We had found a nice and affordable hotel in advance and were not disappointed when we arrived there. Perfect for us! Crossing the border was therefor easy and quick and we quickly decided to ride all the way towards Antofagasta on the same day. The border was a small outpost at roughly 12000 feet with little to no one around. While we still rode on gravel on the Bolivian side of the border the rode turned immediately into perfect tarmac once we passed into Chilean territory. The next day I already arrived at the capital. It had been quite a while since I had really great food! Thanks to a lot of great comments on google maps I enjoyed a superb steak with mashed potatoes at the Calafate restaurant. For dinner I enjoyed delicious Salami with bread!Īn extraordinary meal was also waiting for me the next evening in Los Vilos. I spend one night in normally too expensive fancy hotel for a special price and checked out the nearby Lider, the Chilean Wal Mart. With a little delay I continued my ride on the highway-like main road. He refused to get payed or a tip with a very friendly "buen viaje". But together we managed it without problems. Later I found out that it was indeed his first motorcycle tire he ever patched up.
#BDP HOSTELERIA PDA PATCH#
Also the third vulcanizer didn't really want to help me until I used google translate to tell him that I would dismantle the wheels myself and the only thing he needed to do was to patch my tube. The first two shops I went to told me they wouldn't do motorcycles. The next morning I detected my first flat tire - after more than 100.000 km! But I had to carefully watch the fuel level the whole time because the next gas station was always surprisingly far away.Īfter 460 km I checked in a small hostel in the sleepy coastal town Taltal. Despite desert there is not much to see in northern Chile anyway. The gas stations had automatic inflation pressure gauges, the roads had perfect tarmac and the supermarkets and restaurants lived up to their name.Īfter two exhausting offroad days I was looking forward to a few days just doing mileage. And indeed I found a nice hotel for an acceptable price and enjoyed the higher comfort of Chile. Because San Pedro is very touristy I decided quickly to ride an additional 100 km to Calama in hope for better prices there. However the prices for hostels were shocking. You drive 50 km on a perfect tarmac road all the way to San Pedro de Atacama till you reach a small customs and immigration office! The entry procedure was easy and after a couple of minutes I was officially in Chile! On the Chilean side I literally had to search for the border offices.