Travelling to the Bolivian Border

One of the reasons we did not make it to Valle de la Muerte, was because we rented our bikes late in the afternoon. The reason we rented the bikes so late was because we spent time planning out trip to Bolivia. We got up early after one night in San Pedro de Atacama to start our Bolivian tour.

At the edge of the town of San Pedro you go through the Chilean immigration before driving an hour or so to the border. This immigration facility is a modern facility that you would expect to see at an airport with a staff of luggage handlers and x-ray machines, keep that in mind for when you see the Bolivian border station.
After seeing such aridness it was interesting to see peaks with snow and plants in the ground. These next few pictures were taken from the minibus that took us to the border.




We had made quite an elevation gain by this point as you can see in this picture.
Alpacas grazing.
We may not have settled into the Bolivian "Jeep" that would practically be our home for the next four days, but we were certainly already on a tour. The bus taking us to the border made a picture stop to enjoy the short-lived Chilean part of the tour.


Around this point I don't even remember seeing a sign but the bus turned off the pavement onto a parallel dirt road.

As we approached the Bolivian border I had to take a picture of it through the front windshield of the minibus, because I was so amazed by how ramshackle it was. I thought there would be some kind of fence and a facility similar to the one on the Chilean side, but nope. Welcome to Bolivia.