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Published: April 20th 2012
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We were not able to make it to Cachi, from San Antonio de Los Cobres as Ruta 40 forced us to return and take another route down to Salta and onto Cafayate.
The story so far, after a couple of nights in San Pedro de Atacama, we were ready for the challenge of Paso Sico over the mountain to San Antonio de Los Cobres.
This pass turned out to be one of the most spectacular we have tackled, but we sure as hell had our fair share of corrugations, created by the huge trucks that ply this pass. We arrived in San Antonio just on dark and had time to get Paul's puncture fixed at the local Gomeria (tyre man) and check into our hotel before darkness set in.
The next day we wanted to pick up Ruta 40 and drive directly to Cachi. Allan and Tony, decided they and their car had had enough of the rough stuff the day before and chose to take the long more sealed option via Salta. We parted company at the turn off, with a wave of confidence from us, we headed into washed out lowlands of the mountain.
We
Paso Sico
This is what we came for climbed steadily, through washed out roads and river beds, climbing through absolutely spectacular mountain scenery that just kept unfolding in front and below us. By the time we reached the summit at 4955m we were ploughing our way through slushy snow. We all stood in awe at the summit and looked at the steep downhill, covered in more snow and slush. We wound our way down, down, down, thinking all the time that we were glad we were not trying to drive up this way........shortly we ran upon a couple of Swiss cyclists that had ridden from Cachi and they told us of the river that had washed out the road completely, with large boulders strewn through it and that it was impossible to get our cars through. They even had to take all their gear off the bikes and carry everything across, including their bikes....what a BIG BUGGER.
We had only travelled 51 kms to this point, but it had taken us two and a half hours to travel that!!! The bikers had a small dog that decided to join them in Cachi, and walk with them on their adventure, so they called him 'Cachi'. They didn't feed
The frozen road to Cachi
Then we had to come back up! him, but he followed every move they made. We managed to turn the cars around on the narrow road, and loaded some of the bikers' gear aboard and now we had one hell of a struggle to get the poor gasping little 2CV's back up to the top of the mountain, that only a short while ago were really happy we were going down, not up!!!
Us and the cars of course were up for the challenge and finally made it to the summit again, where we planted the bikers' gear for them to pick up in few hours time. We retraced our slushy, but scenic drive back down to the intersection where we had left Allan and Tony. It was a big day for us as we took the soft option via Salta, down to Cafayate for a welcome dinner and an early night.
During a routine check of our 'Claudine' the next morning we discovered that the welding done in Arica a few days ago had cracked again after the pounding we gave it yesterday, so we had to find a welder again before our next challenging section from Concepcion through to Andalgala.
We made
our way through the Tafi Valley and onto Conception, where I found a welder guy that would do the job for me. This time I took the complete bracket off as it had also started to split vertically. So now with renewed confidence we hit the road to Andalgala, just a line on the map, but it turned out to be about the most spectacular drive over the steepest mountain pass that we had made, we were all in awe of the switch backs that stacked up, at first in front of us and then as we descended the other side, this road puts the 'Road of Death' in Bolivia into the play pen for novices!! As we descended down into the valley that shelters Andalgala, everyone had huge smiles! Well, maybe not Melean, she was just so relieved to be down from the dizzy heights.
After a good feed and a restful night, we climbed aboard a Toyota 4x4 for the climb up another mountain to Minas Capallitas and to the Santa Rita mine and hotel. This is where they mine rhodochrosite and is the only place in the world where this semi precious stone is found. After
Define 'Return'
Bugger beaten by Ruta 40 our mine tour (1 hour to walk up to the mine, an hour underground marvelling at the mining process, then an hour to walk back to the hotel) where we enjoyed a great lunch of tender goat, we made our way back down the way we had come up, with no room in side the double cab truck, Tony and I had to sit on the back, but it did give us the opportunity to get some good video and photos, even as the temperatures dropped. We stopped for a tarantula crossing the road, a 10cm specimen who posed for a heap of photos, and soon afterwards a rattlesnake was spotted, who was captured on video also!
We are now in La Rioja for two nights, as the time we have left is now very precious and I am confirming the return shipping details, but there is still plenty of adventure yet!
Cheers for now, Rosco
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Christof
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Happy birthday Paul
Have a fantastic day in South America with Rosco and co !Enyoied the photos and the blog very much and looking forward to see all fit and well back in the Aotearoa! Hasta la vista