Hello,
My boyfriend and I are thinking about taking the route from San Pedro the Atacama to Uyuni in a few days. I was wondering if anyone has GPS coordinates that might help us. We have a GPS but no cable so we cannot download any maps...Also, we were wondering about how much fuel we need to carry with us and if there is a fuel station along the way. I read there was fuel at one of the islands..but not sure if that is still the case. At this point we still don´t have a map of Bolivia so not sure how many kms it is between fuel stations.

Any other tips about that route would be greatly appreciated. Any good place to camp or spend the night out there without freezing to death?

And we were also wondering if any north americans had gone up that way? Seems that we need a visa which costs $100 to get into BOlivia, but seems like maybe we will not get one crossing that border, so we were wondering if that has caused anyone headaches?

THank you very much,
jola and brad
jolaglabek@hotmail.com
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I can't help you with GPS coordinates... but Brad's bike poetry is great!!!! I can just imagine writing 'em while sitting through mile after mile of slab.

Enjoy your trip!

__________________
http://davegtravels.com - RTW on a DRZ
All the way south - Texas to Tierra del Fuego in '08-'09

Jola and Brad,

You look a bit crazy, aren't you!!!
First of all, are you prepared to the cold nights in this region in Bolivia?
Now it can be some degrees below zero!!!

If you leave from San Pedro de Atacama enter Bolivia by Hito Cajo pass and ride all the "lagunas" Verde, Colorada, Hedionda, Honda, etc, maybe you will not find any gas station on the way.
You can buy some gas, water and food from the Toyota Land-Cruiser drivers who take tourists from SPA to Uyuni to visit that region.
It´s a sandy road!!!
You have to have a GPS!!!

Places where you can stay without freeze:
Laguna Verde/Blanca - maybe ???
Salar de Chalviri - You can talk to the people who work at the admnistration to stay at night inside (I have stayed there), it´s in front of a small hot springs, where tourist bath.
Laguna Colorada - Maybe ???
Laguna Hedionda - there is a hostel there, but you have to bargain, so it was U$15,00.
San Juan del Rosario - this village we have bought gas!!! You have to ask to the people.
After this point there are some villages, then Uyuni Salar, Colchani and Uyuni town.

From this pic forward you can see some pics at:
rohden : photos : Moto-Viagem: Atacama Uyuni // Motorcycle travel: Atacama Uyuni- powered by SmugMug


If you really want to ride this southwestern region in Bolivia, later I can send you the famous waypoints (lagunas, salares, etc).

Have brains!!!

Reginaldo Rohden.

__________________
Ushuaia - 12.000 km - nov. 06.
Atacama Desert & Uyuni Salar - 8.000 km - oct. 07.
Carretera Austral - 10.000 km - apr. 09.

http://www.rohden.smugmug.com/

Thank you for the information and your photos on your website are really nice and it´s good to see how the roads look, interesting, but it looks really pretty and cold..

THank you for the GPS point offer, but we just managed to get a bunch from someone so that´s great.

However 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...
THanks again and yah about Brad´s poems, I think only some of them are funny...
jola

Hi Jola,

When I rode to this region, we had a problem with our XT 600 jet, we had one, but we lost it!!!
So we put a wire into the jet hole, so less gas will pass throw it.
Some people in these high altitudes are usually to do this at cars, motorcycles.
But when you ride to a low altitude, you have to take it off.
If you ride on dirt roads, it´s not a good idea to take the air filter off, because of the engine.

Have a nice ride,
Best wishes,

Reginaldo Rohden.

__________________
Ushuaia - 12.000 km - nov. 06.
Atacama Desert & Uyuni Salar - 8.000 km - oct. 07.
Carretera Austral - 10.000 km - apr. 09.

http://www.rohden.smugmug.com/

Thank you,
we tried the wire idea and it helped a bit but we decided to try and find a jet to see if it would help more but all we found was a size 108 and ours currently is a 115, would you happen to know if that is to small?
thank you,jola