Lagunas Day 7: The End of the Lagunas

Our last days of the Lagunas route started with the beautiful view out of the tents onto Laguna Chalviri.

We happily set off to cycle through the Desierto Salvador Dali and towards the Chilean Border, thinking now that we had joined the main road, road condition would surely be better and make this an easy day.

Boy were we wrong.

Today's 42kms consisted to 95% of the most terrible washboard and sandy surface worse than all the days before. This made not only the 20km climb, back up to 4700m, against an early on setting and strong headwind even harder than it already was, but also took all the fun out of the following 20km downhill, which scattered our backs, necks and spirit.
What a shame, as it made it almost impossible to appreciate the surreal shapes and colours of the landscape we were passing through.

We made it to our refugio for the night, 6km from the Bolivian border post more or less in one piece but with aching bodies.

After a week of cycling one of the most un-cycleable routes with a touring bike I can recap the following:

1. Were the landscapes as good as hoped?
-> No. Better!

2. Am I glad I did it?
-> Yes, most days

3. Would I cycle this route again?
Hell NO! (Wouldn't be opposes to give it a try on a good offroad motorbike though)

Tomorrow we will be crossing the border into Chile and continue directly to the Argentinian border post at the Paso de Jama. Yey, 1500m extra climbing!

So here come the Lagunas statistics:

🚴‍♀️Distance travelled: 254 km
📅 Days travelled: 6 + 1 rest day
🏔 Landscapes: 12/10
🚲 Percentage ridable surface: 95
😃 Percentage enjoyable surface: 17.5
🏥 Backpain level: 8/10
💦 Lagunas seen: 8
⛰️ Highest point cycled: 4911m
🦩Flamingos photographed: ♾️
⛈️ Thunderstorms: 4
🌨 Snowstorms: 1
💨 Geysers: maybe 20
🌋Volcanoes: many, but inactive
💸 Bolivianos left: 20 (~0.30 €)Read more