Crossing into Chile with my Motorcycle at Paso Agua Negra
Update 12 (mid January 2023)
Uspallata to Paso Agua Negra
Heading north again, I set out for Las Flores. I decided to take the shorter, sometimes unsealed route, rather than going back through Mendoza.
The first 30km or so was corrugated unsealed road, until I reached a beautiful new road, with nobody on it. I’m sure it will be very popular one day, but it seems not until the section to Uspallata is finished.
After the small village of Villa Nueva the road deteriorated. It was an area where during heavy rains, the water obviously comes flying down the mountains, and there were many wash outs of the road.
The road improved a little after a while, though there were some fairly deep sand patches..
It was pretty quiet, just one car over the 50km, until the police check point.
This is Cristo Redentor Tocota. It is big and just appears in the middle of nowhere. I tried to get along the track to take a look but it was washed out and my enthusiasm didn’t outweigh the effort or risks.
After a while there is a police checkpoint, still nothing around. I think the officer was disappointed I spoke no Spanish and he just waved me on.
The road improved once I got to this solar farm that was being built. I have come across quite a few projects like this.
After arriving in Las Flores I discovered I had no phone reception from my provider. Luckily after stopping at the helado shop (ice cream), I learnt the town square had wifi. That didn’t really help me finding accommodation, but after a tip from another local I found this “hotel room” in a friendly family’s backyard. Quite new and clean, with a nice breakfast, couldn’t ask for more.
It was time to do another border crossing. This time it was Paso Agua Negra or Blackwater Pass. Up to 4,780 metres above sea level.
I didn’t talk previously about any affects of altitude. I did notice it with the Cristo redentor Pass which was about 3,800 metres. It was mainly a shortness of breath as I got on and off the motorcycle and climbed around a bit to take photos. I actually didn’t really notice it with Paso Agua Negra this time, even though it was higher. It might just have been that I’d spent more time at moderately high levels and adjusted.
This time I did plan to cross into Chile. The border control exit to Argentina is just out of Las Flores and then it is about 170km to the Chile Border Control. Going in and out of Argentina is always pretty chilled and this was the same. Then it’s up the mountain.
The sealed road runs out fairly quickly, but the road was very well maintained and pretty easy riding.
A flower of some sort.
More of those amazing colours.
These formations of snow are called penitents. The fellow bikers were an enthusiastic group from Argentina. I gather they do a lot of riding as we chatted for quite a while about my plans and their tips on where to go, including Bolivia.
The ride down to the Chile border control was pretty much the same as the ride up the other side. The border control was more chaotic though. Chile is like Australia in protecting itself from unwanted pests and diseases. Normally they do a random check of a bag or two, looking for fruit etc. This crossing was full on and they wanted to check every bag and do an x-ray of a couple. All good though.
My trip into Chile didn’t go that well. The Chile SIM in my phone had stopped working because I had been in the country more than 30 days and needed to fully register. And the city of La Serana didn’t appeal.
So I pushed further north and after a couple of days ended up at Copiapó, ready to do another crossing back into Argentina.
Uspallata and Cristo Redentor de los Andes
Update 11 (mid January 2023)
La Puntilla via Paso de San Francisco
Update 13 (late January 2023)