Lagunas Day 2: A day of suffering

The first 5km started off with firm sand and tailwind. Yey! We passed 3 stunning lagunas one right after the other, all with many flamingos.

This got our hopes up for the remainder of the day...But shortly after the last lagoon we found ourselves in a sheer endless valley of deep, washboarded sand...which stayed this way for the next 20kms, forcing us to push through the thick sand whenever it became unrideable. With our heavy bikes this was one hell of a task, making it an extremely demanding day both physicly and mentaly.

And sadly all that the few 4x4 drivers had to offer us when racing past us was even more sand, though in the form of huge dust clouds. Thanks ✌️

After what felt like days of excruciating sand-"cycling", we entered a dried out riverbed that only had a tiny little stream left trickling along its center and making the sand ridable again, at least for some time 👍
To my surprise I discovered a colony of viscachas, which look like a mix of rabbit and big fat hamster, living in the riverbed canyon, which absolutely made my day!

Just as we had exited the canyon, we were chased by a nearing thunderstorm, which made me fly over the sand and towards the safety of our camp.
Scary those storms when you are the highest point in the middle of nowhere....

But in the end the clouds stayed behind the last mountain chain and we made it dry and well to our camp for the night (and water resupply point) behind the only hotel of the desert, Tayka del desierto.

Having hoped to be able to get some food here too, we were sad to find out we were out of luck, as we didn't have the funds to cover the 20 dollar meal in Bolivianos...hungry and cold we pitched our tents, cooked the 1000th instant noodles and called it a day.

🚴‍♀️Distance "cycled": 38 km
🕐 Time travelled: 7.5 h (including some photo stops)
⛰️ Highest point on route: 4637 m
🍬 Sweets offered by 4x4 drivers: 0
🐇 Viscachas cuteness score: 10/10
⌛️Sand in my shoes: unmeasurableOkumaya devam et