The
mission of the day is to reach Bolivia via the Hito Cajón pass, which means 2200m of altitude rise over 45km then a descent of 5-10km to Bolivia.
Suffice to say that it will be a record altitude elevation and altitude since the Chilean border post in Hito Cajón is 4600m.
Knowing that the day will be long, we leave early, at 8am. It's nice, a big sun and a small 20°C. We exit San Pedro gently with 13km of false flat. From a distance, the hill looks like a wall. The slope is quite steep but not too much, at least initially. Just before noon, the slope increases. We have to take breaks more often to catch our breath. We eat after almost 4 hours of cycling and 1000m of altitude, the day is
really not over, but we've just passed the bar of 5500km!
The afternoon is as complicated as the late morning, the slope is really steep. The view is very beautiful, the Licancabur volcano (+5900m) on our left and a colorful mountain on our right. The slope becomes a little less steep around 17:00, however we've already passed the bar of 4000m and we've trouble catching our breath. The wind is with us but getting stronger and colder. Around 18:00, big clouds surround us and snow starts to fall, we barter our shorts and T-shirt by our hats, gloves, pants...
At 19:15, the temperature is 3°C and the wind is icy, we arrive at the Chilean border post, a brand new complex. The post closes at 20:00 and we don't think that we can go further, we're exhausted and frozen. We hope to sleep here without having to go to Bolivia tonight. We enter the complex, it seems like there's a party going on: barbecue, beer, wine, music and good mood. In 30min laps time their reaction goes from "no you cannot sleep here, but come and warm up before continuing" to "you can sleep in the warm offices, come and party with us". After multiple refusals to drink alcohol, we abdicate and feast with pleasure in their company. The evening will remain etched in our memories....
