The road to Putre

 

 

We have now decided to drive into Chile and cross into Peru on the Pan-American Highway, Route 5. To do so involves driving from La Paz, crossing the border at Chungara and overnighting at Putre. The great unknown is how long the border crossing will take so we agree to leave at 07:00 to cover the 200km odd to the border in plenty of time.

We wave a sad farewell to our delightful hostess, Isabel, and leave, unusually for us, on time. Unexpectedly La Paz seems to wake up earlier than most South American cities and it takes us a hour to exit, including a rather unsatisfactory fuel stop where the garage wouldn't fill the tank or the jerry can. We certainly have enough fuel to get us out of town and we will fill up either side of the border. It was a cold start to the day with a strong cross wind remorselessly blowing into our left ears.

 

 

The uneventful drive to Chungara took us through the first vestiges of the Atacama, the extraordinary desert which we will get to know so well over the coming days. The journey is made all the more palatable by Barbara's delicious egg mayonnaise and bacon rolls and hot coffee.

 

And then the border  crossing started. We came across the back of the queue of lorries about 10km from the border check point. Isabel had advised us to ignore the queue, which we duly did ducking and diving amongst the oncoming lorries to get to the front. Unfortunately we arrived just behind a number of buses, the passengers of which had to be processed before our turn. Nigel's car did not like the altitude and Chris' has developed a wobbly steering box all of which we can look at after we have passed through the interminable bureaucracy. "Behave like a cat" Davis advised and we tried our hardest, as Bolivia's version of Elvis and his extensive entourage were given priority. Four hours of patient queuing eventually resulted in us receiving our Temporary Import Permit and clearance for drivers and passengers to enter Chile.

We stopped under the brooding volcano Mount Tambo for running repairs on the Rolls steering box. All very successful but Nigel's Lagonda still doesn't like the altitude. With 30km to go until we reach Putre Chris announces that he is very short of fuel. We deploy the jiggle syphon trying to extract fuel from both Lagondas to no effect. The Rolls sets of for Putre burning vapour but with hope in their heart! Somehow all three cars roll into Putre to be told that there is no gasoline station, the next one being on the Pan-American Highway some 140km further on! Fuel supply in South America is never that straight forward thank goodness. Behind an unmarked wooden door there was a lady with jerry cans full of gasoline - simply at a cost of $50 per 20ltr. Now that is private enterprise! We all were madly calculating how much we had to buy to travel the 140km the following day. Nigel went for 60ltr, Chris 40ltr and Ham 20ltr. Had they estimated correctly? Only time will tell.

 

Our accommodation for the night was  the Vientos del Atacama Hostel, which was, with the exception of the pillows, unexpectedly comfortable. The little town of Putre was considerably livelier than we expected with French, Dutch and German tourists all staying there for a few nights. What they were doing there we never really understood, it was quite literally in the middle of no-where with no discernable points of interest. We had a very good supper and found the first ATM that would accept a card so all in all a great success.