Paso de Jama- Border crossing with obstacles

From Salta we headed towards Chile. We chose an unknown route along Ruta 40. The road was partially miserable but the scenery was fantastic.

Among other things, we passed by the Viaducto la Polvorilla. A small path led up to the disused railway bridge. The bridge was at an altitude of 4,200 meters and the 20-minute hike felt like climbing Aconcagua. We started to doubt whether our planned trekking tours in Peru were really such a cool idea. We didn't really like our planned sleeping place, so we just drove on.

Looking back, it was an absolutely stupid idea. Our new sleeping place was at 4600 meters and our bodies couldn't handle it. At first, Kai only had mild headaches, but in the late evening it started. The full range of altitude sickness: headache, shivering, nausea, and dizziness. Silke also felt the effects of the altitude, but fortunately not as strongly. We had to go through this. After a very restless and sleepless night, we only wanted one thing. To go down. In sub-zero temperatures, Maggi started with a slight delay and took us to the border town of Susques. There we visited the local bakery, had breakfast and then went back to bed. As suddenly as altitude sickness had hit us, it was also gone. Nevertheless, we decided to spend the following night at the same altitude.

The next day we headed towards the Chilean-Argentinian border. It went really well, the headaches were finally gone and Silke even managed her first 100 kilometers at once. The Chilean border official was quite surprised to see a woman behind the wheel and assigned me (Silke) an extra large parking space. Which I of course fully utilized 😊. The border check went relatively smoothly and this time the inspector was very relaxed. He only took the shriveled carrot that was prepared for him. We disguised the remaining vegetables and Kai had eaten salami and ham the previous evening as a precaution. After a short empanada snack, Kai took over the wheel. Already at the first climb, we noticed a slight decrease in performance - but we thought Maggi was struggling with the altitude. This diagnosis was wrong.

At the next climb to 4,800 meters, nothing worked anymore. In second gear with a maximum speed of 16 km/h, we crawled up the mountain. In the meantime, we had to pull over several times so that Maggi could catch its breath or to allow the dirt in the diesel filter to settle. That was our problem. Maggi's filters were clogged. When we finally reached the top, we were pretty euphoric that we made it. However, our joy was short-lived. Instead of heading downhill towards San Predo de Atacama as expected, we went up again. We repeated this valley-hill game several times. On the third climb at a speed of 20, Kai had had enough and climbed onto the roof to get new filters. But at 4,800 meters, it can be quite windy, so we decided against an outdoor repair. But even this adventure 😊 had a happy end. Sweaty but happy, after a seven-hour drive, we arrived at the marketplace of San Predro de Atacama and promised Maggi that we would change his diesel filters tomorrow.