them.

All formalities were straight forward but I believe you need to pay passport control a small fee in Uyuni for exit stamps.

I travelled in the dry season and to be honest the salt wasn't the problem I thought it would be. I did spray the underside of my bike with WD40 but after the journey the only salt that I could see was on the bottom of my bash plate. Shipping the bike from Panama to Colombia was far worse for the bike that the Salar. I washed my bike down after completing the trip in San Pedro.

I did have problems starting my bike at altitude; it had dropped below zero at night. Foolishly I had 15/50 oil in the bike and I ride a BMW F650, the injection system didn't take kindly to the combination of oil/cold/altitude.
Before you leave Uyuni check over all the bolts to your subframe. I snapped one bolt and my friend snapped an engine mount and three spokes on the ride.

The salt flat is the best road in Bolivia, it's flat! The road to San Juan gets tough, with deep sand at points. A heavily loaded bike will make your front wheel dig in to the soft ground.

On day two the road from the lake of flamingos is soul destroying. It is hard going all the way to Laguna Colorada. Just before you enter the village at Laguna Colorada there is a check point where you'll need to pay your entrance fee to the national park. Make sure you've kept some money aside to pay for this.

You can see some of the roads you'll face in my video:

YouTube - Brainrotting: Episode 12 - Bolivia Worlds most dangerous road Che Guevara BMW F650 GS Bike Adventure

I have GPS tracks that I'm happy to share with anyone email me: grahamstyles at gmail dot com or use the contact form on my website http://www.brainrotting.com

I hope this helps