Jama Pass

Photographer: Tim Malloch
From: Salta, Argentina to Uyuni, Bolivia

Jama Pass

Alain and I had had a very hard day on the Jama Pass (the road from Argentina to Chile which we took to get into Bolivia). The extremely high winds that had kept us in the customs shed at Jama for an extra day reappeared after lunch and made cycling practically impossible. We were starting to wonder about how, or if, we would get over the pass and into the next valley to sleep lower down when we rounded a corner and saw a broken down bus. The bus came from Quito, Ecuador and had been there for 4 days. The driver was there with some other people trying to fix it but it didnīt seem to be going anywhere that evening. We asked if we could sleep in it and he said yes (he also asked us if we had any food). We put up Alainīs tent and settled down for quite a comfortable evening at 4,500 metres. It was Alainīs turn to cook so he made his very splendid signature tuna pasta dish on the the back seat of the bus.